To be enjoying the queens platinum jubilee trooping the colour

[niceaspies]

Not a royalist or anything like that but I’m feeling quite emotional watching it! Once in a lifetime thing for most of us I’m sure

With all the awful things going on in the world at the moment this is a welcome distraction, I’m finding it fascinating to watch tbh!

I just see enormous expense for the public purse.

@Blossomtoes

Nobody living now will ever see another one. If William succeeded to the throne tomorrow he’d have to live to be 110 to celebrate his platinum jubilee. It’s a total one off.

But if George succeeded in the very near future, they might do. Admittedly an exceptionally unlikely scenario, but not impossible.

I also don't understand why Harry and Megan were not allowed on the balcony? It's a family Day??

Therewere many royals not there. Not sure why everyone is fixated on Meghan and Harry. Thrre were no Zara Tindall or Peter Phillips and their families or Beatrice and Eugenie and their family. They are also the Queens grandchildren and would have just as much right to be there as Harry.

It was decided it woukd be just working royals and their young children which was right. Especially space wise as everyones family grows.

How about you find out what those 'men on horse back' are also trained to do, and have done before spouting absolute rubbish.

Dwarfed by the millions the government has given to its mates. This is money well spent by comparison.

Not keen on all the dead bears, not sure it's fair on the horses either. Not really pleasant watching if you care about animals.

The horses are trained for it. They’re working animals that wouldn’t exist at all otherwise. Do you object to all horse riding? As to the bearskins, any made in the last 20 odd years are synthetic. Please

Are you sure about the bearskins?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10304325/Army-bearskin-hats-worn-Queens-Guard-MoD-rejected-fake-version-proposed-Peta.html

An Army spokesman said: 'The bearskins worn by the Guards are part of our proud military history and identity. There are no suitable alternatives.
'These bearskins, like leather, horn and sheepskin are by-products of other purposes and should not be confused with fur farming.
'Guards bearskins are sourced from the by-product of a necessary cull of black bears in Canada. The bears are not bred for the purpose of fur.'

Obviously I’m mistaken, sorry for misleading. I thought that decision had gone the other way.

As a slight aside, I wonder if someone who had Republican views and was a vegan would fit in in some of the regiments? I suppose it would be a case of not mentioning your views on the Monarchy and wearing a bearskin because it was regimental tradition.

I’d have thought a person with those views would be pretty unlikely to join the army at all, let alone go for a ceremonial regiment

@Blossomtoes trophy hunters make a profit, incentvising killing. Mother bears are killed. Each hat is made from one bear, that's a lot of dead bears. It's a noisy, stressful environment for the horses. Would you like to have things shoved in your mouth, someone climb on your back and force you through a yelling crowd? Please.

@cakeorwine yes, there has been an amount of opposition to the bear skin hat tradition.

If you’d bothered to read the article you’d see the bearskins are a by product of culls carried out of other reasons.

Btw, I don’t know where the rogue please came from - my iPad has a mind of its own!

And the horses are working horses, that’s their job.

@Blossomtoes There is more information than one article, if you are interested. Many people see animals as a resource for human needs and desires. The RF seems to belong to that faction, perhaps you do too. For the minority that sees animals as sentient creatures, with a right to lead natural lives, it is not pleasant to watch.

I agree, more or less. (I kind of hope this will be the last unelected monarch, so the thing about Charles, nope. The rest, though.) Thought I'd just say this since I know this is probably a minority view for posters on this thread.

Of course by now several posters, missing the point by miles, have reminded us that the men on horses or marching in line in silly hats actually fight sometimes ... with real guns and everything. And that they are so brave and so on.

OK. OK. We get that. But the horses are silly, likewise the hats.

It is interesting (to me: I know many people don't care) that the whole affair is so very Victorian - it looks like it was choreographed by Rudyard Kipling's maiden aunt.

Tradition? Fine, but why not have some medieval stuff? Perhaps we could do some mock hanging-drawing-and-quartering, very popular royal tradition so I've heard. Why stick with such basic imperialist signifiers from the nineteenth century, given our long illustrious royal history ?

People like it. In that sense, not unreasonable. Of course people like lots of unreasonable things. Empire, colonialism, war, theft, slavery, oppression; all things people have liked and sometimes still do; all memorialised here and now by men on horses in silly big hats.

But, well, chacun à son gout. I enjoyed our street party yesterday.

That’s absolute bullshit. They’re serving soldiers who have served in Iraq, Afghanistan etc. there was even a piece about one of the regiments at the start of the show. I don’t really give a crap about the royal family but being from a military family with a son who aims to become an RAF pilot, I’ll never have anything but immense pride for our military and anyone who says otherwise can piss right off and defend themselves.

Same here @LadyCatStark. We’re a military family on both sides - three generations now. I hope your son achieves his ambition, my stepson is an RAF pilot and loving it. It makes me sad to see our military tradition trashed by people with no understanding of it.

Glad you're enjoying it. I'd rather stick hot pins in my eye 😀

Well, I think a fair number of people would rather look at outdated Victoriana and silly horses and hats than, say, thermonuclear missiles being dragged through a public space in commemoration of a devastating war. All countries are flawed and in some cases, those flaws are very current.

Well, I think a fair number of people would rather look at outdated Victoriana and silly horses and hats than, say, thermonuclear missiles being dragged through a public space in commemoration of a devastating war

The flyover is great - a display of modern airpower and a reminder of the role of the RAF in our past. Plus the Red Arrows which are always good to see.

We don't have a 'drive by' of tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other combat vehicles going by - yet in theory, it's the same as having planes fly by.

I wonder what the difference is - both are demonstrating military power. Yet I can imagine people would be uncomfortable with tanks driving by in their version of a 'fly past'.

France of course has its military parade on 14th July with a range of armoured vehicles driving down the Champs Elysee

Thank you @Blossomtoes I’m certain he will (baring any medical reasons that he couldn’t, this happened to my brother so I’m conscious that anything could happen) my other brother is in the Army and he has had the most incredible experiences and as he’s much younger than me, he’s an amazing role model for DS. Yes it makes me sad too that a lot of people are so ignorant about the people that keep us safe!

Easy to see you have absolutely bugger all idea about what makes horses tick. And even less idea about how those particular horses are treated.