That I have a lump in my throat more for the class system than the funeral

[JessicaJoens5]

Sat here with a lump in my throat after watching the funeral but I think it's more to do with realising just how unfair life is and what a lottery life can be.

A lot of people in this country are living on the breadline, children are born into poverty, using food banks, lots of homeless, children moving into hotels whilst their parents wait for a house and so much more. Now this is not a thread to bash the royal family as people but I can't help but feel a bit down at the fact that a lot of their lives are luck - luck to be born into a life of privilege or luck of marrying into it.

Now I'm not saying it's easy to be a royal but I know if I had a choice of choosing to be a person born into privilege with the risk of press following me or another person who is living in a tiny flat or house, struggling to pay bills and having to use food banks whilst working a minimum wage job, I know which one I'd choose.

Not really sure what the aim of this thread is but maybe other people had similar feelings from the funeral?

Yes!

According to Idol Net Worth, Sir Keir is worth £7.7million. I’ve no problem with that if he’s earned it. Why shouldn’t’t he be unless you’re jealous of him. That’s the earnings of top lawyers.

Out of interest Starmer got his big break by going to a grammar school - something he now wants to abolish for other kids.

Apart from a handful of grammar schools that remain in pockets of the country, the grammar schools were abolished in the 1970s. But yes, previous generations of politicians came to prominence from humble origins via grammar schools and then university.

Interesting that so many of them then wanted to abolish the thing that had helped them. Comprehensives just reinforce the class system IMO.

Cillery With the leader of the opposition being worth £7.7 million that might have something to do with it?
I googled this, because it seemed unlikely. The source appears to be a website called idolnetworth.com which I have never heard of before and which demonstrates its grasp of the facts by also stating he is "a member of: Lawyer".

Badgermushrooms there have been a number of claims which have been lapped up on here that the funeral cost between £7 & £9 billion. This is untrue but no one seems to have checked the figure.

NHS Dentistry has all been quietly privatised. This will continue with the NHS. Look at the long hours people are working and can’t hear their homes. It seems the gap is widening and many no longer feel ‘lucky’ or fortunate to live here. And this doesn’t mean in other countries they don’t have it worse, but this is the 6th richest country in the world.

Mt grandma died a day later. She worked all her life, was the loveliest woman and the care she received at the end of her life was so poor on an overstretched NHS ward (nurses were lovely but so overstretched it was heartbreaking).
We waited 8 hours for a Dr to sign her death certificate after she died, so we just had to sit with her body for that time (she moved to a nursing home for the last 2 weeks) waiting for the Dr to come out. I had to drive round collecting meds and an authority from the district nurse team for the nursing home to administer morphine the night she died as the district nurses were too overstretched to come out and she was in agony.
I disagree with the concept of a monarchy, but admired the queen as an individual.

However I can't move past the desperately different end of life experience she would have had to my grandma, which was just as deserving of the highest level of care.

I was in one country where they were queuing up to get their rotten teeth pulled out by a local part time dentist under pretty insanitary conditions. We do have anNHS dentist btw and consider ourselves fortunate.

I am very much in the middle ground here. DH and I have worked hard, and we have been modestly successful. We have paid taxes due, promptly. We employ a smalll team of highly specialist people, who are paid at the top end of the local going rate. We look after them like gold dust because they are very close to irreplaceable. At the moment, that means we are also adding a subsidy to salary for fuel bills during winter. We won't be awarding ourselves a fuel bonus though.

I'm generally a supporter of the Royal Family but I do work with the Armed Forces so that Commander in Chief element & the notion of 'Fighting for Queen & Country is now very much in my psyche!

I have enjoyed this thread though for the reasonable debate & educated opinions.

There have been some absolute crazy threads over the last few days, with people shrieking that children will die because the food banks were closed on Monday.

This has been a very refreshing debate.

Totally agree with this.i think after a certain level of wealth, the level of happiness just stays the same. Which makes the greed in this world all the more pointless.

If I was a Royal, I’d like to be one of those cousins or second cousins.Have a title maybe, be rich but not in the spot light. You could go about your daily life fairly normally, and not be papped all the time.

Life is a lottery. Some people ( try RF) are born into aristocracy. It’s all they know so can’t relate to ‘ common folks’ unless they’ve previously come from that back ground.

We could say many people are born fortunate. What about the kids of David Beckham, or the Beatles for example? Children born into multi millionaire families?

Or BBC presenters? Do radio presenters need to be paid £300 k per year? Does Gary Lineker need to be paid by the BBC a million pounds per year?

What people like my own father did, instead of spending their lives griping about what others had, was got on with appreciating the modest amount they themselves had. You can always gripe at those better off but always find someone worse off. If you feel like griping come and visit a food bank near you!

This is really at the heart of why the monarchy needs to go. God forbid they be tried for crimes against humanity but at least take away their blood money.

All the talk of duty and service is grim when you remember that one of Elizabeth's first 'duties' was continue to do nothing during the Kenyan independence battle when torture camps manned by British soldiers killed and maimed horrdendous numbers of people who just wanted to be free of British rule. One of those tortured was Barack Obama's grandfather. I bet British kids aren't learning about that in their history classes.

I think you misunderstood me. Im
not griping like lots of people on here are. I was just making examples.
There will always be poor and rich people. Some people get rich through inheritance, rich families and some do it off their own merits.

If people like Gary Lineker get paid 1 million pounds a year, good luck to him. That’s between them.

As for the Queens funeral , I thought it was very fitting and extremely well done.

We can’t control what we’re born into but we can control our own destiny, to a certain extent. Im not really interested in others peoples wealth.

Maybe pick on someone’s post that was genuinely griping rather than my post.

There are two themes here. Social mobility and equality. The idea that one is more important than the other because they belong to the royal family is what pisses me off.

Unfortunately society would appear to disagree with you. Why the BBC pay Gary Linekar £1.35m for presenting a football program.

Ha! Having actually lived in mainland Europe I have to disagree! QOL is far better than Britain. Britain is not run for the people. It's run by us (our taxes) for the rich to enjoy. A lot of countries in Europe are different - even where taxes are high / higher, the healthcare system is better, free universities, free private schools, less expensive property, generous parental leave etc.

Why do you live in Britain then if Utopia is found elsewhere?

Is this what we are discussing now rather than the fact that other countries in Europe offer a better QOL than Britain. Isn't there something we can learn from them perhaps? Who says I live in Britain anyway.

Point is people work very hard in Britain for very little in comparison to other 1st word countries. I personally agree with OP re the RF. Being born into such a family with power and unimaginable wealth. Power to put laws in place to hide wealth and avoid paying inheritance tax etc. I wouldn't mind the RF so much if they paid taxes and funded all their ceremonies etc like we do.

How then can you judge Britain if you don’t live here?

You do realise that Brexit ended freedom of movement, right?

Blame it all on Brexit! Say no more!

“don’t live here then” doesn’t really challenge arguments that life could be better for us living in the UK in comparison to other first world countries. It is just defeatist- don’t you want to make your quality of life better?