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?

If our ancestors had been great men and won battles for the crown then we'd be Royals too, but they weren't, so we're not.

The monarchy used to be a meritocracy, nothing to do with luck back then.

It's not just that they're born into privilege. My kids are privileged compared to some others and less compared to some others. It's that people treat them as if they're special, purely because of their birth that annoys me.

Why do people think that that family, above all others, should hold the position they do? Why can't I ever be queen? What qualifications do I need for it?

Well said.

Personally as a Black women I can't feel anything for them.
The wealth of the royal family has been accumulated through colonialism and slavery even in the royal chapel theres the remains of a young Kenyan boy, Kenya have been asking for him back for years.

The crown and orb are looted from the global south.

My sympathy is capped, we're in a cost of living crisis and most solutions cost less than what it does to host the royal family and all their extravagant events.

People of my age and younger do not love the monarchy as a young person. I just think it's an outdated concept which needs to be abolished. Or if we do have them, they need to sell fund their lifestyles and funerals and events.

@oxydant okay sorry we're not all lucky enough to have "great men" as our ancestors hahahaa

I can’t fathom how any charity, group or business that seeks to further diversity and inclusion scan simultaneously support a monarchy.

@MotherOfRatios couldn't have put it better myself!

Absolutely bang on.

I had no idea about the Kenyan boy, I must read up on that. Shocking.

The worst-off children in the UK live with abuse, poor parenting, illness including mental illness. No amount of money will fix those issues.

At least the RF is something everyone is watching around now. It creates some degree of unity. Cancelling the funeral and splitting those costs between all 65 million people in the country would give everyone…what…2 pounds each?

It's frustrating I don't like them but if we must have them fund yourself.

The Duchy of Cornwall brings in a lot of money, why cannot not be used to fund themselves. The mass scale events are crazy.

*can that not be used

Yes but people from Afghanistan don't fawn all over us like we are amazing and in awe.

I am angry that the govts since 2010 have presided over a decline in living standards for so many whilst the rich have just got even more wealthy. Austerity was obscene, it didn’t promote good growth and it decimated public services. Osborne and Cameron knew this would happen but hid behind the lie that the economy is like a household budget and debts must be immediately paid. I know the decline in living standards for the average citizen has been declining since Thatcher’s polices in the earlier 80s and Blair’s govt didn’t make significant changes but did at least try mitigate some of the disparity.

However, the governments since 2010 have been awful, austerity, Brexit and now Truss and her cabinet plan to continue following the same economic model that will continue to enrich the wealthy and corporations and see further decline in living standards for the majority and provide even less of a an already damaged safety net for those on low incomes or sick and disabled. Yes covid and Ukraine war play a part in the looming recession but if we didn’t have austerity and then Brexit we would have been able to weather current challenges more than we are. The pound has absolutely tanked.

@Thereisnolight I don't think it has created
unity though, if anything it's allowed more people to be open about discussing the "point" and "relevance" of the royal family in the modern world

Once you start a thread, you can't dictate where it goes OP. Ironically your posts are screaming privilege by trying to tell others not to mention anyone worse off.

If you want a serious discussion about hereditary wealth or income disparity then you need to consider where the UK's resources came from (clue - a lot from other countries that now have much, much lower living standards than us).

You also need to consider how much we (posters on MN who obviously have access to the internet) are willing to be inconvenienced and see our relatively comfortable living standards (by global index fall). Because to lift everyone in the world from poverty means most people in the UK would experience a fall in living standards. And either you think resources should be shared fairly - at a global level too - or you don't. In which case, you're happy to protect your position at the expense of those worse off - whilst criticising the royals for doing the same.

Loads of people are born into situations. No point constantly moaning about it. I feel sad that my sister can’t walk because she was born with a rare genetic condition, should I be jealous of all kids that can walk, no what’s the point in that. Roll of the dice. Use your limited energy on the things you can control and all that.

Surely it depends on the definition of 'great men' too. Crowns have been obtained in many ways of the centuries.

You laugh but it's true

@JessicaJoens5

Exactly and I feel the 'but look over there' is a bit of a distraction technique successive western governments use when they don't want their citizens to focus on the inequality in their own front yard. This is partly why I'm suspicious of things like Comic relief and foreign aid.

A recent study showed US and UK have some of the worst inequality right now, and apparently quality of life for most people are better in countries like Poland and Slovakia although the former countries have more ultra-rich...which is clearly not trickling down very well.

I used to work in America and found it interesting some of the kids there in the inner city seemed to think they were better off than some of the rich African college students who were volunteering there.

The government and media had brainwashed them to think all Africans were poor and America was the land of riches and opportunity, despite the fact these kids lived in an area where the water and air was severely polluted, the houses looked barely better than shacks and you could hear gunshots and see prostitutes everywhere.

Well, I couldn't and wouldn't want to do the job. I also think if we got rid, we'd just be a boring, miserable little Island. I like the glitz and glam and it wouldn't make any difference if we got rid. Someone else would hoover up the money and spunk it up the wall.

@MotherOfRatios Do you know that slavery didn’t start in England. I am mixed race background and find this argument very black and white.

This. 99% of us in this country live in unbelievable privilege just literally by living here. Even the very poorest who reside in the UK. Millions of others around the world are looking at us, ordinary people, rich and very poor and thinking the very same thoughts you are having about the royal family right now.

OP, whilst I appreciate the sentiment of what you are saying, and agree the gap between rich and poor is wider than many of us (myself included) feel comfortable with, the alternative isn’t a great proposition either.

Imagine a land where everyone is equal, wealth is shared and land is divided into identical plots. What would motivate society? How would you encourage someone to work in a harder, more stressful role but for the same money? How would you prevent laziness, apathy, resentment and disorder?

There are many pros and cons to many scenarios but, ultimately, we are the creator of our own destinies. Every child in the UK has access to education, for example, but not every child has decent parents and that, for me, is at the crux of much of what is wrong with society today. However, there is no appetite for a ‘nanny’ state, so what is the answer?

The worst-off children in the UK live with abuse, poor parenting, illness including mental illness. No amount of money will fix those issues.

If people are struggling to even pay for the basics then it will make it harder to deal with such issues and break damaging cycles. It is also known that mental health provision is massively underfunded.