...so what exactly is "service and duty"?

[ServiceAndDuty]

After countless threads on the royal family, I feel nobody goes into full detail of what the royal family do apart from the same phrase "service and duty".

I genuinely would like to be enlightened on what this "service and duty" is, not including showing up to events and waving, watching tennis and rugby matches, opening places, having an expensive wedding sometimes etc.

I feel nobody has really answered in detail what it is.

I am open to being educated if I'm missing something.

There must have been times she's come out of those meetings fuming but not been able to rant it off.

Thats dedication!

It is a meaningless phrase. There have been some good initiatives. Duke of Edinburgh, Prince's Trust and work with HIV charities. But an awful lot are either junkets e.g. attending sports events and film premieres, or things that other people already do.

Many people do not seem to realise most large cities have a group of people who do charity work, open fetes, sit on committees, etc. They are not paid, or get a small allowance e.g. sheriffs. This is the model we should be using. In my City we have a local man who made millions in industry who supports fundraising events, gala days, etc. He gives money, does speeches and sometimes allows events to take place for free in his very large home. He is not paid for anything.

We all do things in our jobs we do not like. We can get another job, but that too will involve doing tasks that are boring or tiresome. That is life.

I’d imagine having your own private jet makes it less stressful than for ordinary people who have to queue at check in, negotiate airport security passport control etc.

Charles and Camilla visited my country a few years ago and I know people who met them and spent time with them. From what they said, it’s probable that Camilla would rather have been queuing at a check in and negotiating security to anywhere rather than private jetting to the hot, smelly, fly-blown place she was in.

Perhaps it’s the lack of choice? We can more or less do what we want to do. The RF have so little control. Stand around, look pretty, behave.

Personally I prefer my job. Not that much small talk with dictators and lots of lovely statistics.😁

Do you never experience that at work? I can tell you as someone pretty junior it is not uncommon for me to feel like this.

walkingonsunshinekat · Today 11:21

Suggest you listen to Martin McGuinness talking about his meeting with the Queen.

It's about intangibles... facial expressions, handshakes, chemistry - things which are hard to define but which are nevertheless incredibly powerful symbolically. These things can turn whole situations around, yet it would be impossible to explain in the history books!

We all know that 'chemistry' plays a huge part in human relationships - and it's very different to coldly evaluating things on paper.

I think, having read so much about this, that the Queen had it. Whether Charles does is yet to be seen - but it won't be for want of trying, I'm sure. It's a quality she had that seemed to impress others with her goodwill. Cue sneering - yes, but I think it's undeniable if you look at the record.

Yes definitely days I come out meetings and want a rant and discuss with someone else - HMQ never could.

Kimberleyclark - Well the money goes to the Treasury and then the Government decide what it's spent on. Could be roads, new schools, houses etc.

Here
www.royal.uk/role-royal-family

So why are our public services so poor if we have all this money to spend on them?

I have one colleague I can be honest with about work stuff. I know the Queen had a personal aide who was also a long-standing friend. I am sure she had at least one person she too could have a rant with.

The money doesn’t seem to be providing any real benefit as far as I can see. It must be a drop in the ocean compared to tax revenue.

Probably Philip and the corgis but that would be it. She had to be very careful not to be overhead or risk any of it being repeated.

Of course the Queen had people to rant to

🙄

The Monarch is our Head of State. Asking what they do is like asking what the President of the US does in his capacity as Head of State. If you really don’t know, I’m not sure what to say.

The aide and friend I mentioned is someone she had been friends with for many many decades. I am sure she could talk to her.
There have never been personal leaks from any staff that were very close to the Queen and many had been with her for many decades. So I simply do not believe that there were none she could talk to.
The Queen also had her sister when she was alive, other relatives, and friends from childhood.

It really isn’t. POTUS is an executive role. The role of the British monarch is not.

If it is a lot of hard work, isn’t it horrific that we’ve stood by and let a 96 year old do it, almost until her last breath? If it’s more a burden than a privilege, shouldn’t we free these people from their lives of duty?

There have been elective monarchies in the past; why shouldn’t we have one, with a ten year term, for example? We could vote for Charles and then William for their whole lives, if that’s what we feel like.

@LegoFiends

I'm 100% on board with setting them free.

Taking back all the land, money and jewels.

Let's get on that!

Kimberleyclark - Bad management by governments over the years?

I would do the job and would be happy to do it until two days before my death.
I do not do well with doing not much and love meeting new people. I am quite happy for people to tell me about the new machine in their factory or the new wing of a museum. And I am a news junkie so very well informed already about what is happening ion other countries.
I hate choosing clothes, but I would have a dresser to help with that. Where do I sign up?

Walkingonsunshine - Would you associate science, engineering or sport with other countries, say France, Germany, Spain, Holland etc . I wouldn't.

I don't see it as horrific. The Queen became the monarch, i.e. Head of State, in the moment her father died, just as Charles became King in the moment his mother died. She took an oath to serve for the rest of her life and she did. She had the option to hand over some duties to others, and she took some steps in that direction as her health and strength failed, but she remained the anointed head of state to the moment of her death.

This seems extraordinary to the modern mind, but it's how many countries have organised their governments for thousands of years. The idea of giving up the hereditary principle caught on big time in other parts of the world after the Reformation/Renaissance, but for various reasons the UK and several other democratic countries in Europe remained as monarchies. The UK probably has the most elaborate monarchy left in Europe, and I strongly suspect with the Queen's passing we will start to see a gradual scaling back over the next few years or, maybe more realistically, decades.

My feeling about the monarchy is nobody would organise a country like this if you were starting from scratch nowadays, but this is what we've inherited and the thought of the disruption involved in getting rid of it and the endless political fights about what would replace it fill me with horror. Fortunately I'm in my 60s and I don't think I'll live to see all of that.

They do their job well and represent our country on a global scale. They show up when required, look enthusiastic even around the most boring things, and are generally polite and show an interest in things that are expected of them even if they don't want to.

They travel the world over even if they'd rather spend time at home. They are patrons for hundreds of charities, the king will have to read and be briefed and sign hundreds of bits of mind-bogglingly boring paper work every week, there is no "not feeling it" or duvet day for him.

The king wouldn't have wanted to do all those engagements last week at his age and so soon after the loss of his mother, but he showed up because that was his job.

I have a lot of respect for what they do. I work for the crown myself and the monarch is my boss, and I look up to the him for leadership.

Topgub · Today 11:18
@CulturePigeon
And if you're aware of all that and still don't agree with the over inflated notion of service and duty?
Its a job that is so vastly overpaid its unreal.
Nothing they could do could make up for what they've taken and to male up for their belief that they are better than literally everyone.

Topub - the bottom line is - I don't agree but can't hope to explain it all to you!

You seem hung up on concepts such as 'think they're better than us' 'plebs' etc. This is so childish. How do you know that? And I'm not being quite so dim as I seem from that question. Do you think everyone in a ceremonial role, who has to play a symbolic part and maybe wear special clothes, perhaps has people to serve/wait on them, 'thinks they're better than everyone else'? That's such a simplistic, reductionist attitude.

Take judges in court. They wear their gear because they are not 'Mr Smith, the Judge' but an abstract embodiment of the law, and the rule of law. People stand and sit at their entrance into court as a show of respect for the law, not for them personally. I'm sorry, I can't explain it any better. It's an abstract idea about symbolic representation. To me, represented this country and its values, and because of her personal power (charisma? whatever??) she invariably was a force for good in terms of our international relations.

As I said in another post, if people actually listened to what she said, rather than speaking out of prejudice, she was not a bombastic imperialist. She knew that her role was to move away from Empire and build new relations with the old colonies, and the world. She's always said she was happy to be there for Australia, NZ etc, but only as long as they wanted her. And they have voted to keep her until now. That may change, and that's fine.

Don't mind disagreeing about political concepts...but please, not the 'they're all snobs' line...it's pathetic.

I suppose the service they are providing is representing us at home and abroad. It's a 'duty' because they were born into it and didn't choose it - maybe?