Watching Trooping of the Colour - AIBU to feel proud or is it an anachronistic, expensive waste of money?

[Isdinnerreadyyet]

Been watching Trooping of the Colour. I just love the bands, the precision of the marching, the horses - all of it TBH. We do it better than anyone else IMO. Also good for tourism as many tourists come to the UK for the pageantry, palaces etc.

AIBU to feel proud?

Or is it an anachronistic, expensive waste of money?

I'm not pro the Royal Family at all, but most countries have military parades even if they are republics. I imagine if we were to retire the royals and become a republic, ToTC would just be replaced by a 'national day' parade or similar. I enjoy the music and the spectacle of the marching; the co-ordination always amazes me. Haven't watched it today because we were out but will probably watch on I-player later.

Have you posted more than one?

Seriously????

Yes indeed! Go on - humour me.

You have to ask what’s wrong with people after that spiteful diatribe you posted a few minutes ago.

Isn’t Jojimoji’s description of the King as a ‘a random , privileged, talentless waster’ also quite spiteful?

Two wrongs don’t make a right, do they?

Well, I am going to make the assumption then that all the people in favour of today’s display are also in favour of much more money being poured into defence of the UK ? I hope so.

It's what I meant about hypocrisy!

They can dish it out but can they take it?

Who’s “they”? It was me who objected to that stream of vitriol and I haven’t dished anything out.

Waster? KC?

He's fulfilling his constitutional role. What else can he do?

Well, I feel happy that we have a military who are proud to serve King and Country. And all the naysayers should understand that if it was scrapped, not a single extra penny would go to public services/people living in poverty. That's not how it works. Why can't we just have something that gives people pleasure, rather than begrudging it because it's not strictly functional? It's "the politics of envy", isn't it? Which I loathe.

What stream of vitriol? I can't help you with your enquiry until I know what you're accusing me of...

Go and look at your posts @CoffeeCantata and cut out the faux innocence.

No.
I'd just say that description was accurate.
Random-accident of birth makes him "royal"
Privileged- nobody can argue with that, surely?
Talentless- enlighten me if I'm not correct.
Waster- check out just how many engagements a year he actually used to carry out *. I'm sure you'll be underwhelmed.

*(pre his illness, nobody would expect him work full time now)

I stand by all my posts!

I speak from personal experience. On these threads you always get nastiness - and personal, quite vicious nastiness - about, for eg, the RF. But some posts on here are truly shocking.

It's one thing to answer OP's question as to the relevance or otherwise of TtC, but quite another to start salivating at the thought of murdering people because of an accident of birth!

If you're referring to me, I most certainly can. 😅

Can you ?

I love it for all the reasons stated in your OP. I do feel proud to be British and I'm glad we still have a monarchy and our system of government. I love that sort of occasion.

Even if we were a republic there would be plenty of similar occasions of pomp and no less money spent on them, so that argument doesn't fly.

you seem to think that hard work and learning a skill to a very high standard is somehow inferior to being talented. I disagree.

Totally agree. It's a chance also for us to recognise and celebrate our armed forces

Not at all it's absolutely wonderful and l loved every minute of it.

Well he is privileged. He doesn't seem to be noticeably talented in a way that marks him out. It's open to question how much he would have achieved without fortunate accident of birth. That seems factual to me, not spiteful.

Talentless- enlighten me if I'm not correct.
Waster- check out just how many engagements a year he actually used to carry out.

I’m not sure what talents someone needs to be King - but he seems to carry out his duties satisfactorily and people seem pleased to see him at his functions.
I don’t think he’s a waster - I think he does then best he can in his role.

However I don’t think you were saying these things to be accurate - you wanted to be critical.
I could describe someone as fat and ugly which even if true would be a spiteful thing to say.

Well, no, I don't automatically support anyone's celebration of their cultural identity and heritage. Some societies' culture and heritage - or, at least, the way some people in those societies choose to understand or celebrate it - is horrible. Taliban culture, or Confederate heritage, or 21c. Russian nationalism are pretty obvious things we all recoil against, aren't they?

As I am British and English, I understand the nuances of British culture better than any other. To be clear, I am obviously not comparing the monarchy to the Taliban! But part of the British tradition I appreciate greatly is the right to disagree. I disagree with the institution of the monarchy. I disagree with the veneration of a military which is linked so closely to both terrible colonial crimes, as well as heroic derring-do.

So I am not recoiling at "Englishness" or "Britishness" or The English or The British. I am as English and British as they come. But Trooping The Colour is a particular flavour of Britishness which I don't care for. So I do find it odd that people say they are proud of something British just because it is British, without considering what it is.

So, sure, our militaristic colonial history has sure made us good at marching in straight lines while playing bombastic music on horseback in front of a man who is the head of our country because his mum was and her dad was and his brother was. But none of these things fill me with pride. They feel distant and irrelevant to my English life.

(And it's just reductive and silly to conflate the emotional and transactional relationships we have to the nation state. I don't hate the nation state. I just don't pin my personal or cultural identity to it. I am not keen to do away with the NHS, just as I am not keen to get rid of the National Grid or Network Rail., because they are hugely invaluable modern institutions that keep our lives running. But I'm not going to stand on a street corner waving a flag for our National Grid and insisting it is a thing of great pride when compared to Germany's or Canada's or South Korea's.

It’s an opportunity for the nation to recognise and, in this case, celebrate those that are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect our nation and way of life.

It’s fine not to understand this concept, after all it’s a complex set of ideas set around duty, sacrifice and responsibility. But don’t hide your ignorance behind misplaced statements about food banks and poverty.

All those posters arguing in favour of abolition of the monarchy, do you actually believe that being a republic gets rid of privilege, inherited wealth and some people being considered superior to others simply by dint of the family they happen to be born in?

In the European republics the old wealthy aristocratic families still remain.
Perhaps look at the USA and see what that's like at the moment. Would you seriously prefer that?