Surely this is the death knell for the Royal Family?

[Woodenheart33]

Surely its now over for the Royal Family. Any notion that they are in some way special or noble is completely gone now. They have all gravitas of a problem family on Jeremy Kyle. Why would anyone bow to them or look up to them is beyond me. There is no longer anything regal about them!

I think I might speak for quite a lot of people, the memes are hilarious.

It’s more of a case that Harry claimed PoW used physical force against his brother in a response to a disagreement.

That’s all we know.

I agree. Finally the RF have done something...Harry and the memes generated have at least entertained us from all the dokm and gloom news

That should be the new purpose of the modern RF ro lift our moods in tines like this and entertain us 😆

I don't think many people think they are 'special or noble'. By an accident of history they have a constitutional role to play. They are also human beings.

I wasn’t a royalist before. I am now.

I have no idea why anyone is remotely surprised that normal human beings have acted like normal human beings.

Can we treat them as ‘normal’ human beings then- rather than revering them and spending tens of millions of our tax money on a coronation in a religious ceremony (is the king chosen by God?). I can think of many ways we could use the money to help other normal human beings.

Does the existence of the RF not rely on them being more than ‘normal’?

Does the existence of the RF not rely on them being more than ‘normal’?

Nope, their existence relies on us having a constitutional monarchy.

All the usual suspects very quiet this week - scales fallen from their eyes I wonder 😂😂

But we aren’t expected to revere them? We can live our lives and have absolutely nothing to do with them if we so choose. They have no bearing on our lives.

We have them because of our history and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. There are plenty of extremely wealthy people
in our country. They will always be a wealthy family with inherited wealth. There’s no need to be jealous of them. It’s only luck that they were born as they were. It’s not their choice either. Just luck of the draw.

But we aren’t expected to revere them? We can live our lives and have absolutely nothing to do with them if we so choose. They have no bearing on our lives.
We have them because of our history and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. There are plenty of extremely wealthy people
in our country. They will always be a wealthy family with inherited wealth. There’s no need to be jealous of them. It’s only luck that they were born as they were. It’s not their choice either. Just luck of the draw.

That sums up my view of the RF. Plus I do think that individually some of them do positive stuff.

I would love to see us choose a nominal lead based on their stature and deeds rather than accident of birth.

How about Jessica Ennis-Hill?
That would be an inspirational thread - people who lead by example.

Perhaps you would but then we wouldn’t have a constitutional monarchy.

Clearly, but no harm dreaming of more honourable alternatives as the dirty laundry is thoroughly aired

@Happyvalleyfan but what do you actually know about her? She is an also a normal person with a normal family facing normal family problems. Would she lend her sister in law some lip gloss?

Why is running around a field inspirational?

It’s so rank to even ask to borrow lipgloss, let alone rub it against your finger!

Completely agree with this also.

I certainly wouldn’t want to trade places with the RF. It really is a gilded cage.

More inspirational than just being born
More inspirational than trying to avoid fair share of taxes - it’s a business
More inspirational than putting yourself beyond Freedom of Information laws despite being part of tax funded institution
More inspirational than vetting and changing laws in your favour

would love to hear other people’s ideas

what about Professor Sir Michael Gideon Marmot- researched impact of poverty on health

Spot on Happy, the RF have gamed absolutely everything to their own advantage.
They are the absolute antithesis of merit based selection. Chucky Charlie sits on his backside whilst hard working tenants of the Duchy of Cornwall work their fingers to the bone to pay his extortionate rents.
When the right to buy was introduced the RF bypassed it.
Every respect for the Queen but now it is time for a change. The Republic of Ireland has demonstrated that it is perfectly possible to have a functioning bicameral democracy without a monarch.

I doubt it.

What I've seen so far actually increased my sympathy for Charles quite a bit.

Seems like he tried, acknowledged mistakes etc and had some lovely habit as a father (like leaving them little notes).

Revealing personal matters like his father's health issues, teddy bear (IMO nothing to be ashamed off but still private), commenting about how he has more hair than his older brother and that said brother lost the resemblance to the woman who was (obviously) the mother of both of them...

revealing these kinds of thing seem like a massive invasion of his father's privacy and it seems really mean-spirited. I can't see a legitimate reason to include his personal thoughts about William loosing his resemblance to their mother for example.

Fair point, I was hoping that PH would spill the beans on the reason for KC's sausage like digits.

I don’t think there will be any immediate significant effect but it all just chips away at the reputation of the royal family, in the same way that all the Charles, Diana & Fergie shenanigans did, and obviously the revelations about Andrew more recently.

Support for the monarchy is declining and will continue to do so. Was it Hilary Mantel who said William or George will be our last monarch?

If anything, I think all this has given Catherine, particularly, a bit of a boost.

There has been understandable sympathy for PC- but I don’t think that’s going to overcome the need to drastically rethink the format of the RF if they are going to survive the future.

With young people growing up in austerity, with social media and decline of the traditional tabloid / broadsheet press as avenue for news- the right wing, the monarchists, the traditionalists will have decreasing amount of power over framing dialogue in decades to come.

PC can grab this opportunity to resurrect the RF in this new post Elizabethan II era with a vastly slim downed version which pays its way fairly - or otherwise risk it’s own demise.

I think the RF costs something like £2 per person per year? I can't get too excited about £2 a year.

I think it's a bit like Brexit, might seem like there's a better alternative to the status quo but in reality nobody will be able to agree what that is, it will take forever to actually implement anything at all whilst everyone argues about it, everyone will end up annoyed that the end product (whatever it is) isn't quite what they wanted and it will all cost a fortune and be a massive waste of time and energy that could be better spent elsewhere.

Better the devil you know I think. I don't have particularly strong opinions about any of them as individuals but I think W & K come across quite well and do some worthwhile things.

I don't think any of this reflects well on H & M, I'm genuinely still half expecting to find out it's all some massive prank. No adult writes about seals recognising their wife as magic whilst performing a seal opera whilst being serious surely?!