A patriotic moment
Today I saw the Queen. She is very short. She arrived in a helicopter, which made me very jealous because I’ve always wanted to fly in one. Then I went back to the office and designed a 12-page supplement with many, many, many pictures of her and Phil the Greek. Now my eyes hurt and I hate her hat with a passion. The supplement looks excellent, though.
Should I send my optician bill to Buckingham Palace?
Gee… a vist to County Mall. Must have been the highlight of her week! Were there any hilarious Duke of Edinburgh racial slurs or deeply non-pc outbursts? (Bloody hell Liz, this place is full of… insert offending slang term for member of ethnic majority here!)
He did ask the head of Thomas Bennett if all the kids could read! And he asked the manager of Three Cooks bakery if she was responsible for all the fatties in Crawley. God, you gotta love that guy! 🙂
Fantastic… can they read?
Fantastic… can they read? says Ian Mc
In the case of most of the Neanderthilic population of Crawley,that is very much a moot point…..
Not wishing to be mean to anyone but, rightly or wrongly, Thomas Bennett did have quite the reputation for producing rather, er, below par results. I doubt that reputation has made it to Windsor, however! (Though I should add that those I know who went to the old Thomas Bennett have come out of it very well!)
As for the patriotic bit – I have to say I find I am increasingly ashamed to be British these days. There we are, shoulder to shoulder, in the brown stuff with the Americans striving to bring democracy to the Middle East. Okay, I don’t think anyone actually buys that line but that’s what we are told, on the theory we are all stupid. Here we are, though, in the 21st Century with a non-elected head of state. Maybe someone should bring democracy to us.
I’ve nothing against Lizzy Windsor personally. I don’t think a head of state should have their extended family paid for out of public funds but that’s not my main problem with the monarchy. Her role is little more than ceremonial in practice these days, that’s just by convention rather than law, however. That’s dangerous on two fronts, the Monarch could flout convention and summarilly appoint a different PM (for example) or they continue in a purely ceremonial role. How’s the ceremonial role dangerous? The head of state should be there for checks and balances reasons, if the Monarch is nothing more than a figure head then what’s the point of having a head of state? The best bet would be to have an elected head of state and a written constitution. This is common in Europe and works well. What we’ve effectively got right now is President Blair and no head of state to keep the government in check. Of course I’d have no problems with the Qveen standing for election – I bet she’d even win. That would be fine.
There is no such thing as a true meritocracy but we shouldn’t be handing power (and wealth) to people just because they were born into a particular family!