Calls for removing royal title from Meghan

So.... French provocateur magazine Charlie Hebdo strikes again...

^ For those who can't read French, the title is "Why Meghan left Buckingham" and she is saying "Because I couldn't breathe any more."

The French attitude toward monarchs is not the same as the British attitude. (See the French Revolution for details.) This cartoon has sparked a fair amount of outrage in the UK, but not much in France. The biggest French outrage is outrage at the British outrage (if you follow me...).

To be fair, George VI completely changed to purpose, appearance, and duties of the British Royal family so they did not end up like the other monarchs of Europe.

That said, it’s time for them to go away.

The practical question becomes how we make that real?

We can't just...stop paying into the royal coffers and leave them out to dry. Even if it weren't for the simple cruelty of ejecting them onto the streets where they have no prior life experience what happens to the estate and the small army of people employed in maintaining it? Are they to be suddenly unemployed having in many cases served faithfully their entire adult lives?

Assuming we allow the royals themselves to keep their existing fortunes and live reduced (but still comfortable) lives off that and whatever income they can generate through cashing in on their names or, well, working what happens to the many people whose livings are tied to the dynasty?

My immediate thought would be to keep those people on and turn the palaces into heritage sites, which to a certain extent they already are. However those sites would have to generate money or be subsidised and I suspect the longer they go unoccupied by a functioning monarchy the less interest they would generate.

Same problem applies to the wider tourist industry which goes hand in hand with the royal brand. Dozens of businesses exist in order to service, or at least depend on, that demand. Restaurants, hotels, manufacturers of thousands upon thousands of merchandise, the list goes on. People underestimate the economic scale of the royal industry and how much employment it generates, not to mention taxation on the associated profits.

Add to that the perception of royals globally as being the faces of both the nation and the many charities they endorse and the difficulty of simply eliminating them from public life becomes evident. Don't imagine for a second the press would cooperate in swaying public opinion, they may attack them at every turn to generate headlines but they know what their golden goose is worth and would stoke patriotic sentiment at every turn to avert a genuinely existential threat.

It could be done, but it would have much further reaching implications and vested interests than we have addressed thus far and to do so in an era where we have both a pandemic and brexit making life complicated enough would it be advisable to rock the boat even further?

You know what your PM would say.

He said similar things about leaving the EU.

So.....inspiring.

Agreed. Sorry, not feeling well this morning, so, short simple posts - at least, this morning.

But, yea, that’s kinda where I ... intended to go with the first post. Part of the changes made by George VI as well as changes to society in general, it’s not going to be easy to just get rid of them.

Some aspects I don’t think would be as difficult to deal with as you two make out.

I mean, any staff that has to be let go can probably find work that pays equally well working for some pretentious fuckstick who wants to put on airs and has stupid piles of money. I’m sure Elon would love to have former royal employees working for him.

Tourism would definitely take a big hit, though, but if the royals were gradually phased out, it probably wouldn’t be a hard shock. Just have Chuck stay a prince after Elizabeth dies and don’t hand out titles to any future spawn. So once Harry and his brother dies, there’s no royal family anymore.

I’m sorry I don’t speak cheese eating surrender monkey.

Singes mangeurs de fromage capitulards! Maybe?

First three dates with Harry, Meghan thought he was Ed Sheeran.

-- Bill Maher

This is, in fairness, the first time I ever plotted to overthrow a monarchy.

Probably gets easier with practise.

Why not just make them an entertainment company? For real stop subsidizing them with tax money and let them be UK disneyland. If you want to change society, then you present your ideas and see if they work. Leave them with their megaphone, and just let the people who want to donate to their wellbeing donate. It sounds like there are enough idiots out there who would donate money towards them. Let them live off of that like trump lives off of republican supporters. Take their power away and make them fair game. Then, if the people back them, they get real power. Not that I would agree with their causes, but a group of dumbasses is something to command. You have national health care, they have lands and shelter to live in, and I am sure they can get enough money to feed themselves. Media would be lined up to capture these moments for the people to see.

The streamlining efforts have been underway for a while now.

https://www.macleans.ca/royalty/get-ready-for-a-slimmer-monarchy-when-charles-is-in-charge/

Don't forget you would still need someone to play the role of "Head of State". Supporting that office wouldn't be cheap and the functions are endless and their duties only have real meaning when the head of state creates a diplomatic incident. Trump's antics as the U.S. Head of State did an awful lot of damage to our prestige and world wide goodwill, in contrast to, say, Obama who's worst misstep was bowing to the Emperor of Japan (and not even doing that correctly). Jimmy Carter managed to offend the entire nation of Mexico with an ill-timed joke about "Montezuma's Revenge" in contrast Ronald Reagan won hearts and minds with the traditional Mexican greeting to friends "Mi Casa, es su Casa. (No I'm not a Reagan fan, but he played the role of Head of State superbly. Before you throw out the monarchy (I really don't have a dog in the fight, just speaking as an Anglophile) I would ask what would the office of Head of State look like and who on the British scene would have the gravitas and the interest to fill it? I'm reminded of a story about Abe Lincoln during the Civil War. A particularly obnoxious senator was demanding that Lincoln sack the head of the Army of the Potomac. When Abe asked "with whom?" the senator replied "anybody!" Abe replied, "Anybody may be good enough for you, but I have to Some body."

Well, fuck. Better luck next time, I guess.

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle in 'near-catastrophic' car chase, spokesperson says

This sounds like a blown up bullshit nothingburger designed to get these two attention - shocking, I know - probably after they were so badly shunned at the coronation

2 hours? Bullshit. Why don't you just stop at one of the many luxury hotels in Manhattan and jump in there. They'll protect you from the paparazzi. Or how about a police station?

Oh...wait....let's talk to the guy who was actually driving them:

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-65620143

These two

Stupid paparrazi can't kill these two useless twats like they killed that diana chick. What good are they?

There’s video now:
https://twitter.com/olilondontv/status/1658891375633473559?s=46&t=5aZSVQnFQ1P3I81ZDJtFug

Wow, these two truly are some of the worst attention seeking whores ever. Embarrassing

I don't know if they really are or not, but I ignore them whenever I see click bait headlines.