I hope no one is being cynical about the Jubilee (though ignore it, do, if you're not interested). The celebrations are so innocently affectionate and kindly meant and spring from affection and respect. I know a number of people who have taken themselves off to London, most of them going by coach, to watch the pageant on the Thames and I think that's lovely. I think it's lovely to have put bunting up and hold parties and make paper crowns and write letters to the Queen. No one would do it to a President, that's for sure. And there's Her Majesty, she must be jolly chilly but she's smiling and enjoying the occasion for what it signifies.
Before the 'reformation' of the House of Lords, there weren't financial scandals there like there are now. And the actions of MPs make the occasional, rare dubious dealings of minor members of the royal family look very mild. You wouldn't set up a hereditary monarchy in this country nowadays, but no one has come up with an idea for anything better.
If I'm being sentimental, I'm not apologising, either. You're just going to have to be kind and indulge me.
Before the 'reformation' of the House of Lords, there weren't financial scandals there like there are now. And the actions of MPs make the occasional, rare dubious dealings of minor members of the royal family look very mild. You wouldn't set up a hereditary monarchy in this country nowadays, but no one has come up with an idea for anything better.
If I'm being sentimental, I'm not apologising, either. You're just going to have to be kind and indulge me.
16 comments:
So true, Z. You'd never see so much ceremony and love for a President. I'm watching the Jubilee boat procession on BBC America-and trying to understand some of the accents of people being interviewed.
I agree completely, and that's as one not entirely untainted by the shade of cynicism. She deserves it! (Not so sure about the next one though ...)
I'm watching the water parade on BBC America as I type this. What a wonderful display for a sea-fairing nation.
I'm very much a Royalist, but I can't stand Charlie!
Shame about the weather.
I watched it on BBC America too. Was that the same coverage that you got in the UK? I think I had been expecting all the boats in regimented rows—it was so lovely to see the casual arrangement, and the Royal Family looked pretty un-regimented too.
Hello Beryl, welcome. I expect it was exactly the same as we saw. Sorry about our accents, Georgie, some of us hardly understand them either. Shame about the rain, but it didn't matter - the British are used to celebrating in the rain.
Poor Charles, give him a chance!
And bless Her Majesty for standing throughout, and Prince Philip too. Remarkable.
Ihre Majestät ist ein Vorbild an Pflichterfüllung und Professionalität.
An example of duty and professionalism? My German is not much better than zero, I'm afraid. She certainly is, Mago, and she manages to look as if she's interested and enjoying it too.
Our son is in the Royal Naval Reserve and was involved in helping minor royalty, some politicians and others board one of the vessels.
He chatted with Sir John Major about cricket, was surprised that Boris wasn't very tall, Princess Beatrice told him she was just Beatrice, no title.
After the boats had moved away, Adam was able to link up with his wife. Their journey home to our house took a long while as Waterloo Station was so crowded, passengers were kept outside a while; Adam and Juliet couldn't travel on the first train it was so crowded.
Only downside was we couldn't spot him on the recording of the proceedings, but they enjoyed the day although a little damp. It is two years on Tuesday since they married, their wedding reception was at HMS President where the Royal Barge moored.
They had been surprised at the large numbers of younger spectators.
Thank you so much for that, Madeleine, how fascinating. You must be proud!
A million people, apparently, visited London for the occasion. That's fantastic.
And I love it that Americans take our Queen to your hearts too, thank you.
The Queen has met me (this is how my mother likes to put it) but I'm not a huge royalist.
In the absence of anything better to do on a wet Sunday afternoon, we watched the pageant on the Thames on the telly and thought it was very impressive. I particularly liked the old-style royal barge with the rowers. However, I felt the whole thing went on for far to long(I don't know how her Maj and The Duc stood for all that time) We did eventually lose interest and defect to another TV channel.
I'm incapable of watching tv for very long and always read at the same time. Yesterday I popped in and out of the room several times too, eg to write a blog post!
Er, keeping my cynical views about the un-elected spongers to myself now, ma'am.
What, the House of Lords? That was a half-arsed attempt at reformation by Blair, he never finished it and a lot of them are now simply on the make.
And thank you, that's kind x
Yes she is perfect in this role.
I always thought the House of Lords is a phantastic institution, absolutely free in choosing the topics; a free space in the middle of the state where it is allowed to look at things differently.
It was, and it still does good work, they're a very useful brake on the Commons, often making good amendments to Bills, sometimes delaying bad laws, but Blair's government started on an overhaul which has never been completed, largely because the Commons doesn't want to risk giving the Lords actual power to do anything. And now a lot of the peers seem to be nearly as corrupt at overcharging for expenses as MPs are. That didn't seem to happen previously.
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