Selling, we are doing it wrong.

[Wilco]

whilst the only growing industry seems to be foodbanks and people (including children) are sleeping in the streets, while they still dip deeply into our pockets? whilst Carlo charges the RNLI a fee to cross the beach whilst responding to a shout for help? whilst his son profits from rack rents on the 600 plus mould infested slum properties he 'owns?
Whilst the spend millions on an air conditioned gold coach yet still charge our struggling NHS millions for a place to park our ambulances?
No, not really a fan to be honest.
But I'm sure we'll have a line of compulsive forelock tuggers who delight in grovelling at their feet jump to their defence with thu usual fictions about tourism and the likes

Interesting chat in Austria last week where they abolished their royal family around a century ago and reclaimed the land for the people - sort of. However, they are big on protecting their culture and identity, something which sadly has often become combined with hooliganism or the far right here in England.

Not saying the royal family are faultless, but I think most of our problems as a nation stem from elsewhere...

With rights come responsibilities. There has been too much focus on the former and neglect of the latter. This has rotted so many of our institutions and social cohesion, along with the removal of the bedrock for morality and accountability. Teach people they are merely here to survive and breed and is it any surprise that people live for themselves.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Interesting chat in Austria last week where they abolished their royal family around a century ago and reclaimed the land for the people - sort of. However, they are big on protecting their culture and identity, something which sadly has often become combined with hooliganism or the far right here in England.

so if we follow Austria's lead - the best thing for the country would be to abolish the saxe coburg gotha mountbattens and all their hangers on

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Last night's 'Children in need' raised a wopping 39 million, which is 'rather uplifting'
Carlo's payrise this year was a paltry 45 million

 

[Wilco]

so if we follow Austria's lead - the best thing for the country would be to abolish the saxe coburg gotha mountbattens and all their hangers on

It has got me wondering what that would look like in the UK (even as someone who is more on the royalist side). The problem I think we'd have in the UK is there would be massive mismanagement of the assets- much of the land would probably end up in private hands rather than being owned for the public and we'd still have a wealthy elite privately owning most of the land, or government would build on it and developers destroy more of the countryside. Maybe I'm overly cynical but I do not trust our government or populace to look after our countryside anywhere near adequately and think we'd end up in a worse spot.

A friend of mine recently had to endure the environment agency and water company doing improvement works on a stream on the entrance to where he lives, supposedly to ensure fish can swim up and breed. They electrofished out over 100 trout so those were getting up there anyway, dredged the stream so destroying any existing redds and the insect larval population (silt dumped on nearby grass which is now trashed) and have trashed the nearby ground which was level and grassy before. Pigeons are loving the grass seed which won't grow as the ground is now too cold and the stream already looks like the newly placed gravel is covered in mud that's washed back in. Basically they've damaged the whole local ecosystem for several years to come at an expense of hundreds of thousands of pounds and some twit in an office now has s piece of paper to say they've made things 'better'.

 

[pargyle]

whilst the only growing industry seems to be foodbanks and people (including children) are sleeping in the streets, while they still dip deeply into our pockets? whilst Carlo charges the RNLI a fee to cross the beach whilst responding to a shout for help? whilst his son profits from rack rents on the 600 plus mould infested slum properties he 'owns?
Whilst the spend millions on an air conditioned gold coach yet still charge our struggling NHS millions for a place to park our ambulances?
No, not really a fan to be honest.
But I'm sure we'll have a line of compulsive forelock tuggers who delight in grovelling at their feet jump to their defence with thu usual fictions about tourism and the likes

Well it was a Channel 4 documentary ... as usual it only explores one side and in this case it was the side of those who would prefer to see a Republic and I admit I am not in favour of a replublic. The Crown Estate (it does not all belong to Charles and William) own some of the most beautiful land in the UK and preserve it - If all this was returned to the people ie: 'The Government' I wonder how long it would take them to sell of the asset - probably to those rich people that true Socialists appear to despise !

I think, if you set aside the issues of wealth, that Charles has, throughout his life, championed some very worthwhile causes and William seems to be shaping up in a very caring vein. There are always going to be those with great wealth in any society - some inherited, some earned - what they put back in society and their personal integrity is what matters to me. I suspect that the charges levied (and in many cases they are peppercorns) in many cases just go back into the maintenance of the estate

From what I see in our politicians (and worse - those across the Atlantic and in some other countries around the world) I'd rather see what we have in place here than the alternative of an all powerful president with no checks and balances.

I'm not saying that there are not some reforms necessary in our Royalty - there are hangers on that have shown a total disrespect to our society that should be cast aside but I can't say I'm in favour of the alternatives or harping on about the 'wrongs' that were inflicted by previous generations - the past is history, remember it, discuss it, learn from it and move on.