The Queen's 60th Jubilee Celebrations - what do you think?

[Ananda]

They play......we pay.

But certainly they pay for themselves and then some with the tourism income the country takes at the basic minimum?

[Iolanthe]

How's Prince Philip doing? I caught a glimpse of a royal procession on CNN this morning and noticed he wasn't in the carriage. Then I saw in the paper that he was hospitalized with a bladder infection.

He's going to be in hospital for a few days. All that standing about on the barge not being able to have a "comfort break" seems to have been part of the cause. He will be 91 in a few weeks time. Although "thrones" had been provided, neither the Queen or Philip sat down for over 4 hours.

MsMary, I had no idea that the BBC iplayer was UK only. I heard during a commentary today that "BBC America" was showing the celebrations.

If you google "jubilee concert" or similar there are some excerpts about. This is one of the best www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Ka17LIIfU&fea ... r_embedded#!

Peter said

They play......we pay.

Yes, Peter. The Queen at 86 is working harder than our MPs according to statistics I saw this morning. I don't begrudge the very small amount I pay towards the civil list. Not sure what you mean by "playing". Explain please.

[I'm Murrin]

The royal estates generate significantly more income for the country than is spent supporting the royal family. The queen of course also does diplomatic work - she's the most well-travelled monarch in history.

There are valid arguments against the monarchy, but I don't think arguing about their cost is one of them.

[MsMary]

MsMary, I had no idea that the BBC iplayer was UK only. I heard during a commentary today that "BBC America" was showing the celebrations.

Yup, that's what is says when I click on your link.

If you google "jubilee concert" or similar there are some excerpts about. This is one of the best www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Ka17LIIfU&fea ... r_embedded#!

That worked. Pretty cool.

Listening to that music made me think about how many generations of changing culture Queen Elizabeth has lived through.

[peter]

There are valid arguments against the monarchy, but I don't think arguing about their cost is one of them.

There is nothing in my statement that says I am against the monarchy for financial reasons or any other. I am indifferent to them by and large and certainly of the opinion that they are more 'cost-effective' than a presidency. But the fact remains that to the extent that they are funded from the public purse - we pay. And given the unceasing stream of stories and pictures of holidays and frolics that continuallly fill the columns and pages of the tabloid press I think there can be little doubt that they do their fair share of playing.

Can I just adress a few comments to any Brits out there who may have seen the Queens Jubilee Concert on Monday. To us of course this was fine, but the fact remains that if we try to pull off the same sort of thing for the Olympic opening ceremony we will be the laughing stock of the world. I shudder to hear that Sir Paul McArtney has been asked - and has accepted - to perform the closing act of the ceremony. Without plugging my blog (well sorry - ok plugging my blog ) if you want to hear more on what I think is a very important thing for all of us, my last post sets out my worries on this score. I want to be part of a groundswell that says we would rather stay silent than be made fools of in front of the eyes of the world. This is important to me and I just want to get the message 'out there' somehow. If you are like minded give it some thought.

[Iolanthe]

Peter, your Blog says what I would have said had I written one. I cringed at Cliff Richard and Elton John, the woman comedian in red (don't know her name) was dire; Lennie Henry and Peter Kay were good. Don't know who the other bloke was. Must admit I joined in with singing "Two little Boys" - but in spite of the fact that Macca seemed to have lost his voice I did enjoy him - sang along to the oldies quite happily. Perhaps he will get his voice back by the Olympics. I was astonished to learn that Grace Jones is 63 (or 64 depending on which radio programme you listen to) - I think it was she who hit Russel Harty when he interviewed her, or at least C says it was her. Burley Chassey (sorry!) was wonderful, and Tom Jones still looks and sounds like he always has. The young lad who I gather is in something called Holyoaks shows a lot of promise - Madness and the pictures on the palace were brilliant. I thought the girl who sang with the American lad with the white trousers and red top had a very good voice - perhaps we should see more of her.

I didn't know Macca was going to end the Olympics opening ceremony - he is now a kind of institution, but as you say there must be other people who could perform better. I remember him as a fresh faced youth on my bedroom wall - the whole thing on Monday made me suddenly feel very old

[aliantha]

Sir Paul must be feeling a little old, too, since he's gone and married another young thing. Fingers crossed that this one doesn't take him to the cleaners like the last one did -- she was one crazy piece of work...

Tom Jones, I'm convinced, has a Dorian Gray portrait hanging in his attic.

Hope Prince Phillip makes a full recovery. 91 is tolerably old, huh?

[Iolanthe]

Sir Paul must be feeling a little old, too, since he's gone and married another young thing. Fingers crossed that this one doesn't take him to the cleaners like the last one did -- she was one crazy piece of work...

Tom Jones, I'm convinced, has a Dorian Gray portrait hanging in his attic.

Hope Prince Phillip makes a full recovery. 91 is tolerably old, huh?

I expect he is, and I agree about Heather Mills. Both Macca and Tom Jones are 10 years older than me and Cliff is 2 years older still. But Elton John is only 5 years older than me.

I have to wonder, if Freddy (born 1946) had still been alive.........it doesn't bear thinking about!

[peter]

Just a brief return to the topic of the olympic opening ceremony. Last week the tickets went on sale to the public. The cheapest of these - and this is the face value price, not an inflated 'tout' price - was £985 ($1300), putting them effectively out of reach of the 'man in the street' who will be expected to pay for the games in his taxes for year upon year to come. The film director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) has been instructed to desighn the ceremony, and will put on a pastoral pastiche of the British countryside as an idylic patchwork of rolling hills, grass chewing shepherds o'erlooking flocks of fluffy sheep and cows in the byre. Perhaps, in the light of what those in charge of our crumbling economy - the very ones who will be able to afford those £985 tickets - have achieved for the rest of us, he might like to include the following in his ceremony:-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=37QUUwp9xIs

[deer of the dawn]

I think the venerable Queen needs to issue an official statement admitting that in the 1776 Revolution, we totally spanked them.

We got over that a long time ago, deer.

I assumed so, until a conversation with a British teacher, a young guy in his 20s, last year. I was completely shocked. He seemed to think that someday we would come crying, begging for forgiveness for an unfortunate misunderstanding. A melancholy version of American Southerners who think the Confederate War isn't over.

The Queen has been an icon all my life, and I think she rocks. Some of her kids, well....

[peter]

I'm thinking this guy was either tuggin' your rope, or didn't know sh*t from a shovel DOTD. Most 20 yo Brits (including history teachers!) don't even know what the American war of independance was. The minority that do would absolutely know that we got our arses whopped .

[Iolanthe]

I think the venerable Queen needs to issue an official statement admitting that in the 1776 Revolution, we totally spanked them.

We got over that a long time ago, deer.

I assumed so, until a conversation with a British teacher, a young guy in his 20s, last year. I was completely shocked. He seemed to think that someday we would come crying, begging for forgiveness for an unfortunate misunderstanding. A melancholy version of American Southerners who think the Confederate War isn't over.

The Queen has been an icon all my life, and I think she rocks. Some of her kids, well....

I've actually got two chaps who emigrated to the US from Shropshire, and fought in the US Civil War! And they emigrated in the 1840s, so only in the US for 20 years or so.

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