Kevin's Watch

The UK is in the grip of the Jubilee celebrations. I should like to know what you think about our obsession with royalty - if indeed you think about it at all.

Me? I both respect and admire Elizabeth II. I would not want her job for all the money in the world. She has been permanently on show for 60 years, all my life in fact. Very little privacy, all the family dirty washing hung out for all to see, and she cannot choose to do anything other than what she does.

I have never met a member of the royal family, but I did once stand behind Princess Margaret, who came in a helicopter and opened my new school in 1964. I was in the choir and stood just behind her on the stage, but was not introduced

Long Live the Queen.

Meh.

Slight aside, what I don't get is the republicans who say if we got rid o the queen we should have an elected head of state in her place. I don't see why you can't just have parliament function exactly as it does now without anyone on top. Particularly seeing as even though she supposedly agrees whether or not to let a party leader form a government, her actual responses in that situation are completely governed by protocol, and would be exactly the same if all that happened is they consulted the rule book.

If monarchy is what British people want, it's fine with me. After all it's parliamental and constitutional and people there are free.

So if you feel like celebrating the jubilee I wish you a happy celebration.

As for celebrating, I think my husband is about to decorate our back yard with bunting! He got some free for the bar he runs and had some over I may take a picture.

I think it is great. I see the King (or the Queen in your case) as the holder of the culture and tradition. It is a tie to our cultural heritage both past and present. Celebrate, I say!

Also, as you say, royalty does a lot of good. Of course they bring in a lot of tourist money, but that's just a start. Our King goes around and works tirelessly for causes. He can also talk to people that politics disallows the politicians to officially talk to. Our King does a lot of good. I think your Queen does, too.

Um, well, er...it was fun to see the guard change at Buckingham Palace. And Kate and William seem to be a nice couple.*

*May not be a representative sample of Yankee viewpoint.

That represents me pretty well.

Personally, I am hoping to see some jubilee celebrations along with Olympic coverage this summer. I haven't seen much coverage of them anywhere, yet.

I'm not a monarchy fan.

Having said that, we're having a street party tomorrow - although it's not a Jubilee celebration, more a get together of neighbours.

One excellent thing to come out of the Jubilee is an extra days holiday this year.

Menolly wrote:Personally, I am hoping to see some jubilee celebrations along with Olympic coverage this summer. I haven't seen much coverage of them anywhere, yet.

Tomorow afternoon there is to be a progress down the Thames on the royal barge. I hope the queen gets a better reception than Queen Eleanor, wife of Henry III who was pelted with rubbish whilst on her barge! Seriously though, there will be a lot of pageantry over the next couple of days - well worth watching.

Enjoy your street party, Phantasm. None here, road too busy, but we did have one down home for the silver jubilee. I remember my son was dressed up as a Coronation Mug for the fancy dress

Ananda, I totally agree with you.

julie is really into it.

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



J/k. As queens go, she seems to be a good one, even as an expensive figurehead. Look what happens when the figurehead is actually held responsible for stuff that the gov does (viz, Obama). If I met her, I'd curtsy.

I need more pics.

Not really into royalty and all, but fun looking at the pics.

Plenty of pictures on the web, MsMary. I liked this one (I think you call this vegimite?)



Try here: www.google.co.uk/search?q=jubilee+pictu ... 24&bih=548

Fantastic concert outside Buck House last night. Fascinated by Grace Jones who sang a whole song whilst keeping a hoola hoop going! Madness sang "One's House" (Our House) on top of the palace and the images that were projected onto the facade were like nothing I've ever seen before. Stevie Wonder made up new, appropriate, words to "Happy Birthday" and "Isn't she Lovely" and Macca , well, his finale was spectacular. Perhaps if you are interested you can still pick up the concert on the BBC website via iplayer.

You should be able to see the concert, and other things, here:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00nh925/ ... e_Concert/

deer of the dawn wrote: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.

Iolanthe wrote:Plenty of pictures on the web, MsMary. I liked this one (I think you call this vegimite?)

Love that. I have a jar of Marmite in my cupboard at this very moment.

Iolanthe wrote:You should be able to see the concert, and other things, here:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00nh925/ ... e_Concert/

Nope. UK only.

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.

They play......we pay.