W-Where am I? Ruritania? Pre WW1 Montenegro? In an Ivor Novello operetta?

[non sociopath skin]

Oh no! I'm in a G9 "democracy" in the first decade of the 21st Century.

Queen decides to stay away from Charles and Camilla's register office wedding

Prince Charles's wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles took another intriguing twist last night when the Queen announced that she will not be attending the civil marriage ceremony, although she will attend the church blessing following the civil ceremony.

Buckingham Palace confirmed that the Queen would not attend, a move that reopened speculation that the Queen was unhappy with the "town hall wedding".

In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: "The Queen will not be attending the civil ceremony because she is aware that the prince and Mrs Parker Bowles wanted to keep the occasion low-key.

"The Queen and the rest of the royal family will, of course, be going to the service of dedication at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. "She is very pleased to be giving the wedding reception at the castle."

<snip>

The wedding was originally planned for Windsor Castle, and had been arranged to take place on a date when the Queen would be free to attend.

However, the prince and Mrs Parker Bowles had not realised that the castle would have to be licensed, allowing any commoner to marry in the Queen's Berkshire home.

As a consequence, the wedding, planned for April 8, has been moved to the nearby Windsor Guildhall, which is already licensed for civil ceremonies.

Story at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,2763,1423294,00.html

This crap is turning me into a rabid republican! All they have to do to get that unctuous, fawning plonker St-John Stevas out of the Dickens novel where he usually lives onto my TV screen to justify why "her gracious majesty" is behaving like a spoilt child ONE MORE TIME!

PSHAWW!!!!

The Skin

[Vladimir]

1. Now now

don't diss pre-WW1 Motenegro. We were very good at the whole 'sit on top of a mountain and chuck stones at the Turks' thing. :P

I love the fact that this whole thing has 'constitutional experts' getting their knickers twisted...

[non sociopath skin]

2. Hey, Vlad, I'm not dissing Montenegro ...

... they very sensibly got rid of their Royals. We've still got ours!! :toast:

The Skin

[Vladimir]

3. Ah but you see, we are going to bring them back

(oh how I wish that was a joke), and when we do, I am gonna have to burn my passport, cos I sure as hell ain't swearing loyalty to a monarch.

[Mr Creosote]

4. I've got it sussed now

They've outflanked us. By marrying Charles excludes himself from the succession, so William (ooh isn't he lovely? Just like his mum) will be slotted in early. Thus, they hope, preserving themselves for another generation at least.
Of course the problem is that the more people see of William the less palatable he will become. perhaps they should cull Charles and his progeny and marry off one of Andrew's pop-eyed daughters to Robbie Williams?

[Mr Creosote]

5. The advantage of a monarchy

I "know" quite a few americans over the wacky world of the internet - quite a few who voted for Dubya.
He is given an awful lot of respect just because of the office he holds "my president wouldn't lie", this, it seems to me is because in addition to being a political figure he is the head of state. I think we British are a lot less inclined to be respectful to our PM - because he isn't the top person in the country.
So, given a choice between Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, and "President Blair" I'll take Brenda every time.
But - given that all of us here want rid of a hereditary monarchy - with what should we replace it?

[Anarcho-Socialist]

6. If we were to follow the republican route

We could go with an Ireland/Germany-style ceremonial president as Head of State.

I certainly wouldn't want a member of the executive (politician) to be Head of State.

[mr blur]

12. I'm with you on that! (nt)

[Vladimir]

13. Why not make it like the speaker of the house?

selected from among MPs and with ceremonial functions only. You could rotate it every 1 or 2 years - problem solved.

There are so many democratic ways to solve the head of state argument... but the monarchy ain't one of them.

[sweetheart]

11. dogs make great royalty

Replace them with corgies, or a more stately dog... it seems many hunting
hounds are coming available!

Then the royal dog can be walked around at official events, leave a
royal crap on the pavements for the royalists to slice up and covet...
and save the public a load of dosh and sillyness.

A dog is less personal, still able to preside over official events,
and can even have coin-minted images for the new euro's.

Frankly, i've no problem with the windsors or the <german name> i've
forgotten.... just get rid of the royal perogative.

[ikri]

14. That's the only thing in favour of a monarchy

President Blair would be bad enough.

Don't really want to imagine how life would have been under President Thatcher :puke:

[Pert_UK]

7. I'm reasonably "pro-Royalty"....

mainly because I hate the way that "New Labour" seem determined to throw out anything remotely traditional with no respect for the past.....There's a lot to be said for pomp and ceremony and a sense of history and I think Blair et al. are just trying to ultra-modernise everything unnecessarily.

I think the whole Charles and Camilla wedding thing is a farsical debacle and some senior royal aides need to be sacked (and possibly publicly flogged) for their utter fuck-wittedness on this issue.

What's the best argument for a republic with royalty?

IMHO it's that if (God forbid) Charles and William both died or decided against taking the thrown then we'd be left with Harry as king.......Seriously.........If he becomes king then I feel the need to move to France.

[non sociopath skin]

8. Don't think you can have a Republic with Royalty ...

... unless you elect the Monarch. (Grin) AS's suggestion of a ceremonial presidency seems to me a reasonable alternative.

BTW, I don't buy the Royal = tradition = continuity = tourism line. No shortage of visitors or lack of history at Versailles despite the fact that the French finally told monarchy to make itself scarce a century and a quarter ago.

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

10. Since the monarch is little more than a walking, talking mannequin

used for state ceremonial and to rubber stamp legislation why do we not just ditch the ludicrously expensive House of Windsor and get those clever Japanese to make us a robotic replacement. Then only thing we would have to worry about is how often to replace the batteries.

[fedsron2us]

9. Why do Charles and Camilla not piss off to Las Vegas

and get hitched in a Presley chapel by an Elvis lookalike. I am sure from the interest shown on DU the Americans would love it. It might also give us in the UK a moments peace. At the moment I have to run screaming from the room every time the subject comes on the TV otherwise I would be instantly struck dead by the tedium of the whole affair.