I'm not Prince Charles' biggest fan, as most of you will know, but after reading this, I'm very glad that I don't have to live in his Duchy. I thought you might like to read it too. Far too much privilege, far too little accountability or democracy. My thanks to the author of Cornish Republican for bringing it to my attention.
For the information of anyone who is remotely interested, Kate Middleton wore a pair of earrings to go to the kirk on Christmas day. They were a present from her husband, William, and according to AOL News, they cost £1,900. I wonder how many of his colleagues in Search and Rescue, Wales, were able to spend that much money on their wives... or come to that, how AOL News found out how much he spent on her...
Talking of royalty, you have to hand it to Phil. He certainly knows how to enjoy himself. He got out of hospital this morning, and although we only have the BBC reporter's word for it, he was told to rest for some time. But instead the old goat was out shooting defenceless birds this afternoon. Whatever you think of that (and I take a dim view of it), you have to laugh at the Telegraph's reporting: "Dressed smartly in a blue shirt with a green patterned tie and grey jacket, he sat in the passenger seat of a blue Range Rover for the 60 mile, one hour 13 minute journey."!!!!!!!! Goodness. He was dressed smartly, was he? How else was he going to be dressed? With his money he's hardly likely to look like he fell out of a bin, is he? Oh yeah...and the journey was 1 hour and 13 minutes? Bang on.
Sinead O'Connor latest marriage lasted 16 days... that's a record, even by her standards.
Alex Salmond has gone and got himself voted Briton of the Year. He is reported delighted! Oh the irony.
Those who predicted that Scots looking for cheap, cheap booze would head over the border to England for their Diamond White cider and offers of '3 for the price of 2', were a wee bit previous in their predictions. Cameron has just announced a similar scheme of minimum pricing for his country. It had to come. Chief medical officers in all parts of the UK have been advising it for a long time. It's not perfect, and i don't think it's the only solution, but it may help a little.
I heard that Sinaed found her new/ ex husband while asking for a sex starved bloke on twitter. He looked a bit weedy. If I knew her barrier was so low I'd have got a twitter account, whatever that is, and chanced my arm. She's quite nice with the baldy heed and tattoos ;)
ReplyDeleteYes, Monty. I believe that's right... she must be worth a few quid, huh, so there'd have been a settlement.
ReplyDeleteThey probably agreed a pre nup tris.
ReplyDeleteShe wouldn't have to cough up any cash in exchange for him getting bragging rights in The Sun etc.
"My hot sessions with 80's pop idol" ( Mirror/ Sun et al)
" Sizzling nights with Slapheid Sinaed" ( Daily Rangers)
"Sinaed smokes cigarettes" (NNS)
Ah Monty, you've looked into this stuff, I see.
ReplyDeleteI just can't wait for the Reign of Good King Charles to start. I do hope that he intends to run the entire country like that. Especially Scotland, we should be a republic within a year! I know Alex likes the royals (God knows why) but if he got rid of them he could be our first President, so wht you gain on the swings etc
ReplyDeleteMunguin,
ReplyDeleteI believe AS is a realist and is not a firm supporter of the crown. He understands that there are huge numbers of Scots who are loyal to the crown and to allay their fears he has said that the crown will continue after independence; unless the Scots want a referendum on the crown post-independence.
Personally, I have been a firm republican ever since the queen visited Dundee in the late 60s(?) and we school children had to wait for a couple of hours at the Kingsway while she serenely passed. I was 'belted' by my teacher afterwards for giving the queen the 'V' sign. My teacher refused to believe that it was the victory sign; teachers were not as stupid as I thought.
There is an important precedent here when the queen passes away. Will Charles come to Scotland to be crowned King of Scots because the Stone of Destiny is here and so are the regalia, or will the UK government insist [if we are still in the union] that the regalia and the 'stone' come down to London to pay homage?
I cannot believe that the newspapers didn't run the simple headline.
ReplyDelete"90 Year Old Man Taken to Hospital After Heart Pains"
then later
"90 Year Old Man Discharged from Hospital 3 Days After Stent Inserted--Says He is OK"
Job done and a few thousand trees saved.
But we had to have that obnoxious, sycophant Nicholas Witchell, who the royals cannot stand, on our bloody TV screen every 15 minutes.
Made me watch the news on Russia Today and Al Jazeera
The way all these knobheads keep trying to interfere in the peoples right to have quiet drink is pi''ing me off.
ReplyDeleteIn the end the illegal production,transportation and sale of alcohol will just increase(Er! whisky galore )
And it will get massive support from all sections of society in the UK.(just a harmless wee dram after all)
Its a case of the interfering politicians vs the people well i know who will win that one in the end the bitter deselected politician end.
fecking noseybody wangers
Yes, Munguin, nothing like a man who lives in Edwardian England and has a servant to squeeze his toothpaste to encourage modern Scots that this antiquated system of fawning and sycophancy is just not quite the job.
ReplyDeleteBut the royals seems to instil come sort of dewy eyed subservience in people who like bowing a scraping and thinking that others are better than them.
Hopefully, as a separate country we would be like Canada, Australia, etc, and not have to pay for them.
Gedguy, I can't for the life of me understand why people would be "loyal" to someone they have never met, and if they did on relatively equal terms (like that could ever happen) wouldn't like.
ReplyDeleteI once got the chance to go to a garden party at Holyrood. We'd been much involved with the Prince's trust (an excellent organisation) and this was the outcome. I thought it would be interesting to discuss some of the issues with him.
But we were told what we could wear, how we should address his royal highness, what we were allowed to say, etc. If, the stuff we got through the post indicated, his royal highness honours you with a word, you should bow you head, call him YRH,, and then Sir...
Gentlemen must wear lounge suits blahde blahde blah.... Shoes should be... blah
It makes my flesh creep to think of all these people WE PAY running around after this idiot who thinks he's something special.
Loyal? Me? Not even in the slightest bit. Not ever.
You never know what Alex feels. He keeps his thoughts on subjects like this to himself. Admirable, because we don't need to hear what politicians feel about everything. Who cares?
You may be right though. The FM may know that there are people who would die for their sovereign here, who would happy vote for the end of Cameron but NEVER for independence if it meant goodbye to HM.
Wolfie: it's quiet; no news.
ReplyDeleteSo some old bloke in Papworth getting a special treatment in an NHS hospital was news.
I see they took him by helicopter. I wonder if that's standard service for a nonogenarian in that part of England?
I'm glad that Kim's funeral was happening today. It was a lot more interesting than the regular updates on the Queen's husband's health.
Niko: Don't worry. It won't affect you. You only drink the best.
ReplyDeleteBesides, you're rich. What are you worried about.
You got any ideas about how we deal with 14 year olds presenting at hospital with signs of liver damage due to alcohol abuse?
"But we had to have that obnoxious, sycophant Nicholas Witchell, who the royals cannot stand, on our bloody TV screen every 15 minutes."
ReplyDeleteLupus, it's a good feeling when one finds one of like mind!
I think I read that the agreement is that the Stone must be returned to the Abbey for coronations. Since King Edward's Chair was specially built for the stone, it's probably top heavy without it. ;-)
ReplyDeleteBut please let the English transport it. You guys broke it when you spirited it away in 1950, and returned it to Scotland in two pieces. The English on the other hand managed to get it back to you in one (repaired) piece in 1996. :-)
If it is the original one. The made several copies when it was hidden in Scotland and they admit to being confused which was which.
ReplyDeleteWould it be a glorious end to the English Raj if the stone they are using is just a lump of old sandstone?
Tris
ReplyDeleteThe funeral of King Kim the second was a hoot.
Pure cabaret and all that greetin.
Lupus I.: I had no idea there was possible confusion about the Stone.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, it doesn't say a lot about how careful you Scots are about taking care of your own stuff....to make copies and then forget exactly which was the original.
Good copies though I'd say. ;-)
Danny
ReplyDeleteI think it was closer to Max Sennett comedy than a pro heist.
That doesn't say much for the Fuzz who had not a feckin clue, who, when (ish), how and why(ish).
Danny,
ReplyDeleteIf you think that the English are better at looking after other peoples' treasures maybe they should build something to house all their stolen treasures. Oh, they have, it's the British Museum. Hand back the Elgin marbles and all the other stuff that you've stolen because you don't have the moral right [apart from might] to steal something because you think that you can look after it better than the owners. That's a silly comment, try that out on any judge and see what he says.
Gedeguy
ReplyDeleteI think Danny was being ironic there about the broken lump.
Iknow, I always thought that our North American cousins (sub 49th sub branch) were not really into irony but, Danny obviously is.
Now the Dutch, Swiss and Danes haven't a clue about irony.
The Belgians on the other hand are total surrealists. I suppose you would have to be to live in Belgium.
Yes Gedguy, Lupus is right - heavily into irony here, with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Thus the winking emoticon after many of my messages.
ReplyDeleteI was toying with the idea of countering that I was only saying that the English were good at safely transporting the objects they've stolen from other countries. Then it occurred to me that one of the ships transporting the marbles was sunk. So the English aren't even really that good at caring of their stolen goods.
DEanny,
ReplyDeleteYou have my most humblest of apologies and I shall look forward to your 'irony' again.
Gedguy....absolutely no apologies necessary. The printed word alone is a very poor vehicle for conveying irony. Even the addition of emoticons cannot fully clarify the intent.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your comments on the blog.
Ah OR...Wasn't it Charlie Rothsay who called him a "ghastly little man". Of course he would know all about ghastly little men!
ReplyDeleteYes Danny, Mr Hamilton (who I understand is an occasional reader of this blog, and was kind enough once to highlight one of my comments on his own blog and make a post out of it: something of which I am most proud), did actually manage to break the stone on his heroic mission to bring it home to where it belongs. But doubtless when they stole it back, Westminster Abbey managed to stick it back together. That lot are well known for their sticking plaster solutions.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the hunchback of Stirling, one Mr Michael Forsyth, thought that he would be able to stem the growth of nationalism by returning the stone to Edinburgh, and so he did.
[You can see just how Mr Forsythe has his finger on the pulse of modern Scottish politics, and despite that, he speaks for it in the House of Lords (or in his case the house of doddering old out of touch farts).
True Wolfie. It may very well not be the right stone. Indeed they may have kept the real one, us Scots not being thought fit to have it back. They may have sent us an old piece of sandstone. It was the Tories what done it... so anything is possible. Come to that Labour are no better! And Nick Clegg! As trustworthy as...erm.............
ReplyDeleteLOL Wolfie. It was the kind of stuff that Hollywood "B" movie directors imagine a Communist dictator's funeral to be. And all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, closely filmed by soldiers... just to make sure that no one wasn't miserable enough.
ReplyDeleteI read that the bloke never defecated... If that's true isn't it amazing that he lasted into his late 60s... it would also explain why he was so full of it.
The real one!
ReplyDeleteAh yes. I should warn you all that Danny has a dry sense of humour. his fellow Americans may not be big on irony, but he practically invented the form.
ReplyDeleteHe is also invariably polite, as well as being a great admirer of Scotland.
So if you perceive something that he writes to be insulting, it's always best to reread it, with irony in the front of your mind...
M'lud, I was only stealing out of the looted shop so that I could give this bottled water a safer home.... M'lud....Erm Yeah!, that would work...
Ha ha, CH!
ReplyDeleteYes Tris, I recall Mr. Hamilton's article. You should indeed be proud.
ReplyDeleteAs for the unfortunate breakage of historical icons, the Americans have a historic bell they managed to crack. But the "Liberty Bell" is just all the more interesting for the crack.
That said, the bell was originally cast in London. And if the English had not sent us a defective bell in the first place, it probably wouldn't be cracked today. D**n English. ;-)
LOL LOL.
ReplyDeleteThey probably noticed how imperfect it was, and thought...Oh, that's no use, but it'll do for the Yanks! ;¬0
LOL Danny, You only recall it because of the fuss I made about it at the time...
ReplyDeleteAch,let's be honest guys,that cludgie stane they've got in Edinburgh is just a piece of red Perthshire building block that the monks at the Abbey of Scone fobbed the English army off with!
ReplyDeletep.s. The real Stone of Scone is probably hidden on Dunsinnan Hill!
ReplyDeleteHello pictish beastie. Thanks for joining us, welcome.
ReplyDeleteYou could well be right. The monks weren't daft (they were all educated and learned); the soldiers probably weren't!
Who knows where the real one is... Maybe I even used it as a conerstone for my rockery. :)