The Royal Baby Thread

[fhdz]

I've gone Red like Seedy. I didn't leave capitalism; capitalism left me.

You know it, Comrade Fahdiz. It's time to put your smithy interests to work, and swing that hammer in the name of the industrial proletariat to forge a sickle of unity for all those exploited to increase shareholder value.

[fhdz]

Barf

[CountDeMoney]

Barf

Yes, the sound of a healthy 401k.

[Sheilbh]

I thought this was true, by Jack of Kent (liberal legal blogger, and a republican) on twitter earlier 'It is strange, but William and Kate do come across as far more "normal" than the political class we would have in their place in a republic. Whether that is a comment about how normal the royals are becoming, or how abnormal our political class is, I don't know.'

[jimmy olsen]

The Brits are a stubborn and illogical folk.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18237280

[Neil]

Monarchy is civilization Tim.  Quit being a goof.

[Josquius]

Does anyone know exactly what the onion is pastiching in its reporting?
The mouth of the demon looks odd.

Damn I am a sucker for babies now.  D'awwwwww

But seriously no bank holiday?  What a rip-off.

If they did that then we'd have to have a bank holiday for its first word, its first step, its first solid food, etc... etc....
And nobody wants that.

[derspiess]

Monarchy is civilization Tim.  Quit being a goof.

Monarchies are awesome.  They have no place in the US of course, but otherwise I'm all for them.  Every European country should keep or restore theirs

[Valmy]

The Brits are a stubborn and illogical folk.

True.  It is part of their charm.  But think about it, getting rid of the Monarchy would be ridiculously politically complicated and potentially culturally traumatising while keeping it is easy.  Is it stubborn and illogical to not want go through all that for no substantial gain?

[Razgovory]

I liked the way that The Guardian treated the story in their online version. They have loads of articles and pontifications about the new baby, but, if you want you can press a little button marked "republican" and all the royal news will go away, to get it back press "royalist" 

I love the Guardian.

I loathe the guardian. Leftist wankers.

I've gone Red like Seedy. I didn't leave capitalism; capitalism left me.

You really fluctuate wildly.  I keep the same opinion in spite of the march of time or inclusion of new information.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I thought this was true, by Jack of Kent (liberal legal blogger, and a republican) on twitter earlier 'It is strange, but William and Kate do come across as far more "normal" than the political class we would have in their place in a republic. Whether that is a comment about how normal the royals are becoming, or how abnormal our political class is, I don't know.'

I also agree with him.

Republicanism is on the back foot here in the UK because of it. Anyone who thinks removing the monarchy is a priority when our political class are such a bunch of cloned tools is unlikely to get much support right now.

[jimmy olsen]

I thought this was true, by Jack of Kent (liberal legal blogger, and a republican) on twitter earlier 'It is strange, but William and Kate do come across as far more "normal" than the political class we would have in their place in a republic. Whether that is a comment about how normal the royals are becoming, or how abnormal our political class is, I don't know.'

I also agree with him.

Republicanism is on the back foot here in the UK because of it. Anyone who thinks removing the monarchy is a priority when our political class are such a bunch of cloned tools is unlikely to get much support right now.

It's rather amazing. The British from two hundred years ago would be amazed.

[Gups]

The Brits are a stubborn and illogical folk.

True.  It is part of their charm.  But think about it, getting rid of the Monarchy would be ridiculously politically complicated and potentially culturally traumatising while keeping it is easy.  Is it stubborn and illogical to not want go through all that for no substantial gain?

Exactly right. If asked in a poll, I'd choose to keep the monarchy. But not because I love the Royals (I couldn't give a toss one way or t'other) but because getting rid of the institution would paralyse our polity for at least half a decade. It just isn't broken enough to warrant fixing.

[Gups]

I thought this was true, by Jack of Kent (liberal legal blogger, and a republican) on twitter earlier 'It is strange, but William and Kate do come across as far more "normal" than the political class we would have in their place in a republic. Whether that is a comment about how normal the royals are becoming, or how abnormal our political class is, I don't know.'

I also agree with him.

Republicanism is on the back foot here in the UK because of it. Anyone who thinks removing the monarchy is a priority when our political class are such a bunch of cloned tools is unlikely to get much support right now.

It's rather amazing. The British from two hundred years ago would be amazed.

It's not at all amazing if you could be bothered to think about what powers a British monarch had in Paine's time and what she has now.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The Brits are a stubborn and illogical folk.

True.  It is part of their charm.  But think about it, getting rid of the Monarchy would be ridiculously politically complicated and potentially culturally traumatising while keeping it is easy.  Is it stubborn and illogical to not want go through all that for no substantial gain?

Exactly right. If asked in a poll, I'd choose to keep the monarchy. But not because I love the Royals (I couldn't give a toss one way or t'other) but because getting rid of the institution would paralyse our polity for at least half a decade. It just isn't broken enough to warrant fixing.

An entire parliament (at least) would be involved and even after the work was done there would be no guarantee of success. All that to change a system that has worked since 1688 (the possible exception being the Crown's behaviour towards the colonists in America). It is just not worth it.........and I think that the middle 50% or so of the population who are neither diehard republicans or royalists can see this quite clearly.