Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

For Yi: This morning Prince Andrew apparently wanted to do another interview (?! ). Demonstrating they really don't breed that family for brains.

This afternoon it's been confirmed he's "stepping back" from royal duties.

[Valmy]

Personally I think that is a good thing. Mediocrity and a general lack of talent is pretty important for figurehead monarchs. It prevents them from ever being tempted to actually use their position to do anything, or from anybody else wanting them to use their position to do anything (which might be tempting when the politicians themselves are not exactly superstars). Somebody of actual talent or vision or ability would just be too troublesome as a modern royal, even as some side relative like Prince Andrew.

Whenever I hear Charles speak I am always struck by just how bland and average he is, perfect for his job.

However they also need to be free of controversy and scandals, on that note the Windsors might be less perfect.

[Sheilbh]

And here everyone thinks Charles is a bit too political and might break it all apart.

I don't know, I look at Ireland and Germany with their better recent Presidents (Higgins, Robinson, Gauck) and feel rather envious. They know their constitutional roles but are able to make a different type of contribution and also less limited by their class in their ability to represent the nation.

[Syt]

[Admiral Yi]

For Yi: This morning Prince Andrew apparently wanted to do another interview (?! ). Demonstrating they really don't breed that family for brains.

This afternoon it's been confirmed he's "stepping back" from royal duties.

If The Crown has any accuracy at all to it, the Royals don't get to make any decisions for themselves, so this would have to be a call by the stern men with very good posture.

I have vague memories of Andrew being pretty popular back in the day.  Around the time Charles kept falling off his polo pony Andrew looked very good by comparison.

I'm interested in how this story plays out because, as a I mentioned before one can't take the normal step any other public figure would take, i.e. resignation.  I suppose five hundred years ago Andrew would have been headed to a monastery.  If boning 17 year olds had been a thing five hundred years ago.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah. His PR guy resigned because Andrew insisted on doing the first interview. It feels like the first team have stepped in to try and start managing this.

He could resign his title, his place in the order of succession etc. But that's reserved for more serious issues, like marrying a Catholic.

He could also resign from all of his "roles" so UK trade representative, all of the universities he's Rector of, charities he's patron of - as it is he'll probably just suffer lots of organisations disassociating themselves from him.

But yeah it is interesting. I've no idea what happens.

[Sheilbh]

Incidentally, on debates I think we might have gone overboard on the whole TV Debate thing


I imagine Johnson and Corbyn will send deputies for at least some of them...

[Valmy]

I feel like that is an adequate number of instances Jo can get her message across.

I am not sure why the Parti Libéral du Canada was invited but it is nice to see the Commonwealth parties trying to help save the UK.

[Admiral Yi]

I can see the logic of limiting debates to the non-regional parties.  It's a debate over who gets to form the government.

[Valmy]

And here everyone thinks Charles is a bit too political and might break it all apart.

Ok that might be a problem. You want your royals not smart enough that they should have authority over anything, but also smart enough to know that they shouldn't. It is a balance. Once you get a royal stupid enough to not realize they shouldn't wield power and we have a problem.

Obviously the far more serious problem would be if Charles was a charismatic genius to go along with his elite education and people would actually prefer him running the country than Boris Johnson.

[Valmy]

I can see the logic of limiting debates to the non-regional parties.  It's a debate over who gets to form the government.

Well the SNP is one of the parties campaigning on a second referendum so on that point, at least, they might be involved in shaping UK policy. They might be part of a coalition, temporarily anyway, just to achieve that goal.

[Sheilbh]

I agree with Yi. All of those parties could form a coalition.

The last party who helped prop up a government is the DUP and they're not invited. And I for one would actually pay good money to watch Arlene Foster tear into Johnson

[Valmy]

That's true. A potential second referendum coalition could have a leader representing them.

[Iormlund]

In an only tangentially related incident, we saw today a practical example of what happens when Just in Time manufacturing is disrupted.

A fire seems to have wiped out Faurecia's dashboard painting lines for Nissan's and SEAT's plants in Barcelona. The latter had to send its workers home less than a shift and a half after, having run out of parts.

[Sheilbh]

That's true. A potential second referendum coalition could have a leader representing them.

They disagree on everything else - and they can't really necessarily work together or be seen to work together. The Lib Dems need to appeal to remainer Tories, if they go within ten feet of Corbyn that's them fucked.