Tag Archives | Monarchy

How Does the British Monarchy Get Away with It?

By on January 18, 2013 in News 41

“Power does what it wants. [...] Forget the politicians, they’re an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything.[...] they own this fucking place. It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in ‘the big club.’”

- George Carlin

Picture: Carfax2 (CC)

The absurd suggestion that the UK’s un-democratically selected Royal Family are nothing more than decoration has come crashing down as a court order forced the establishment to reveal how things really work behind the scenes. Despite Royalists constantly pushing the myth their monarch performs a ‘ceremonial role’, the truth is very different. In fact the approval of, Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness Prince Charles, has been required for at least 39 different bills suggested by elected members of Britain’s Houses of Parliament.… Read the rest

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Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Was Staffed By Unpaid Workers Who Slept Under London Bridge

By on June 15, 2012 in News 12

Talk about a symbolic event. The Guardian on the public pageant held earlier this month along the Thames River celebrating Britain’s Royal Family:

Long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.

Jobseekers were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government’s Work Programme. They had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant, had to change in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.

Close Protection UK confirmed that it was using up to 30 unpaid staff and 50 apprentices, who were paid £2.80 an hour, for the three-day event in London.

… Read the rest

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Off With Their Heads!

By on April 29, 2011 in News 47

Royal WeddingOur ancestors once cowered before royalty they believed were divinity made corporeal. These days, the notion of the monarchy is so outdated that supporters are reduced to citing tourist revenue in defense of a barbaric relic.

Other rationales — the divine right of kings, a repository of tradition, moral paragons, manifestation of the state, a (barely) living national symbol — have long been eroded by the tides of the history. So the last excuse for hereditary rule is that of the bean counters’ ledger: the cost-benefit analysis.

Kate and William’s royal nuptials will reportedly generate more than $1 billion in economic activity, supposedly a boon for commoners who each proffer but a few pence for the $60 million annual subsidy to the fusty Queen and her adulterous horse-faced brood. (Never mind that this sum excludes the costs of security, policing and vast estates and manors off-limits to the Exchequer; though at least a few years ago the royals were foiled in their attempt to pay for heating their drafty castles by tapping public monies meant for indigents.)

Perhaps it would be tacky to mention that the wedding pageant will not have “any sort of lasting effect” on the economy.… Read the rest

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