The Royal Family, just what exactly are they for

[Saracen]

Not Lab + Tory?

Maybe we should have Lab+Tory+lib dem

"Good point" back at you.

Yeah, true .... if they could work together. My bet is that Labour and LD are closer natural bed-fellows than Tory and LD .... by a country mile.

If we define a coalition as the grouping that reflect a consensus of public opinion as reflected by votes, rather than a distinctly distorted representation of that as given by first past the post, then I guess the coalition that governed would be the first blend of parties that give an overall majority. It Lab+Tory could be formed, then fine. If not, Lab + LD. If not, as per 2010, Tory + LD.

But the system, in '97 and previous years, didn't permit that possibility because FPTP gave Labour a majority of seats, though demonstrably, not of votes. Not by a long way.

All of which leads back to my point - it was the system that put Blair in power, not the people's votes. If it was the latter, we'd have either had a coalition in 79, and 97, or a minority Tory (79) or Labour (97) government, not a one-party government with a large-ish (79) or huge (97) majority.

Oh, and I'm not suggesting that I support PR (or that I don't). Just that "the nation voted for Blair", as some type of president, is a bit misleading.

[Kata]

http://youtu.be/bhyYgnhhKFw

A short clip explaining the profit that the Royal Family generate, meaning that you British tax payers all pay sliiiiightly less tax than you would without them.

[Biscuit]

http://youtu.be/bhyYgnhhKFw

A short clip explaining the profit that the Royal Family generate, meaning that you British tax payers all pay sliiiiightly less tax than you would without them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2IO5...watch_response

[petercook7]

http://youtu.be/bhyYgnhhKFw

A short clip explaining the profit that the Royal Family generate, meaning that you British tax payers all pay sliiiiightly less tax than you would without them.

People dont come to see the queen they come to see the history, just like the the tourists that go to France to see the old royal buildings. We dont need the Queen, we just need to look after the buildings. My vote is to remove those that profited from slave labour and illegal means by today standards.

[TheAnimus]

My vote is to remove those that profited from slave labour and illegal means by today standards.

So thats everyone then. As a nation we greatly profited from our exploits around the world, hell The East India company brought in so much revenue.

So much of our civil engineering of the time was paid for by our exploits of the empire.

[kalniel]

My vote is to remove those that profited from slave labour and illegal means by today standards.

So with a country now empty of Brits and Europeans we'd need to bring in lots of Middle East immigrants

[petercook7]

So with a country now empty of Brits and Europeans we'd need to bring in lots of Middle East immigrants

They were just as bad.

[melon]

People dont come to see the queen they come to see the history, just like the the tourists that go to France to see the old royal buildings. We dont need the Queen, we just need to look after the buildings. My vote is to remove those that profited from slave labour and illegal means by today standards.

Good point .

If people dont know who Paul McCartney is then what hope have they of knowing about someone named after even less popular group that the Beatles ?

m

[Zak33]

what does the Queen offer?

well... lets put this into context: When she came to the throne, Winston Churchill was her first Prime Minister. Let that sink in... Churchill......

OK, she was a young lady, and he an old boy, but the benefit of having Her Maj sitting there all this time is vast vast experience. I believe it would be naive to believe that she doesn't put some sway upon the PM's, who were, on the whole, wise people. OK you might not have liked them.. but they DID get to power and wisdom, the power to learn from mistakes is part of that.

And our Queen, sat with them, and still sits with them. And in recent times, they've been to see her on a clockwork basis to ask advice and to seek her Counsel

Check out this list... she's been their Queen.

Sir Winston Churchill 1952–1955
Sir Anthony Eden 1955–1957
Harold Macmillan 1957–1963
Sir Alec Douglas-Home 1963–1964
Harold Wilson 1964–1970
Edward Heath 1970–1974
Harold Wilson 1974–1976
James Callaghan 1976–1979
Margaret Thatcher 1979–1990
John Major 1990–1997
Tony Blair 1997–2007
Gordon Brown 2007–2010
David Cameron 2010–present

If we look at that list, we can't help but wonder just where we might be without her.

Me... I'm happy having her sat there. William and Harry will do a cracking job too. It's just Chuck who worries me.. and I think he prolly worries his mum, hence her renewed commitment.