Prince Philip

[anneasquith]

admitted to hospital, bbc1 news.

[chrissa1]

Oliver Cromwell tried it and it didn't work, did it?

[mikey4444]

Sqad...what a nice thing to say !

Good morning, by the way. Some of us have been up for ages you know !

[LazyGun]

I am a republican. I do believe that abolishing the monarchy would save us money, and remove one of the major bulwarks of privilege and elitism. I do not believe that it would materially affect tourism in this country - The stately homes, London, beautiful countryside would all remain without a living monarchy.

Some say an elected President would cost us as much - how do you figure that? I see no reason at all why that should be.

Great swathes of the countryside, currently held as royal estates, returned to the exchequer.

The idea that someone is deemed superior or "royal" or automatically deserving of deference and respect, simply through an accident of birth, offends the egalitarian in me.

And there are people out there, campaigning. Fact is though - its not a big issue for the public as a whole. Does that mean you just give up though? No, it does not.

http://www.republic.org.uk/

Saying all that - one cannot deny that ER knows her duty, and Phillip is a seemingly endless source of humour. Its the rest of the family I have problems with..them and all their entourage and hangers-on.

[Sqad]

;-)

[anneasquith]

just a point,,,,,,because some abers do not want the royal family, in no way does it mean we do not wish a 91year old a speedy recovery.

[jno]

mikey, I only agree with myself reluctantly on this one, mainly because I don't much like Charles; but he'll be jno jnr's worry, not mine. Meantime, the royals work hard for a modest sum, and did their bit during the war. No surprise that there is - at the moment - no great public appetite to remove them.

[Baldric]

So, you want to get rid of an unelected head of State and replace her with what I presume would be an Elected head of State do you?

Looking towards Downing Street, we don't exactly have a great track record in that department, do we?

[mikey4444]

But baldric...if we had an unelected Government, instead of our present democratic system, we might still have Harold Wilson's son, or Edward Heaths nephew in power ! Democracy has its flaws and having a Prime Minister that you don't like and didn't vote for is one of them but that is how it works.

Every few years we all get the chance to make a change with our vote. Wonderful though Liz has been, we still don't have any choice whatsoever in who will come next, and next, and next, etc.

[mushroom25]

//we still don't have any choice whatsoever in who will come next, and next, and next, etc.//

and while we're on the subject, when is the country going to get its first black monarch? (and for the pedantic amongst you, Queen Charlotte doesn't count as she was a consort, not a monarch).

[mikey4444]

Well, Harry has had some interesting girlfriends recently !

[mikey4444]

And he is only a minibus crash away from the Throne.

[anneasquith]

a black monarch, we cant even have a catholic one !!!!!!!!

[jno]

if Charlotte had black ancestors, so does Elizabeth.

Philippa of Hainault might have had, too.

[craft1948]

Why should we have a black monarch.............is it to fill a quota?

[Khandro]

What about a black handicapped monarch?

[daffy654]

anneasquith, what the heck has skin colour got to do with religion? You can have CofE black folks you know.

[jno]

I think it would be a nice gesture towards the LGBT community if the next monarch were to be a lesbian.

This may not happen, however.

[ummmm]

You never know what goes on behind closed doors, jno...

[jackthehat]

Unfortunately, under current proposals she wouldn't be able to get married in either St. Paul's, or Westminster Abbey, though, jno.

Which is the Registry Office closest to Buckingham Palace, and will it be big enough to seat all those foreign dignitaries? :o)

[mushroom25]

just to be pedantic JNO - you've missed a letter off your description of the "community" - it's LGBTI.