Not a loyal follower of @BritishMonarchy? You missed The QUEEN*'s first Tweet Here it is: It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R. — BritishMonarchy (@BritishMonarchy) October 24, 2014 There's intense debate in some quarters as to whether Her Majesty pressed the button herself or not, with the Tweet …
The late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother had a Lockheed Dialog account way back in 1986-7. I bet she hardly ever logged in, though.
If Dialog means nothing to you, or maybe especially if it does, this youtube video created from a 1968 film is a gem.
We have a written constitution, unless your suggesting that the laws dating back the last 800 or so years aren't written.
What you presumably mean is that it's not codified as we don't have one document that says "THIS IS A CONSTITUTION AND YOU CAN'T CHANGE IT" instead relying on an evolving set of documents such as the parts of Manga Carta, the 1689 Bill of Rights, Act of Settlement which detail the changes in the constitutional relationship between everybody involved in a trail marked by a revolt here, and a glorious revolution there. The relationship continues to evolve and get tweaked because we still haven't got it right after a thousand years of effort.
(Incidentely, the concept that you could have a law that couldn't be altered for the benefit of whomever was in power at the time comes from the 1689 Bill of Rights, which has a number of extremely interesting clauses stating "[this act] shall stand remaine and be the Law of this Realme for ever", and a wonderful set of remedies saying that if anybody tries then the people of our happy realm are absolved of their allegiance etc. This is pertinent and ironic because it's one of the acts that such reformers want to repeal in favour or something else...)
There is some suggestion that our existing arrangements need updating, and most people would probably agree. Could we first dispense with the annual check of the parliament sellers performed since the start of the war against terrorists on 5.11.1605 when Mr Fawkes became the last person to enter parliament with honest intentions in the hope that somebody finishes the job in the future?
(For our American readers, Mr Fawkes's intention was to destroy parliament with gunpowder by packing the parliament cellars full of barrels of gunpowder. He failed in his attempt, and was duly sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered for his impertinence. To demonstrate that the English don't forgive or forget (or like terrorists very much) we burn ritually burn effigies of Mr Fawkes at the stake in every town in the country once a year on the 5th of November to accompany large displays of fireworks.)
There is no real HMQ because it's been fake (including by it's own rules) for a LOT longer than many people realise, definitely fake after Victoria because Albert couldn't breed (which made all the children illegitimate!), probably even further back too! Princess Diana was just used to get some pure royal Bloodline bred back in, then sacrificed.
Anyhow we don't need no warlords, Monarchs, Presidents, bloated Government or other gilded death mongers, drug dealing and pedo thugs to rule us; they are elite only in illusion, destruction, waste of lives, and waste of resources, forget honest virtue; that includes the 'Crown' demented fake religious cult warlords of the Vatican too!
The royal flag should be a skull and crossbones, as Elizabeth 1st effectively admitted.
Little old lady musters up courage to send he first tweet and straightaway gits like that Alex Hern are trolling her. Of course she might get into the swing of it. There would be a Twitter threat you would have to take seriously.
Down the police station.
Mr Hern "I got a death threat on Twitter."
Desk sergeant "Hmm, @BritishMonarchy. Yes, that looks genuine. Just come and wait in this safe little cell, Sir. We'll sort you out."
She has huge experience, and if somebody wanted an election for a democratic President, I would vote for her. Though I would feel guilty about lumbering an old lady with the job.
Sometimes, I don't think we realise how lucky we are, and the monarchies of northern Europe seem to work out pretty well. Britain is part of a group of political solutions that work out pretty well in the modern world. And the next couple of generations look pretty solid. It's the politicians we need to worry about. Some of them deserve the turbulent priest treatment, though it's probably a good thing that those days are over.
There's also only one Royal Air Force.
The Queen is head of state, public servants, servicemen, police etc owe allegiance to her - very useful in those "No Dave, I can't do that" moments.
Perhaps there is a method to get a president with similar experience and usefulness. However just append a few of the following names to the word President and see if you like the idea.
Assange
Blair
Brown
Thatcher
Murdoch
Benn
Farage
Clegg
Branson
Powell
Scargill
Etc
PS, "Only one Royal Air Force" - Thank God!
How about none of the above, just very lean government with lean local government, kind of like the Swiss and their Cantons, but even leaner.
A permanent centralised military is a dangerous thing and tends to get misused for poking it's nose in where it has no business being, at huge cost to productive people, like on the European continent, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Libya, and other parts of Asia and Africa; which were worse than a waste of money, because they increased UK defence and immigration costs.
The Swiss don't let their nominal air force get away with that wasteful stupidity; they have a militarily prepared population and long term defensive plans to FUBAR invasion, so less need for a separate military forces.
Royalists always suggest such things, while overlooking the fact that they're picking names they think the public will be repulsed by, while at the same time implying the public would vote for them.
And they seem perfectly happy to use this selection system for the government that runs the country, but not for someone who they claim is just there to cut ribbons and wear gloves to shake hands with the great unwashed.
The republics of northern Europe also work out pretty well.
Being a monarch basically requires keeping your mouth shut, which the Queen is very good at. Her big-eared son, not so much. That is going to be interesting. I suspect the monarchists are praying for him to die before the old lady.
"The Queen
The Royal Navy
The City
You all know which one."
Elton John, ok you got me there, and New York City (as I'm in the eastern US). (Hint: "the City" generally refers to the largest city in the area, I can see how that would get confusing for England since there's really only one large city.) :)
Gee, and since the late seventies I've been under the (mis)apprehension that the UK (and some of the Commonwealth nations) had a BritishBollocky. Shouldn't trust the Sex Pistols to teach one constitutional theory, I guess ... (I suppose that would mean we now had Bollock Butterflies ... you just can't win!!!)
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