Don't care what you say about ERII. She's OK

[canetoad]

The Queen condemns ‘really irritating’ world leaders for snubbing Glasgow climate talks

London: The Queen has been caught on camera expressing annoyance with “irritating” world leaders who won’t attend next month’s crunch climate summit in Glasgow.

The 95-year-old monarch, who has studiously avoided wading into contentious political matters during her reign, shared the unguarded views about COP26 during a conversation with Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Welsh politician Elin Jones.

Video and audio of the exchange shows the Queen revealing her displeasure that some world leaders are yet to confirm their attendance at the Glasgow talks scheduled to begin on November 1. The Queen’s spray will feature on the front page of most British newspapers on Friday.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday afternoon that he would be attending the summit, after earlier floating the possibility that he may not be able to go.

Morrison said he was looking forward to attending the important event. [*yeah, I bet, you arse-licking, polluting, fundy weirdo]

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/the-queen-condemns-really-irritating-world-leaders-for-snubbing-glasgow-climate-talks-20211015-p5908k.html

*My comment.

[niyad]

1. Thank you.

[Emrys]

2. Really irritating ...

Queen secretly lobbied Scottish ministers for climate law exemption

Monarch used secretive procedure to become only person in country not bound by a green energy rule

The Queen’s lawyers secretly lobbied Scottish ministers to change a draft law to exempt her private land from a major initiative to cut carbon emissions, documents reveal.

The exemption means the Queen, one of the largest landowners in Scotland, is the only person in the country not required to facilitate the construction of pipelines to heat buildings using renewable energy.

Her lawyers secured the dispensation from Scotland’s government five months ago by exploiting an obscure parliamentary procedure known as Queen’s consent, which gives the monarch advance sight of legislation.
...
In a series of reports into Queen’s consent in recent months, the Guardian revealed how the Queen repeatedly used her privileged access to draft laws to lobby ministers to change UK legislation to benefit her private interests or reflect her opinions between the late 1960s and the 1980s.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/28/queen-secretly-lobbied-scottish-ministers-climate-law-exemption

[canetoad]

3. That's interesting.

How do you feel about this?

[Emrys]

4. On the specifics of the case the Guardian outlines, I'm not surprised.

Over the last year or so, much has started to come out about how legislation, both in the UK as a whole and in devolved Scotland, that has an impact on the Crown's interests has been influenced by the privilege of Queen's Consent (not to be confused with Royal Assent, which is basically a rubberstamp process near the end of the process of passing laws), as the first link in the Guardian snippet I posted outlines.

The Crown is a big business and a major landowner, with massive investments, some of them in offshore tax havens, ironically to avoid tax liabilities. It's no surprise it takes advantage of its privilege to guard what it sees as its interests. Take a look at any of the royal websites and you'll see a lot of greenwash that wouldn't be out of place on any corporate website.

As for the royal family itself, I'm not in favour of the outmoded and bloated institution, which is deeply conservative despite the occasional populist rhetoric. I suspect when Elizabeth is no longer queen, there'll be moves to downsize it radically, and this may chime with the desire of some of the younger royals to live a more "normal" (though no doubt still very highly privileged) life.

I'm in Scotland. If and when we vote for independence, I expect another referendum will take place to shape the new Scottish state's constitution, and one key question will be the relationship with the Crown.