Say what you will about the British royal family,....

[RandySF]

But they do their part and some member gave their lives for their country. Some members of the Windsor family were killed during World War II. As a young lady, Queen Elizabeth work on the assembly line building military vehicles. Andrew flew helicopter missions over the Falklands (and yes, it was an especially stupid war) and Harry tried to get transferred to Iraq. Recently, he went on an expedition with wounded Afghanistan war vets. I'm not a royal fanatic, I don't understand how they continue to live in such opulence or why they remain so popular, but I will never doubt their patriotism.

[Lucian]

1. Harry seems to be continuing the work of his mother.

He's visited villages in Lesotho where AIDS is affecting many of the villagers and he's volunteered there and helped them out on numerous occasions.

Aside from his partying days, he seems to be a good, decent person.

[WillowTree]

5. William, too. Spent much of a year working in impoverished places in Chile, I think.

I'm also somewhat enamoured of the fact that he and his bride will not be living in a palace as they start their marriage. He's rented what's purported to be a reasonably unassuming house in the town where he's stationed in the British Air Force and, though I think it's safe to assume that security will be provided, they will not have a staff at home, but will do their own cooking, cleaning and laundry. That's not likely to last forever, of course, but I think it's admirable that they're striving to live as "normally" as their position will allow.

Honestly, both of Diana's boys seem to be pretty decent young men IMO.

[calimary]

6. I like that they do their own grocery shopping. Frickin GHWB didn't even know what a

bar code was during one of his grocery store campaign stops. And Wills actually spent the night on the streets of London, in a cardboard box, to get a better sense of what the homeless face every night. How can one not applaud this? Seems he'll be just that much better-equipped to be a leader of his people, even if only as a figurehead.

I saw something in the coverage that said the British royalty has always gravitated toward military service because they didn't want to be perceived as trying to get rich off their status as they could if they involved themselves in private industry or the marketplace. I really applaud that. Look at the corruption we've got here because of involvement in the all-holy fucking free market. And consider how many of those weasels on our side of the pond never served, never wore their country's uniform, never saw combat, never shed a drop of blood for their country, but don't hesitate to send everyone else's sons and daughters off to do the same. The last regime over here was crawling with them. INFESTED with chickenhawks.

[JSK]

26. They've already been living there

Without the benefit of marriage. :-)

[robinlynne]

8. the Nazi uniform he owns won't let me agree with you.

[Lucian]

10. That's why I added the...

"aside from his partying days." He did that during the time of his life when all he did was party.

[robinlynne]

11. I have partied much in my life. but no Nazi uniform.....My core values all stayed intact.

[Lucian]

15. People do stupid things when they're drunk.

I'm not apologizing for him, but I do know that I've done things when I was drunk that I would never dream of doing while I'm sober.

But who knows. He may well be a fascist Nazi idiot. :shrug:

[robinlynne]

16. I'll shut up now, but to own a nazi or kkk uniform you have to buy one.

I don't know a single human being who would do such a thing. And I know all kinds of people.
I just can't "forgive" that one. but that's me. he may be a nice boy, but not in my universe. that's the cool part of democracy.We can agree on some things and not others.

[truebrit71]

28. ..then you don;t understand British humour...there is nothing wrong with him wearing a nazi outfit..

..to a fancy-dress party...

You are taking the piss at a fancy-dress party, which means that wearing it meant he was belittling it...not revering it, approving of it or any of that other guff...

He was taking the piss...it obviously got lost in translation...but we Brits take the piss out of the Krauts and old Adolf all the time...

[robinlynne]

34. reallY???

[hifiguy]

42. That sounds right.

For pete's sake Monty Python did an entire sketch back in the early '70s with Cleese (in a Party uniform and Chaplin moustache) running for Parliament as "Mr. Hilter" and other Pythons as "Mr. Bimmler," "Ron Vibbentrop" and "that nice Mr. McGoering." I don't recall any eyebrows being raised at that.

[gateley]

2. Yeah, this generation especially is doing well. I can't imagine the hell of growing

up under the microscope -- I applaud them for their courage to be "real" people.

[JuniperLea]

3. Have you been watching "Royals Week" on PBS?

Good stuff. I've seen most of the footage before, but it's well worth a repeat.

[dipsydoodle]

4. They remain figureheads

both in the UK and in The Commonwealth which in aggregate has 3 billion citizens. That helps explain why despite the 30 or so here on DU who won't watch the wedding an anticipated 2 billion will do so.

I'm not saying I'll bother but if nothing else its worth seeing the inside of Westminster Abbey. Oh I forgot - you've got simply loads of 1000 year old churches with 1500 year old foundations over there. :sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

12. Church floors with DEAD PEOPLE IN THEM!

lol

Those floors should come with a warning!:

:rofl:

[dipsydoodle]

17. Yep

:rofl:

:hi:

[struggle4progress]

7. Well, I still want to see the Queen's birth certificate. Where is she really from?

She just doesn't sound American to me

[musette_sf]

9. Me, I like The Royle Family

[Zorra]

13. In France they call this "noblesse oblige". nt

[truebrit71]

29. In France they are jealous as hell because they executed theirs...

...and didn't have the foresight to realize how much moola they would generate for the country if they allowed them to hang around...

[Hannah Bell]

14. yeah, i was just reading up about this british royal, grandson of queen victoria & elizabeth's

first cousin twice removed, a prince of the blood royal, a duke, also grandfather of the king of sweden & brother of Canada's vice-regal consort during WWII:

Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1884-1954)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl-Eduard_Herzog_von_Sachsen-Coburg_und_Gotha


The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused Charles much concern...On 18 November 1918, the Workers' and Soldiers' Council of Gotha deposed the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Five days later, the Duke signed a declaration relinquishing his rights to the throne. Charles Edward, who by this time had been branded a traitor and effectively exiled from England, felt doubly betrayed, and as fearful as any Royal of the communist threat, he cast about for a new hero and found Adolf Hitler.<6> Now a private citizen, the deposed Duke became associated with various right-wing paramilitary and political organisations.<7> In 1932, he took part in the creation of the so-called Harzburg Front, through which German National People's Party became associated with the Nazi Party.

Charles Edward He joined the Nazi Party in 1935 and became a member of the SA (or Brownshirts), rising to the rank of Obergruppenführer. He also served as a member of the Reichstag representing the Nazi Party from 1937 to 1945 and as president of the German Red Cross from 1933 to 1945. During his years the German Red Cross became a part of the Nazi Organisation and no longer affiliated to the neutral International Red Cross. It is very unlikely that Charles Edward was ignorant of the concentration camps and medical experiments on mental disabled patients known as Action T4 as he first nominated Ernst-Robert Grawitz as head of operations for the German Red Cross 1937-1945 and then replaced him in 1945 with Karl Gebhardt, both of whom were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity after the war.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler sent the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Britain as president of the Anglo-German Friendship Society. His mission was to improve Anglo-German relations and to explore the possibility of a pact between the two countries. The Duke, who attended the funeral of George V in his SA uniform (his English ceremonial robes having been taken away from him), approached the new king, Edward VIII, about the possibility of a pact. Nothing came of these talks. Nonetheless, he continued to send Hitler encouraging reports about the strength of pro-German sentiment among the British aristocracy. After the abdication crisis, he played host to the former king and his wife, by then the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, during their official tour of Germany in 1937.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl-Eduard_Herzog_von_Sachsen-Coburg_und_Gotha


Love the royals!

[TicketyBoo]

19. The near-traitorous behavior

of the Duke of Windsor is well known.

The heroism of his brother, King George VI is also well known. England (and we) lucked out when Edward abdicated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_VI_of_the_United_Kingdom

[Hannah Bell]

22. this is the duke of windsor's cousin. there were a number of nazi royals.

european politics = family feud.

[geardaddy]

24. King George V

Otto von Bismark, Tsar Nicholas II were all cousins.

George and Nicky even looked alike



George V



Nicholas II

[truebrit71]

30. No kidding we did...

...and his taste in women was atrocious... ;-)

[geardaddy]

27. Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Was the family name until George V changed it to Windsor during WWI to due to anti-German backlashes then in Britain.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

36. House of Hanover as well.

The Mountbattens were the Battenbergs. One of Philip's ancestors, Louis Battenberg, was one of Lillie Langry's lovers.

We are lucky Edward VIII abdicated or we might still have Nazis. They admired Hitler and visited him. He might have quit his job because he saw war coming and didn't want to fight his cousiins. Wallis could have been a handy cover story.

George V said of his son Edward: "After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself within 12 months", and of Albert and Lilibet: "I pray to God my eldest son will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne."

He must have been very perceptive, since that is exactly what came to pass. Edward did not have children, Edward abdicated in less than a year, Albert became George VI and Lilibet became Elizabeth II.

An interesting and shocking read: The woman who says she should be Queen of England by birth, and not Elizabeth II:

http://we3.org/

[geardaddy]

40. Yep

Hannovers from George I through until Victoria when she married Prince Albert. Germans all around.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. I thought their early albums were the best.

Once they started having hits, it seemed like they were just going through the motions.

[mr blur]

20. Well....but, so what?

Their male family members traditionally go into the armed forces because they're too dumb to get a job.

Diana was a vacuous waste of space and her husband is an adulterous, arrogant, ignorant halfwit. Her children are just the latest in a long line of inbred parasites. Hopefully the death of their grandmother will bring about the end of the monarchy.

Oh, and they're not as popular as you might think.

[eShirl]

21. yeah... that "vacuous waste of space" Diana...

“HIV does not make people dangerous to know. You can shake their hands and give them hug heaven knows they need it."

[geardaddy]

23. Elizabeth didn't work on the assembly line

She was inducted into the Ambulance Corps.

[white_wolf]

25. This is a good thread. I learned a few tihngs about the royals I didn't know.

I always assumed they were completely out of touch with reality and their people. The fact that one of them slept in a good cardboard box on the streets to learn how the homeless have to live is a good sign, and perhaps it would benefit us and England if their real(and our) real politicians tried putting themselves in the shoes of the poor for a night.

[lumberjack_jeff]

31. Is it patriotism when it's your* country?

* in an ownership sense

[Wait Wut]

32. While I agree that they have done some good...

...my not too distant heritage makes me wish they'd all burn in hell. And, please...take that old whore, Thatcher, with you since my prayers of her slipping on the ice and cracking her demonic skull open on the steps of a church haven't materialized.

What can I say? I hold a grudge. The kids seem to be good kids, their mother's influence, obviously. I can probably guarantee that Hitler had some decent humans in his family tree. Doesn't make me wanna name my dog after any of them.

Okay...I'll shut up, now.

[CBGLuthier]

33. The Duke of Kent died when his plane crashed in Scotland

It was during WWII but not really caused by WWII.

But could they not do their part as regular citizens and get rid of all this royalty shit?

[Odin2005]

35. William and Harry seem like very good guys, but their dad is a luddite nitwit...

...with questionable ethics. I'm glad they are taking after their mom.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

37. Charles has two redeeming features IMO

He loves gardening and plants; and he rails against ugly modern architecture.

[Odin2005]

38. It's not hard to hate ugly modern architecture!

Everything went to pot after the brilliance of Art Deco, nothing but glass boxes, soulless concrete monstrosities, and inane postmodern pretentiousness.

[geardaddy]

41. He is also a fierce advocate for environmental concerns.

[defendandprotect]

39. Wouldn't it be patriotic to redistribute the wealth of the Royals back to the citizens?

How many hundreds of billions are the Royals worth --

Let see . . . back about 20 years ago they were estimating $50 billion --

something equal to the Vatican.

Who knows what it is now!