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I am British. I think QE2 made a good job out of this cursed tradition. Charles is a crank, but a crank that I happen to agree with, so fine. But I suspect t
by rwmj 1y ago
I am British. I think QE2 made a good job out of this cursed tradition. Charles is a crank, but a crank that I happen to agree with, so fine. But I suspect things are going to go off the rails with his failson William.
> I would much rather see the House of Lords reformed than the monarchy ended.
I'd be very careful about that one. Making it elected would be a terrible idea. There are some reforms that are possible, but they'd need to be very narrow (for example, limiting the size, and limiting tenure).
- terminalshort 1y agoWhat power does the king of England have to make things go off the rails?
- rwmj 1y agoHe doesn't have power in that sense, but if people lose "faith" in the aura of the monarchy then things could go south quickly.
- tim333 1y agoTechnically he's the head of the armed forces, and also can dissolve the government. In practice with a Hitler type he could dissolve the government and there'd be new elections. I guess if the people voted the same guy back that might be the end of it but it's a bit of a failsafe to this kind of thing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42943973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42943973
- exasperaited 1y ago> I think QE2 made a good job out of this cursed tradition. Right. So many of us are like this -- more Elizabethists than Royalists.
- devilbunny 1y agoAmerican and curious: why do you think William is a fail? Because Charles looked that way to us.
- rwmj 1y agoI don't disagree!
- tim333 1y agoBrit here - I think William is fine. I had doubts about Charles but he's doing ok. The worry is you get someone like the king of Thailand - https://www.tattoodo.com/articles/thailands-king-maha-vajiralongkorn-shows-off-his-sick-ink-13126 https://www.tattoodo.com/articles/thailands-king-maha-vajira... Or MBS.