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To all Her Majesty's subjects, and to all who honor her, I extend my feliciations on this joyous anniversary of her coronation.
To all Britons, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and even Normans, I wish you all a pleasant and well earned hangover.
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On the sixtieth anniversary
...of the coronation of Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0-AIWg_fOE
God save our gracious Queen
Long live our noble Queen
God save the Queen
Send her victorious
Happy and glorious
Long to reign over us
God save the Queen
Love, Andrea Lena
Sorry but ...
... it's only the 59th anniversary of the coronation. It's not even the 60th anniversary of her accession - that, IIRC was sometime in February 1952 when I was in the 2nd form at grammar school. This is just a date plucked out of the air AFAIK with no particular significance
In fact not only did rain all over us yesterday but it pissed down at the coronation as well :) This is England after all and it always rains on Bank Holidays - it's a tradition.
Unfortunately, unlike you Americans, we have no say who our head of state is. The best thing the current incumbent can do is not die so her idiot son is kept from the job as long as possible.
Robi
You've a point...
I was over there for Her Majesty's Silver Jubilee... Part of the Review Fleet in Spithead. :-) We had lovely weather for three days... Then, the day of "practice" and the day of the review - it "spit" rain. Oh, the practice? We had to practice how to give three cheers for Her Majesty (you do it different over there).
We have less say, than we'd like, in selection of our head of state... And, there are some that seem to be doing their best to insure that we have even less say (Yes, I have heard that claim).
Annette
I've never understood...
...how you lot over the pond could have devised and refuse to reform such a ridiculously complicated system for choosing and electing your President. Or rather, electing a small group of people who claim they're going to vote on your behalf...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Actually...
The original plan for the "Electoral College" got side tracked early on by the political parties... And, has gotten further and further side tracked to this day.
As originally conceived, you were voting for someone you knew and who's opinion you respected... And HE (yes, at the time, it was only "HE" and others elected like him would get together and elect the President. The idea being (with some justification at the time) that the average voter (not all the population by any stretch) didn't have time to get together and discuss the candidates and the candidates didn't have the time to visit all the locals. (As I recall, each state decided how their electors were selected. In some, the legislatures appointed them... But, this bit could well be flawed. And, I don't have time to go do the research to make sure.)
While a local Doctor or Preacher or legislator or ... that you knew personally - or knew someone who knew was respected and had time to look at the various candidates, perhaps talk to them, and then make a reasoned judgement on who would be the best for the country.
Obviously, this is no longer how electors are selected and not how they vote.
The Electoral College was also a compromise in that it allowed slightly more representation for the smaller (less populous) states to help avoid the "tyranny of the majority"...
We'd seen what hereditary monarchies could produce... We had examples of other democratic societies (Specifically one Native American one - many ideas in our Constitution come from their "constitution").
In the Electoral College - today, Electors go there, pledged to vote for a single "slate" (Pres & VPres) on the first round of balloting. (If more than one round is needed, then they can vote as they desire... Though, since they're picked by their parties, very carefully, they'll likely continue to so vote.) Originally, they voted once, and the person with the majority was President, and the person with the second most votes was the Vice President... (Leading to Vice Presidents who had almost NOTHING to do other than occasionally presiding in the Senate and breaking ties there.) The parties changed this...
Annette
Not the anniversary?!?
Really? The whole thing is a con job? I thought for sure with all this pageantry they were celebrating on the correct date.
If they were able to choose any date at all, why didn't they choose sometime in the fall? From my limited experience in the UK over the years it seems to me you have lousy summers, but perfectly gorgeous fall weather (we shall never, ever speak of winter, ever).
For all your grumbling, I must say you do the tradition thing extremely well. Better than us, at least (although that's no high bar).
With any luck the idiot son will have the good sense to abdicate in favor of his son and somewhat fetching daughter-in-law. Chuck does seem like a bit of a doofus. I'm not sure the young one is any smarter, but at least he seems to understand the cult of celebrity better.
Anyway, for all your bah humbug I do hope you enjoyed the bank holiday, rain and all. :)
not as think as i smart i am
Hey Robi...
...come on, it's good for business and lots of people are enjoying it.
Apart from which I think it is good to have one person with some power (not much) who is not a politician.
As for the idiot son, he's the same age as I am, for heaven's sake (and I retired years ago). Poor bloke hasn't started his main job yet! I think he should pass the baton straight onto William.
Charlotte
Charlie's younger than I am ...
... but he's still a bit of a reactionary, pompous prat ;)
Well, I suppose as we live in a market society we have to take account of how much business the Windsors bring in but they're still the unacceptable peak of an entrenched class system as far as I'm concerned. The whole thing washes over me largely ignored. I'm a republican but not an active one. The nearest I get to royalty is cycling through the local aristo's front garden (it is several 100 acres and includes a public road) in the knowledge he inherited a fair chunk of my home county.
Fortunately, I don't live anywhere near London where most of it is happening but I quite like boats so I may have watched the flotilla had we been nearby. I was rather disappointed to see it seemed to be comprised mostly of rowing boats when I saw the photos in the paper today so I didn't miss much. Not noticed anything much where I live but I don't get out a lot. Ceremony bores me - I even drifted off when I got married and missed my wife's committing herself to 'love, honour and obey" which we'd asked the vicar to include as a bit of a joke and never thought he'd do. Needless to say the 'obey' bit has been ignored - or even reversed LOL
I'll never understand the adulation of the monarchy. My admiration is reserved for engineers, scientists and artists etc who actually do things that have and will affect my life.
Grumpy
Oddly...
Back when Blair was still in office people were talking about how great it'd be if we had an elected head of state... and how he'd be so great in the job...
I wonder why we want an elected head of state, I mean it's not like they could do as good a job as our current head of state. And they wouldn't work as much because they'd be paid less. The glamour would be gone too, who on earth could get excited about an elected head of state's children getting married - and crucially spend money while being excited.
As for Charles, could he really do a worse job than 99% of our politicians? And while I am biased I'd trust him over any of the idiot politicians I'm supposed to vote for. His Princes Trust makes a real difference to many people - including myself - how many politicians make that sort of difference? Well apart from getting the country into bigger debt by spending money we don't have on crap we don't need... and don't even get me started on Wind Power & Climate Change... :D
Oh yeah and our national anthem is a disgrace. Land of Hope and Glory is far superior.
LN
PS No insult intended, I happen to be a monarchist (that is someone who believes that returning this once great nation to a monarchy - as opposed to a democracy - wouldn't make it any worse and we could get rid of the self serving gits that currently rule us.
The Legendary Lost Ninja
I hope it's seen as funny..
I was traveling the day it all kicked off, and I was in a restaurant getting lunch.
So the TV behind the bar had the sound turned down, and I see thirty minutes of uninterrupted interviews/file footage of members of the royal family, but not the queen...
So I form the natural assumption she's finally shuffled off the mortal coil.
Made for a moment's confusion when I tried to speak of it later, that did.
!Clink! As glass is raised to her health and happiness.