Republicanism

Dunno, nag, but I kind of reckon they'd have to if the monarch threatened the authority of parliament. Only one way to find out: bring it on, as when says.

Look what happened to Charles I.

I'm back again after a holiday - away from the internet as well. I have always been a republican as my mother was one. Before we even knew the word. Back in the 50s my mother continued her gardening when all the street passed by on their way to see the queen who drove past the top of the road.
I was too young to fully understand and didn't like having a mother who behaved differently.

I began to feel sickened by it all at Diana's funeral and knew so many people who said the same, but we were ignored by the media who had a field day and filled their newspapers and TV programmes without having much work to do.

Things haven't changed much and as long as she lives they won't. She will probably out live us all.
Nice to be back.....

Nice to have you back charlotta

Hope you had a nice holiday.

Hi, Charlotta! Have you been somewhere lovely?

I was visiting my brother in Germany and we stayed in Potsdam, near Berlin. This is the seat of the German royal family and we visited an exhibition about Friedrich II in the castle he built in 1756. Potsdam is a lovely city - was in East Germany till 1989. It is in the river Havel lakes and is surrounded by castles which we know from Grimms Fairy tales! The Communists didn't fell trees either so all over there are woods and avenues of tall ancient trees.

You see few British tourists but English is spoken. It is really a pity that due to the anti German feelings still propagated by the cheap press that the Brits don't know what a beautiful country Germany is. Now worse due to them being in the semi final at football.
Glad to be back on GN.

Germany is truly beautiful, Charlotta. We've only visited a couple of times, but will be returning this year for a few days. The first time we went, our tour-bus driver's sat-nav let him down rather! We were in the Black Forest and ended up on a logging track, heading upwards through hills (at night-time) - taking very tight corners here and there. He managed to turn the bus at the top of a hill, and on heading down again, met a tiny Fiat - the look on that driver's face will stay with me for a long time.....horrified fascination may describe it - a large blue bus with white-faced, grey-headed passengers staring out...!

I have only visited a tiny part of Germany but liked what i saw.. only know a few German people..and they are lovely! Wnt to see Democracy last night at the Old Vic..very interesting piece about an aspect of recent German history.

greenmoss What happened?!

Was the little fiat alright?

Haven't been back to Germany since DFiL died there many years ago. (Army again, but he stayed on with his German partner)

We were due to go to a reunion in Reichenhalle last month, but couldn't make it, so must ho back soon, after easing these posts!

Over 50 years ago, I went with a group of students to visit our equivalents at Gottingen University and we had a fine time! Enjoyed a visit to the local brewery where I acquired a taste for beer. Visit to Wolfsburg where they made VW Beetles - I acquired a liking for them too! And the woods around Hamelin - very evocative of Grimms' Tales - the brothers were profs at Gottingen. We went to have a look at the Iron Curtain - a wide ploughed strip as far as the eye could see, and on all the way to the coast - with watch towers at regular intervals. We could almost see the whites of the armed guards' eyes. And we picked ripe cherries from the trees growing within sight of the Soviet bloc. The countryside was beautiful and peaceful - such a shame about that scar running through it, now just a memory.

Sorry, couldn't find the umlaut for the 'o' in Gottingen

You can always stick an e after the letter that has an umlaut.it does the same job.

jings, yes, the wee Fiat was fine! I think its driver perhaps thought he'd been having a nightmare (Grimm's-style), though! I'd been quite frightened, because the back of the bus was hanging over the edge of the track as it slowly took the bends. My imagination is always rather wild, and I had visions of being eaten by a bear, it bursting in through the shattered windows after we had tumbled over the edge of the track ! When we finally got to the inn where we were to be staying, it didn't help to see photos on the wall of the owner of the hotel standing over a bear which he had shot in the forest.... Actually, I didn't take much to the owner of the hotel after that, anyway.....

When we were on holiday in Austria we took a coach trip that went through a single track tunnel a couple of miles long with traffic lights at either end. A hundred yards in, a little car appeared round a bend from the other direction - he had risked jumping the lights. The coach driver did not give way, neither did the three coaches behind us. The little car had to reverse back all the way he had come, with four coaches bearing down on him. Don't think he would jump the lights again.

Digressions 'r' us - and I think this was my fault. (rousing chorus of "The Red Flag".

Ariadne!

green

Though tyrants mock and martyrs sneer...

It would be nice if the queen could trace her ancestry in an unbroken line back to William I, but in fact there have been some very dodgy successful claimants. We might say she has her job because some of her fairly distant ancestors were more ruthless, cunning or rich than the opposition.
I have always understood that the prime purpose of an inherited Head of State is to prevent politicians using the armed forces or police improperly.
I wonder what she thought about the invasion of Iraq.

Or, Greatnan, whether she really wants to shake the hand of Martin McGuinness - albeit behind closed doors?

The rightful King of England lives in Australia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Abney-Hastings,_14th_Earl_of_Loudoun

Apparently he doesn't want the job!

From Bagpuss:

The Bony King of Nowhere

Love that song

I love Bagpuss.

Thank you Bags, I don't remember that from the days when I watched Bagpuss with the boys. They'd have loved filling in the missing words.