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Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

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Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#521

Post by illiac786 »

Bancakes wrote: post #518
illiac786 wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yep, still better. “less worse” might be a better term here though. The US has two issues as far as I can tell: one, (small) constitution amendment should be a normal, regular process, but because it has not been done, now it has become some sort of sacrilege to some, at the very least a “very big deal” to most. Second, the political landscape is so polarized, one aisle will say “no” before the other aisle has uttere…

Well that is within the context of young, impressionable, geopolitically and economically sheltered people expressing emotional views. So it's good that we don't enact these amendments on a whim

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I completely agree that there should be lots of safeguards.

But it should be lived. At the very least, old language should be refreshed. And yes, it will cause a lot of debate, but that’s good, that’s what democracies live from, reasonable debates – rather than “no” and “I hate you lot”.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#524

Post by Gordonjcp »

jen20 wrote: post #266
tialaramex wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair the British cops sometimes shoot black people for dubious reasons too. It's taken a bit more seriously here (there will automatically be an investigation if anybody dies after police contact not only the extremes of "a cop shot them" or "he apparently committed suicide while in police custody" but even something like "Police called for a welfare check, decided everything was fine, but an hour later her boy…

To be clear, this has likely happened fewer times in two decades in the UK than the average month in the US. It does happen, though, as you say.

I tried to post "fewer times in 20 years here than in one hour in the US", but apparently I was posting too fast, because apparently HN doesn't like people to have conversations.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#525

Post by aembleton »

makeitdouble wrote: post #387
quadrifoliate wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American, it is hard for me to properly grasp the fact that the UK almost seems closer to Saudi Arabia than the US in this regard. It does not seem like having a "fuck imperialism" sign should ever get you arrested in a country that is supposedly one of the closest allies of the US.

I'm kinda puzzled. I know the US is wide and there's many pockets of everything, but in so many ways the US seems more religious and actively putting it into laws than the UK. Digging far away, only the US tried to ban alcohol consumption, an angle only islamic countries are also interested in as far as I know. Looking back only a few weeks ago, abortion protection has been abolished nation wide. To only take super s…

I thought Iceland also had a prohibition on alcohol. Beer was still prohibited until 1989 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_Iceland

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#526

Post by robocat »

matthewh806 wrote: post #323
robocat wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a cost of living crisis > funded by the taxpayer To respond only to your financial arguments: there are different ways of looking at the costs and benefits of the UK royals. Firstly, taxation: “the monarchy cost the taxpayer £102.4m”. Last tax year HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) “collected £716.0 billion in taxes”[0]. Let’s assume the “cost of living crisis” affects 10 million people. £100 million given to them woul…

Fair & valid points overall. I did hesitate to put the comment about the taxpayer bearing some of the burden for funding the monarchy because I realised I would quickly be out of my depth when someone with more insight into the numbers came along :D But the reason I did so was to underline the point that the public have a right to attend, whatever their point of view, since its likely that a % of the cost for the pro…

> someone with more insight

I merely did some googling because I was sceptical! Disclaimer: I am not a royal apologist: born and live in the “colonies”, and I am not a fan of the remaining encumbrances that New Zealand has with any royalty.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#527

Post by MagnumOpus »

tablespoon wrote: post #467
haltingproblem wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no constitution. How can it be a constitutional monarchy? Before anyone points out that it is an unwritten constitution, please exchange my invisible benjies for some gold.

> There is no constitution. How can it be a constitutional monarchy? Before anyone points out that it is an unwritten constitution, please exchange my invisible benjies for some gold. You misunderstand what a constitution is. It's not a document, which is an inanimate thing that cannot actually do anything. Rather, it's a set of customs and principles that are respected and followed. The latter is what actually matte…

The recent proroguement of parliament of parliament showed that doing things that are "unconstitutional" in the UK can be done with impunity as long as the tutting is ignored.

A constitution only matters if there are measures that punish violators. In the UK the monarch doesn't want to speak up if the government violates what is commonly seen as constitutional, and parliament is partisan so the government can do what it wants.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#528

Post by aembleton »

gerdesj wrote: post #298
HideousKojima wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but the UK is where you can get arrested for making your girlfriend's pug do a Nazi salute as a joke (but somehow Father Ted doing similar Nazi jokes gets a pass)

Citation needed but I suspect you are probably right about the pug. Father Ted is Irish as in Republic of Ireland as in not UKoGB - we share a very, very strange border. Having said that, Father Ted was turned down by RTE for being too Irish and was eventually financed by the BBC! Thankfully it eventually aired because it is absolutely belting.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-43478925

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#529

Post by staticassertion »

grecy wrote: post #479
austinjp wrote: post #327

The UK media (not just the BBC) continue to profess "amazement" at the speed and efficiency of the transitioning from a dead monarch to a living one. There's been much speaking in awed tones at the pace of the various proclamations, committee meetings, document signings, etc, as if this pace tells us why we should be impressed. Personally I've found it borderline sickening. If there was a curtain that could have slip…

> people wearing ritualistic outfits have marched into public spaces The one and only time I visited London I just happened to wander by Buckingham Palace on the opening day of Parliament, so all the royals were coming out. The part that floored me was all the pop and show of the uniforms, bayonets and those massive black fluffy hat things with the chin strap. I've never been to the UK or Russia before, but I felt 10…

That's how basically every modern military (and probably historically for quite a long time as well) works, except with a slightly sillier hat.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#530

Post by aembleton »

gambiting wrote: post #94
pharmakom wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the funeral is a 10 day extravaganza at tax payer expense whilst some families are choosing between eating and heating?

I think we're reaching some insane point in this discussion when a funeral of one of the most well known people in the world, where leaders of literally every major superpower are coming over to pay their respects is called an extravaganza.

> where leaders of literally every major superpower are coming over to pay their respects

Is Putin coming?

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