Only good enough to be a mistress

[Rhiannon]

I can’t say it’s cheered me up exactly but two people are happy. And that’s nice.

[Robbie]

Yup! I've gone back to thinking about other things unfortunately - but we get through it in the end (sigh).

[Nearly Sane]

Yeah, well a friend of mine on benefits thinks it's an enormous distraction to the inept introduction of UC but obviously you're happy so fuck'em

[Anchorman]

Yeah, well a friend of mine on benefits thinks it's an enormous distraction to the inept introduction of UC but obviously you're happy so fuck'em

   


Agreed.
And when I visit a friend of mine who is both blind and epileptic yet told he was fit to work, he'll be ecstatic as well.
Still, at least he got his benefit on appeal - after three months of no electricity in his house because he couldn't affoird it.
Should I take him a union jack to wave as a sign of loyalty?

[Robbie]

Do you seriously think I don't know people with those problems and don't get involved with them? I'm pretty sure I've come on here and had a good moan.

The engagement is a pleasant distraction for a short while, the wedding will be the same. We'll be back to normal in no time.

It's usually those who have the least who do not resent people such as Meghan and Harry.

(PS:-  Just seen this headline on MSN - Millions of people will have their benefits frozen for another year.)

[ippy]

I switched on the lunchtime news to the seemingly endless tide of sycophancy. I'm afraid each time such an announcement is made it reinforces my republicanism. I may have to just ignore the news until next summer -  which given the state of the world may be no bad thing in itself.

I find the stupid grin on the faces of everyone presenting this never ending royal saga really sickening, is the grin required by whichever company happens to be involved?

I dare say we'll be getting the usual running commentary on this lot now, like how many times they've farted this morning, where do their farts register on the Richter scale and on and on and on and on and on and on___________

ippy

[Robbie]

Oh no, no bannings please! There are bound to be differences of opinion. We move on.

My husband was funny a little while ago & I don't normally go in for, "My husband says...", but he heard the interview with Meghan and Harry, that was fine, and then went on to say, "But that prat Charles!"  Well it was funny when he said it, you'd have had to have been here and seen his face.

I'd not thought much about Meghan being part African-American but a generation ago that would have been unthinkable in the royal family and lots of other families. Racism seemed to be almost built into people then, any 'foreigner' was suspect. So Meghan and Harry are trail blazers in that regard but said it was never an issue for them. Their union will be a good thing for 21st century UK.  They'll also set a fine example with their humanitarian work.  Just my opinion.

[Maeght]

The BBC presenters do seem to be competing to see who can be the most sycophantic. The stupid grins are a sight to behold. I wish the couple well but had hoped we'd moved on from this sort of coverage of royal stuff. Sadly not.

[Robbie]

I don't like the sycophancy either, Maeght. Whenever I watch a documentary programme about the Royals it makes me cringe, however members of their family, cousins and the like, and close friends, are quite different and come across naturally.

(& on a trivial note, the couple have similar shaped noses in profile.)

[Owlswing]

Maybe the Moderators could consider moving this to the "Politics" Topic?

[Robbie]

We have strayed a bit off topic with comments about benefit cuts but I don't see Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's engagement as political.

[jeremyp]

The go ahead far thinking Spectator thoughts on a bloke called Harry and a women called Meghan getting engaged. I am presuming the idea was write some click/comment bait.



https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/11/prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-the-union-of-royalty-and-showbiz/

Blimey. I don't think I've read a more mean spirited article this year.

[jeremyp]

Isn’t the point of content to reflect and elaborate on the headline?

The headline is there to catch your eye and make you buy the magazine/click the link. Frequently it is not even written by the author of the article.

[jeremyp]

The engagement is a pleasant distraction for a short while, the wedding will be the same. We'll be back to normal in no time.

It's a pleasant distraction for about two minutes from my point of view. I am not a republican but I do not like the wall to wall sycophantic news coverage that Royal engagements generate. A couple of minutes jut before the news report is all that is necessary.

[Nearly Sane]

Blimey. I don't think I've read a more mean spirited article this year.

and it comes from someone who is supportive of the monarchy.

[Shaker]

and it comes from someone who is supportive of the monarchy.

... unless they marry divorcees anyway.

[floo]

Whilst weddings of any sort, even my own, don't get me excited, many people seem to enjoy a Royal Wedding; it will no doubt be an antidote to the doom and gloom of Brexit.

[Harrowby Hall]

I'd not thought much about Meghan being part African-American but a generation ago that would have been unthinkable in the royal family and lots of other families. Racism seemed to be almost built into people then, any 'foreigner' was suspect. So Meghan and Harry are trail blazers in that regard but said it was never an issue for them. Their union will be a good thing for 21st century UK.  They'll also set a fine example with their humanitarian work.  Just my opinion.

Surely, the trail blazer was his elder brother? After all, he married the daughter of a bus driver and a waitress.

[ProfessorDavey]

Surely, the trail blazer was his elder brother? After all, he married the daughter of a bus driver and a waitress.

Err - explain please

[Shaker]

Err - explain please

Presumably HH was referring to the fact that William married a 'commoner', i.e. neither another royal nor a member of the aristocracy (as in the latter case his father did). It's inaccurate though as no trail was blazed in this - Princess Anne married a commoner in 1973 (two of her siblings did so later). And I've no idea what the bus driver and the waitress refers to; Kate Middleton's parents were flight despatchers for BA.

[ProfessorDavey]

Kate Middleton's parents were flight despatchers for BA.

... who had significant inherited wealth in trusts, had long-standing ties to the aristocracy and who set up a multi-million pound business and whose family had been rubbing shoulders with the royals for decades. So maybe a 'commoner' in as much as no title, but far, far away from being an ordinary family in the manner most of us might understand. Most ordinary families don't send their daughter to board at one of the top public schools in the country.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

IMHO Prince Harry is a likable dope who was put into the army to give him a job because he was not particularly good at anything, and being photographed at a fancy dress party wearing a mock nazi uniform was not a good idea. I do remember the concert for Princess Diana in 2007, the announcer asked for a round of applause for Princes William & Harry for agreeing to the concert going ahead. Harry, in a bored daze & not taking much notice of what was going on, was seen casually clapping along with everybody else until his brother told him that it is not etiquette to applaud oneself.

[ProfessorDavey]

IMHO Prince Harry is a likable dope who was put into the army to give him a job because he was not particularly good at anything, and being photographed at a fancy dress party wearing a mock nazi uniform was not a good idea. I do remember the concert for Princess Diana in 2007, the announcer asked for a round of applause for Princes William & Harry for agreeing to the concert going ahead. Harry, in a bored daze & not taking much notice of what was going on, was seen casually clapping along with everybody else until his brother told him that it is not etiquette to applaud oneself.

I think Harry is currently at the height of his public role appeal - think Prince Andrew in the 1980s, but that will diminish as William's kids get older and Harry is increasingly seen as a rather minor and peripheral royal (as both Andrew and Edward have in recent years).

It wouldn't surprise me if Harry and Meghan eventually relocate to the USA, allowing them to live a rather more normal life outside of the public glare, and potentially allowing her to resume her career. If that happened I don't think it would be a bad thing at all.

[floo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42156565

They are getting married in May at St George's Chapel, Windsor, so it will be much smaller affair than most Royal weddings, and the Royals will be forking out for it themselves.

[Shaker]

The link says that MM is a Protestant, but it was claimed here yesterday that she's Catholic