royal wedding

[goldencane]

If they're net money makers, how are they on welfare?

Welfare in that they have government provided housing and they get paid for doing almost nothing. Although I can see how you might not define it that if they do bring the economy more money. Semantics.

It's seems petty to get agitated over "the better by birth thing," which is meaningless and which isn't what it's about anyway. They don't think the Queen is better than them personally; it's the role she inhabits as a symbol of the British nation.

I'd much rather people satiate their natural urge to revere something by honoring a powerless symbol and figurehead than by worshiping the absolute "democratic state," which has been much more destructive of liberty even then the old kings who actually had power.

I agree, I was just saying that that is one of the things that upsets some people.

I don't accept the principle of "public property." If the British state was liquidated tomorrow, those properties would probably end up going to the Queen as the current possessor, unless you can find some other individual with a better claim. So she would probably be quite self-sufficient, and people who wanted to honor her as a British symbol could continue to do so, and it would be as innocent as people honoring a bald eagle.

Thats a fair point.

What limits Parliament's control, is what I'd like to know! In a fully voluntary society, she'd be legally equal to everyone else. And special status accruing to her would be purely a matter social custom and people choosing to honor her, much as, say, a bishop in a secular state.

Well legally nothing, they have no constitution (although we have proven here that that is not always adhered to). In the end it is up to tradition and the people to keep government in check. I don't see how a republican (or democratic in the UK's case) government can exist without some form of representative body though. Unless you want a direct democracy perhaps. I'm not an anarchist though, so that might be why I can't picture it.

 

[eOs]