She's had absolutely no influence in this hung parliament whatsoever. No-one knows where her political allegiance lies. She would have just as easily shook the hand of Brown as she has Cameron. Tourism? But our history would bring in just as much cash without her...people would still want to see the Tower, the Palace, with or without the Royal family in place. Most of the time she's not home anyway...she's either terrorising the British wildlife or in some far flung land watching tribal dance performed by actors.

She has no charisma... Thatcher dwarfed her completely. No-one likes her let alone loves her. Her immediate family are all mad...nazis...philandering playboys and girls, obsessed with equine pursuits.

Time for a 21st century Guy Fawkes methinks.

I for one didnt vote for Cameron nor do I want to be governed by a party that did not win.

Nothing will ever change whilst we insist on doing things on behalf of a family of errant billionaires.

Let's not forget they killed children in Iraq on behalf of her majesty. It wasn't all Blair's fault. Others sanctioned his actions.

Anyway I'll crash my gargantuan frame into a haystack and hope for an overnight miracle.

Good...ermmmm.... morning.

The Queen is non political, that is why she did not interfere. This pointless, and ignorant, argument comes up all the time from people who think the Queen just sits on her backside enjoying a rich lifestyle. She is the nation's leading ambassador and has meetings with international representatives every week on top of doing her usual civil duties. Even on her international "Holidays" she is working for the country. Strong alliances are maintained by her efforts and several important trade agreements are due to her. She works 24/7 and for a lifetime, unlike most of the rest of the country. She is also constant which means that those in negotiation with us need not worry that talks might fail due to a change of government.

She provides stability and reliability, plus she is one of the nation's largest employers. The Monarchy is one of the main reasons why this tiny island manages to remain one of the strongest and most influential in the world.

I'm with FD and not FC on this one; I watched the Queen shake hands and thought "thank God for her and for stability; the one constant throughout my life; no matter how the unimportant, trivial politicians screw up, the Queen is there in charge - even if only nominally".

She's not even the real Queen (as anyone who watched the recent documentary on Channel Four will realise).

As Walter Bagehot noted all those years ago, it's always an incredible suspension of belief: yesterday you had a monarch who still has much of the formal power that Charles I had, but she doesn't use them in practice, meeting the new holder of the post of First Lord of the Treasury, who also calls himself the holder of a post that doesn't really formally exist, Prime Minister, and the new resident of a house he has no obligation to use (Harold and Mary used to go in the front, out the back and off to their own house). And in subsequent meetings between PM and monarch, he will 'advise' her to use her own powers to ratify what he has already decided to do. And yet in some weird way it works, or appears to work, or something somewhere inbetween. What a muddled constitution we have. No wonder we have far fewer constitutional lawyers than they do in the US - it's the fast track to a nervous breakdown.

Although Fat Controller is correct in an intellectual sense I believe without the Royal family Britain would fall apart. They are like a glue that holds it all together.

An example to compare is the Thai royal family...adored by the people and the king as the longest reinging monarch in the world is now 80 with prostrate cancer.

The Thai people adore his daughter ( who bats for the other team)..and to see her motocade you can see why. A dozen outriders in glorious uniforms..about ten brown Toyotas carrying staff (nothing as crass as a Roller)and in the middle driving a battered ancient Volkswagen is the Princess.

But the succession in theory must go to the Prince..a hugely unpopular playboy. When the king dies if he takes over I predict Thailand will collapse into a nightmare.

You should look forward to King William...he will be the most popular royal ever !

It is all THEATRE and an ILLUSION.

The QUEEN owns the World. She just caretakes it for her family. For instance the biggest landowner in Herefordshire is PRINCE CHARLES....but most people who live there have no idea.

Most of the World including the USA is owned by the Royal Estate via the City of London.

It is just that we ignore that fact pretending she is just a tourist figurehead......

BR wrote:
It is all THEATRE and an ILLUSION.

The QUEEN owns the World. She just caretakes it for her family. For instance the biggest landowner in Herefordshire is PRINCE CHARLES....but most people who live there have no idea.

Most of the World including the USA is owned by the Royal Estate via the City of London.

It is just that we ignore that fact pretending she is just a tourist figurehead......

I ate swan thanks to her, but I must say it was a great disappointment. It didn't even taste like chicken. More of a bland duck-chicken hybrid, if that makes any sense. They had to put a rich sauce over it to make it memorable. I didn't know she owned the world though. That's fascinating.

Liz and Phil, an informal portrait:



Oh, the Commonwealth! Isn't it all so lovely?

I hate the bloody Commonwealth and you bloody well KNOW it! I could be playing POLO in bloody SLOUGH by now!

There are times when I wish I'd never married you!

I thought that the Roman Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the world ?

The Fat Controller wrote:
No-one likes her let alone loves her.


Totally wrong. I like her and so do millions of others. You can only speak for yourself and your small clique.

And what's often overlooked is that she's now MUCH more knowledgeable about world politics than her young PMs. From Churchill on she's had an amazing training, and she's had all the important dispatch boxes sent to her every week since the mid-1950s. The old adage that she's there to advise really means something now.

of course it's an illusion but it works doesn't it ?

and I think HRH The Queen is hugely popular.

I waited in a school line-up when I was 6 in summer when she came to our school but I fainted so I never saw her.

That's the effect she has on me. Although it could have been the heat and the excitement.