The queen and the royal family?

Question

hi... i was wondering how many people in the uk actually care about or like the queen these days? i was having a little argument with someone about it... I think that generally... the younger generation at least are not really seeing any point to her anymore cause she doesnt really do anything and someone else thinks that im completely wrong! so...what does everyone else think to her?? do u think shes really so wonerful or do u think like me that shes just an old lady who does nothing but live off our taxes??

Answer 1

You've got to look at the big picture. Britain has been a monarchy since time immemorial. Whether you like the Queen or not, she is the present incumbent of an institution that is at the very centre of what it means to be British (or English - whatever).

Take away the monarchy, and a huge piece of our national identity is gone forever. Eventually we wouldn't know who we were anymore.

If you have lived in England all your life, then you probably don't know what I'm talking about. As an Englishman who has not lived in England for a long time now, I can see this quite clearly. And it pains me to make this observation as in all other respects I'm an anarchist. I'm not really that interested in them either, and I don't particularly even like them, but getting rid of them because of this and to save some money would be like demolishing stonehenge because it looks boring and the land could be more constructively used to build houses on.

Would you rather have an elected president? Who? Tony Blair? I am willing to bet that whoever it was would be disliked far more by far more people than the Queen is now.

Answer 2

The Queen has many responsibilities as head of state, mostly ceremonial and diplomatic.  She can veto Parliament but that hasn't been done in ages.   Her primary responsibilities are to be a role model for English life, be a figure to rally around in difficult times, and by not projecting her royal authority over her subjects she prevents any power happy noble from doing the same in any part of Great Britain.

Answer 3

Her Majesty The Queen does many things in her daily life. To say she does nothing is very wrong.

She spends the day in her ofice answering official letters from heads of state around the world. She is greeting heads of state from around the wold. Not leaving out the hundreds of hands she has to shake.

She has many cerimonies to attend and hundreds of invitations that she has to sort through and decide to take or not. Then she is travelling round the world as an official ambassador of her country. Not forgetting to mention the amount of people who would have an anudience with her:i.e.

The Prime Minister.

The Queen attends to opening of parliament.

I believe in all The Queen does do quite abit from day to day. And the hours she puts in taking into account her age is really quite something. Alot of people say they could do what Her Majesty does, but I do not envy The Queen as she is in a position with very little freedom and always in the public eye.

Answer 4

I don't like the queen, but I do like Princes William and Harry. You see, leadership includes going to exotic clubs from time to time, wearing fancy clothes of different kinds from time to time, and not taking too much care about what others think. On the other hand, granting knighthood to certain individuals for nothing but waging wars of aggression is not intelligent, and no wonder the husband of the queen cheats on her for intellectual purposes.

Answer 5

I think she does a great deal for the people.  I think what is not known about the royal family is that they support themselves a lot not totally but a lot.

They sell tickets to tour Buckingham Palace and tourists line up there and it is about 16 gbp I hear per person.  

The queen in the last few years (maybe the last 5 years) has started to pay income tax on her fortune.  She doesn't live tax free.  

Prince Charles doesn't get money from the state as he has quite a successful organic farm and estate that runs very nicely as a business.  I imagine that he supports his two sons in the same way.

What they do get is money for official engagements - not a salary but they get a clothing allowance and other expenses that go along with their accomodation and such

It is true that some members of the royals get an allowance from the government but that is changing slowly.  

Princess margaret's children work - Viscount Lindley has a very successful furniture design shop

I think she is wonderful and she is part of a beautiful history of England that people come to England to see.  Every tour she makes makes money for the country or province.  I am canadian and we love the queen in canada.  She also is very important in politics and does many things that we don't see or hear about.  Prince Charles supports young small business owners and has a charity organization with regard to that.  

i think that some of the British people aren't happy with her and i don't pretend to know the issues of those people but they should really think about an England without a queen, it would be a very different England, people come to England to see the royal family and all the castles.  They hold her responsible for some things that are beyond her control.  People judge her unfairly.  I love her.