In spite of these austere time lets give the Queen a new yacht

later12

Freddie59 wrote: »

Someone from "Ulster" proud to be "British", while the staunchest loyalists (the Scots) want to separate. Yeah, definitely a great time to be "British". Identity crisis doesn't even cover it.:rolleyes:

I'm quite convinced that if it weren't for the IRA, it would be the 'Ulster Scots' up there looking to secede from the Union; and probably would have sought such a secession long before Scotland too.

The whole culture of Ulster unionism is totally reactionary. It is nothing in and of itself, it's just a response to (equally as daft) Irish nationalism.

sock puppet

Freddie59 wrote: »

And as for your assertion regarding Ireland:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading

"Great" Britain indeed. Says it all really.:)

So Irish students outperformed British ones in 1 out of 3 areas, coming in behind them in the other 2. Break out the champers

Minstrel27

getz wrote: »

dont forget those royalists fans who live in the republic,one and a half million of them watching the wedding on TV and all those who lined the streets to welcome the queen,

Did you count the tv viewers yourself or are you going by a flawed ratings system?

lugha

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Using the money of her country to dress herself and her family in ridiculously expensive clothes, greet the heads of state of other countries and go on publicly funded "tours"?

Surely all countries have their own little quirks.

So the Brits have this seemingly irrational attachment to their royal family. I suspect quite a few of those here giving them welly for this boat that they are not buying would have would have equally quirky and equally irrational to all manner of nationalism / republican ideas.

I wonder how many of them will be back in 2016 demanding that we don't go mad on the 'aul rising "celebration"? :pac:

Minstrel27

lugha wrote: »

I wonder how many of them will be back in 2016 demanding that we don't go mad on the 'aul rising "celebration"? :pac:

Let's find out in 2016

nice_very

didnt read all the thread, but dont really care if its been posted before.......


WHICH QUEEN ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

Spook_ie

tis a long thread and I apologise if someone covered this before but.....

Lizzie gets money from the UK Gov via a Civil List some £7.9 million per annum, this was set in 1990 and has been frozen since then, giving a net adjustment of -76% allowing for inflation etc.

The money is paid in lieu of the income from the crown estates , profits some £230 million in 2011, a net gain to the UK treasury of £222 million per year

The income from tourism is unquantifiable but is a substantial return, for example in France, Nicolas Sarkozy set an annual budget for his establishment at the Elysée of 110 million euros (£90 million). Yet who travels to France to see Nic doing anything?

£60 million for a new boat....chickenfeed

wilkie2006

UglyBolloxFace wrote: »

What has this to do with us?

It's 60m quid we can't borrow!

Being serious though, f*ck her. It seems that Charles has been asking for it since the summer - they should stick a yacht up his ar@e

getz

partyatmygaff wrote: »

What service?

Using the money of her country to dress herself and her family in ridiculously expensive clothes, greet the heads of state of other countries and go on publicly funded "tours"?

are you under the impression that the british tax payer paid for the queens visit to ireland?,i dont want to upset you but

Sunnyisland

lugha wrote: »

Surely all countries have their own little quirks.

So the Brits have this seemingly irrational attachment to their royal family. I suspect quite a few of those here giving them welly for this boat that they are not buying would have would have equally quirky and equally irrational to all manner of nationalism / republican ideas.

I wonder how many of them will be back in 2016 demanding that we don't go mad on the 'aul rising "celebration"? :pac:

But but its the english were talking about :p

getz

realies wrote: »

But but its the english were talking about :p

leave him he is in is own little world

Yahew

nice_very wrote: »

didnt read all the thread, but dont really care if its been posted before.......


WHICH QUEEN ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

You are expected to read the OP, and most of the thread. The very first post mentioned liz.

bwatson

Freddie59 wrote: »

So proud it wasn't. There's something unhinged about a society that wants to fund a family who fart about all day, doing sweet FA, while the rest of the "commoners" pay for it. No small wonder that British numeracy and literacy levels are among the worst in the Western World.:D

You really appear incredibly desperate to convince yourself that Ireland is, to put it bluntly, a "better" nation that Britain. OK, so now we have the incredibly ambiguous "our state education system is better than your state education system" thing out of the system, have you anything else to draw upon?

Yahew

Era, there's two of them in it.

bwatson

lugha wrote: »

Surely all countries have their own little quirks.

So the Brits have this seemingly irrational attachment to their royal family. I suspect quite a few of those here giving them welly for this boat that they are not buying would have would have equally quirky and equally irrational to all manner of nationalism / republican ideas.

I wonder how many of them will be back in 2016 demanding that we don't go mad on the 'aul rising "celebration"? :pac:

I doubt that your rising celebration will make the news in Britain. Unlike you, they aren't totally obsessed with all things going on with their neighbours.

Are you really going to go for it and have all 5 propeller aircraft in your air corps doing a fly past then?

bwatson

Freddie59 wrote: »

Someone from "Ulster" proud to be "British", while the staunchest loyalists (the Scots) want to separate. Yeah, definitely a great time to be "British". Identity crisis doesn't even cover it.:rolleyes:

No identity crisis at all Freddie.

I'm British. I'm pleased and comfortable with that fact. I don't know Keith but I'm sure he is the same.

You say also the Scots want to separate, whereas just about every opinion poll suggests that they simply do not. You continue to delude yourself and push your misperceptions through the medium of the internet, but it is most amusing to observe.

Yahew

bwatson wrote: »

I'm British. I'm pleased and comfortable with that fact. I don't know Keith but I'm sure he is the same.
.

The thing is though, what do normal Brits think?

summerskin

Yahew wrote: »

The thing is though, what do normal Brits think?

I'm a normal Brit. I am not a royalist, wish we could get rid of the whole monarchy.

However, while they're there let's make some money out of them. They are great for tourism, and if you put Lizzie's new yacht on the banks of the Thames you'd get americans and japanese spending a fortune in the surrounding areas, generating money for the economy.

The royals cost each british person 62p a year in taxes, but make hundreds of millions in terms of boosting tourism.

Still, out with the lot of them. As long as they drop Kate off at my house on the way...

bwatson

Yahew wrote: »

The thing is though, what do normal Brits think?

What do you mean by "normal" Brits?

Most British people on the mainland understand that Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom and as a result the people of Northern Ireland (apart from the obvious exception of those who decide not to be) are British.

It's not massively difficult to understand and if any Brits I have met while at university in London have not had a proper understanding of this (very few have been so ignorant) it doesn't really take much effort to inform them.

Even for the population of a nation who's apparent academic flaws are of great satisfaction to the other one who has a serious chip on his shoulder, it doesn't really seem to be an issue of great difficulty.

bwatson

summerskin wrote: »

I'm a normal Brit. I am not a royalist, wish we could get rid of the whole monarchy.

However, while they're there let's make some money out of them. They are great for tourism, and if you put Lizzie's new yacht on the banks of the Thames you'd get americans and japanese spending a fortune in the surrounding areas, generating money for the economy.

The royals cost each british person 62p a year in taxes, but make hundreds of millions in terms of boosting tourism.

Still, out with the lot of them. As long as they drop Kate off at my house on the way...

That wasn't the question being asked.

Even so, opinion polls of recent years would suggest that you would not be classed as "normal" if that was the word chosen to describe the majority. Most are in favour of retaining the monarchy.

Yahew

bwatson wrote: »

What do you mean by "normal" Brits?

Most British people on the mainland understand that Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom and as a result the people of Northern Ireland (apart from the obvious exception of those who decide not to be) are British.

YOu are having a laugh. 50% of people I meet in Britain think the Republic ( Southern Ireland) is part of the UK. Most people think that Northern Ireland is just Irish, and thats it ( The Irish were at war during the troubles, no British involved).

There is almost nobody in the island of Britain who could name the 6 counties.

Northern Ireland barely exists in the "mainland's" geography.

getz

bwatson wrote: »

You really appear incredibly desperate to convince yourself that Ireland is, to put it bluntly, a "better" nation that Britain. OK, so now we have the incredibly ambiguous "our state education system is better than your state education system" thing out of the system, have you anything else to draw upon?

he is right the education system in ireland is better than the UK,the only problem is they need it, as ireland could never provide work for its young, tens of thousands , go to the UK every year to earn a living [as a guest of that decadent country] i have a great idea,maybe the queen could put in for EU funding to build the yacht, we could do with getting some money back

bwatson

Yahew wrote: »

YOu are having a laugh. 50% of people I meet in Britain think the Republic ( Southern Ireland) is part of the UK. Most people think that Northern Ireland is just Irish, and thats it ( The Irish were at war during the troubles, no British involved).

There is almost nobody in the island of Britain who could name the 6 counties.

Northern Ireland barely exists in the "mainland's" geography.

If your opinions were so set in stone, why did you even bother to ask the question?

Maybe we associate with different types of people. The majority of people I socialize with would be sufficiently politically and historically aware to understand that Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom.

KeithAFC

Yahew wrote: »

YOu are having a laugh. 50% of people I meet in Britain think the Republic ( Southern Ireland) is part of the UK. Most people think that Northern Ireland is just Irish, and thats it ( The Irish were at war during the troubles, no British involved).

There is almost nobody in the island of Britain who could name the 6 counties.

Northern Ireland barely exists in the "mainland's" geography.

That isn't our fault. Maybe they should learn about the volunteers of 1916 who fought alongside the Englishmen with the Union flag.

si_guru

Yahew wrote: »

The thing is though, what do normal Brits think?

I am happy with it. Although I am English.. no one calls themself British.

getz

Yahew wrote: »

YOu are having a laugh. 50% of people I meet in Britain think the Republic ( Southern Ireland) is part of the UK. Most people think that Northern Ireland is just Irish, and thats it ( The Irish were at war during the troubles, no British involved).

There is almost nobody in the island of Britain who could name the 6 counties.

Northern Ireland barely exists in the "mainland's" geography.

to be fair no one south of watford knows anything about their own country england,but thats because the UK is so multi-cultural now,i once had a problem with a goverment department in swansea ,because the asian girl i was dealing with could not understand that gibralter was british and my wife wasent spanish, from my wifes point of view it was a international incident

Solair

Well, if you consider that the UK is currently running a budgetary deficit of > 10.4% of GDP and has a rapidly spiraling national debt, buying the Queen a yacht should be *very* low on the agenda.

That >10.4% figure also *excludes* any support that was required by the banking sector, which is essentially off-balance sheet.

The last figures available show that the UK borrowed £146bn last year for day-to-day Government spending and its total Government debt is hovering at around £1 trillion.

If anything, she should be voluntarily making serious cut backs to her lavish lifestyle and ensuring that she is not a burden to the tax payer.

Despite all the babble on here, the UK is in a pretty bad fiscal position at the moment and not all that different from Ireland in many respects. It's just less hamstrung than we are by Euro rules so, it can sweep a lot of it under the carpet by printing money and inflating its way out of some of it. That's already starting to be very noticeable as consumer prices rise, as the UK doesn't really make very many consumer goods anymore.

Batsy

partyatmygaff wrote: »

What service?

The 60 years of service she has given her country as Head of State. Not to mention the service of her country before she became Queen when she served in WWII.

Using the money of her country to dress herself and her family in ridiculously expensive clothes, greet the heads of state of other countries and go on publicly funded "tours"?

The new Royal Yacht is to be privately funded by those people and organisations around the Commonwealth who wish to do so.

And, despite what many people on here think, the yacht will not be a royal plaything, something for them to use just for leisure. Like the previous Royal Yacht, the Britannia, the yacht will be considered as a floating British Embassy and will be used by the Queen to undertake engagements around the world. It will be used for her to conduct affairs of state whenever she is on the yacht to travel to other countries on royal engagements.

Supporters of the new vessel - which include MPs from all three main parties - say they want a vessel with state apartments for royal use, plus room for 220 youngsters doing maritime training and science projects.

There will be designated trade and exhibition days when companies can hire rooms and space for specific events.

Digby, Lord Jones, a minister of state for trade under Gordon Brown, said the project should be seen ‘as a vital investment in the future of British trade’, adding: ‘Other countries welcome our engagement and our commitment to free trade and an open market. The Royal Yacht, docked in ports around the world, stood for that.’

Domitius Felix Invictus Aurelianus

Austerity means mo money mo problems, such a big flashy boat or as I like to call them a trireme

edgecutter

The queen makes a huge amount of revenue for the British Exchequer through tourism, she possibly has built up enough for the government to buy her one.