Thames "spectacular" - Royal Pagent

sarahlaurie100

Someone should tell Prince Harry not to wipe his nose with his gloves on

Luella-14_2

I'm surprised by the negative comments here. I'm not a huge Royalist or boat fanatic but I found myself by the Thames and really enjoyed myself. I'm sure if the weather had been lovely we'd all be slightly more positive about it but what made me proud to be British was that people liked it regardless of the weather. Thousands of people waiting for hours in the rain, waving their flags and cheering. Maybe the TV coverage wasn't great, but the pageant itself was brilliant.

zcrat41

The pageant was fab - I went down and the atmosphere was just what London should be like all the time; friendly people talking to each other all the time and sharing umbrellas and tea.

The queen deserves our thanks and a massive party - she's served this country for such a long time and very well.

Marisco

Where was Prince Edward in all this? I watched a prog the other night (the one with Charles and the home movies) and they all, i.e Charles, Ann, Andrew, the grandkids, along with various odds and sods, all paid tribute. But Edward was conspicuous by his absence!! I didn't see him in that pageant thing either!!

johnswife

We watched it on SKY NEWS, much better coverage.

Prince Edward was on another boat with his wife and Princess Beatrice & Eugenie and others.

Marisco

johnswife wrote: »

We watched it on SKY NEWS, much better coverage.

Prince Edward was on another boat with his wife and Princess Beatrice & Eugenie and others.

Ah right, I never saw him, I saw Andrew and his kids, and Ann on the Trinity House boat, and old Boris and crew on another. Now he looked like he was enjoying himself!

kettlefish

We really enjoyed watching the coverage on television, we had scones with clotted cream and jam, and lots of cups of tea. Regardless of what everyone says I think this year (with the jubilee and olympics) should be a goodun and really boost morale after a tough few years, but then since being grumpy about everything makes us Brits happy, maybe that counts as "boosting morale" too?!

Hopefully going to go to see one of the beacons lit tonight, weather permitting (wouldn't stop me, but we have a 7 month old and it doesn't seem fair to drag her out if it's very cold!)

p00hsticks

mountainofdebt wrote: »

The one question that Republicans seem to avoid answering is if we didn't have a Queen / King as a Head of State what would they like in its place.

The only thing that I could think of are politicians who would happily sell their souls to the highest bidder

I've never understood this question of 'if we got rid of the monarchy, who would replace them ?'
Isn't the republican view is that Head of State is an unneccessary role ?, And if so therefore surely it doesn't need replacing, just abolishing ? Why do republican countries have to have both Presidents and Prime Ministers - can anyone explain what the Head of State actually DOES ?

kafkathecat

Pooh sticks, it varies from country to country. In the US the power of the president is balanced by Congress where the opposition may have a majority, and often does. In Europe some presidents are more formal and the power rests with other ministers - the Chancellor in Germany or the Taoiseach in Ireland. Maybe we need someone to just go around doing all the shaking hands and stuff?

SailorSam

I only saw it on the news i never watched the lot but i thought you couldn't help but get caught up in the excitement of the crowds.
Us sailors have got to stick together.