Prince William visits - and Australia swoons

Is Prince William

  • A useless prat

    Votes: 20 30.3%

  • Mostly harmless

    Votes: 24 36.4%

  • What you would expect from a royal

    Votes: 15 22.7%

  • A good ambassador/role model

    Votes: 5 7.6%

  • A prices to be fawned over

    Votes: 2 3.0%
  • Total voters
    66

lionking

In the Peanut Gallery
lionking
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
Messages
58,105
Location
Melbourne
Prince William has just finished a visit to Sydney and Melbourne lasting three whole days, and the whole nation seems to have gone troppo. A normally pro-republic radio shock jock today said that "Australia needs royalty". People are banging on about "the future king" (which is a bit of a joke given that Betty Windsor shows no signs of mortality and Charles, and Carmilla of course will take the throne - he might not be king until he's 70).

So I was wondering what people thought of him.

ETA - Bugger, a typo in option 5 - or is it a Freudian slip given the cost of the Royal Family?
 
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Replacement post.
He is waving the flag for the Queen. As long as she is still around nothing much will happen. When Charles takes over and puts his foot in his mouth as a pattern of behaviour then Australia will be a republic.

The Queen herself is nearly an irrelevance for Australia. Is not consulted by the PM or the other way round.
 
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Someone for the lazy Australian media to hype. They did the same with Tiger Woods.
 
lionking said:
Sorry rjh01, still learning how to put in polls.

Anyway, Prince William has just finished a visit to Sydney and Melbourne lasting three whole days, and the whole nation seems to have gone troppo. A normally pro-republic radio shock jock today said that "Australia needs royalty". People are banging on about "the future king" (which is a bit of a joke given that Betty Windsor shows no signs of mortality and Charles, and Carmilla of course will take the throne - he might not be king until he's 70).

So I was wondering what people thought of him.

ETA - Bugger, a typo in option 5 - or is it a Freudian slip given the cost of the Royal Family?
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I doubt he'd have to wait that long, Charles is going to be pretty old when he gets it and likely won't last too long.
 
I have nothing in particular against the monarchy, except for the vast amount of wealth they have tied up that could otherwise go to useful projects (but in fact would probably used to fund a war). They're pretty much irrelvant to Australia except for reasons of tradition and nostalgia.
 
Wait until after the next election. Then there will be some sort of referendum on the issue. Mind you long way before we get to vote on the change to the constitution. Which would probably fail for the same reasons as the last one did.
 
rjh01 said:
Wait until after the next election. Then there will be some sort of referendum on the issue. Mind you long way before we get to vote on the change to the constitution. Which would probably fail for the same reasons as the last one did.
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But with a smaller margin. There's my psychic prediction.
 
lionking said:
Prince William has just finished a visit to Sydney and Melbourne lasting three whole days, and the whole nation seems to have gone troppo. A normally pro-republic radio shock jock today said that "Australia needs royalty". People are banging on about "the future king" (which is a bit of a joke given that Betty Windsor shows no signs of mortality and Charles, and Carmilla of course will take the throne - he might not be king until he's 70).

So I was wondering what people thought of him.

ETA - Bugger, a typo in option 5 - or is it a Freudian slip given the cost of the Royal Family?
Click to expand...


Have to admit I didn't realise that the holiday entitlements of serving RAF officers were so generous.
 
And as always - can you free-loaders provide an address so we can invoice you for the use of the royals.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Bleah. William's dull. Harry, now, he's interesting.
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Yeah - he has the balls to go to a fancy dress party as a Nazi.

Problem is, he's just the backup, so no-one really cares. Like Prince Andrew. He's nobody, really, except an attractive guy with the most exclusive private education in the world and an expense account big enough to worry the Pope.
 
arthwollipot said:
Yeah - he has the balls to go to a fancy dress party as a Nazi.

Problem is, he's just the backup, so no-one really cares. Like Prince Andrew. He's nobody, really, except an attractive guy with the most exclusive private education in the world and an expense account big enough to worry the Pope.
Click to expand...

I think Harry has agreed to buy the drinks when he goes out clubbing with the Pope. ;)
 
arthwollipot said:
Yeah - he has the balls to go to a fancy dress party as a Nazi.

Problem is, he's just the backup, so no-one really cares. Like Prince Andrew. He's nobody, really, except an attractive guy with the most exclusive private education in the world and an expense account big enough to worry the Pope.
Click to expand...

Yeah, because who would find interesting a hot young guy with unimaginable wealth and a history of poor judgment?
 
lionking said:
Prince William has just finished a visit to Sydney and Melbourne lasting three whole days, and the whole nation seems to have gone troppo. A normally pro-republic radio shock jock today said that "Australia needs royalty". People are banging on about "the future king" (which is a bit of a joke given that Betty Windsor shows no signs of mortality and Charles, and Carmilla of course will take the throne - he might not be king until he's 70).

So I was wondering what people thought of him.

ETA - Bugger, a typo in option 5 - or is it a Freudian slip given the cost of the Royal Family?
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not Australian, but I don't think you all "need" royalty. And I'm not a fan of inherited privilege at all. But, William has to play the hand he was dealt, so if this trip is the start of his development as a goodwill ambassador for Britain, and he's making the effort to do a good job, then kudos to him. Hopefully, he'll learn to walk the diplomatic tightrope in the manner of his grandmother and not his father.

You don't 'need' royalty, but, since you have to tolerate the occasional drop in from long distance royalty, they might as well do what they're good for. All the fawning is kinda nauseating, though.

(Charles may be King sooner than we think. I watched the Opening of Parliament last year, and the Queen and the Duke were both looking decidedly more frail than the previous year.)
 
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