At the Tower, the toy soldiers have real arms. I don't know if they are loaded.
Attachment 38953

They're real soldiers dressed as toy soldiers

They kill a hundred bears in Canada each year to make those silly hats.

Don't see why they can't use fake fur nowadays.

Justheard Jimmy Carr describe the jubilee as "a four day weekend, where we all pretend to care about someone else's nana".


[eta] I go through an arc with the coverage of stuff like this. Starts off mildly irritating. Then some of it gets through (there have been some really nice events celebrating Britishness and togetherness and all that stuff, and the historical connection is always something that gets me at a gut level), then it starts to annoy again as it effectively takes over television and radio for fucking ages.

Some of it's really interesting. Some of it is inspiring. But some of it is vapid and trite and some of it is insulting.

It's been a year, that's for sure.

The royal wedding, and the jubilee, and next the Olympics. We've been getting a lot more British exposure in the last year or so than we have since Di died.

Hey, it brought Dad and I together, so it was all worth it for me.
Oh, no, wait. That probably had more to do with Mum flying to the other side of the world...

(Okay, a mixture of the two)

I thought it was all jolly good fun, with rain and Royal masks and frocks and horses and rain and John Barrowman and hats and commentators pedantically saying "the Union Flag" (although it is okay to call it the Union Jack even when it isn't flying on a ship) and rain and sausage rolls and all that and everything.

I don't mind being a subject.
I'd rather be ruled by the Queen than the CEO of a big American franchise.

How'd you feel about being ruled by Wills or Harry?


I actually don't much mind the Queen herself. But the idea of being 'subject' to her descendants, good or bad, is just a little sickmaking.

I've no probs with that either.
They're more dedicated to the country than the fat-cat asset strippers currently in Parliament. Even if Wills is losing his hair I trust him more with the family silver than I do William Hague.

And as for Harry, well you know I've always had a soft spot for a ginger.

Someone is always going to be deciding my future. Living in Bucks I don't even have a vote that counts.
I'm a prole and will take my bread and circuses and enjoy.

Fair enough:p

Sorry??? Translation please . . . .

Amen to that!

It seems we Americans have become numb to our own ruling hierarchies.

I just realized that our church is also celebrating their 60th this year.

Sundae is saying she's a proletarian, a member of the lowest class, and she's amused by all the hupla surrounding the jubilee the same way the Roman proletarians were amused by the bread and circuses used in ancient Rome to keep the lower class appeased. It all just a bunch of fluff to distract you from the fact that the system is screwing you over. She's both aware of the fact and also enjoying the jubilee.

Glatt has it.
And beautifully worded too.

The only thing I might add is that the constituency (voting district) I live in is true-blue Tory (Conservative Party) all the way and has been since before we obtained universal suffrage.

I vote.
Because Women died for the right for me to do so.
But my vote is worthless because the Conservative majority here is unassailable.

That is admirable, Sundae. I firmly believe in voting, even if the vote will be lost in a sea of opposition.

My mom and dad used to fight every election, because one was Republican and one was Democrat. My dad said that if they didn't vote the same party, that it was useless to do it at all since they washed each other out. But I believe we should all make our positions known at the voting booth, it helps keep us invested in what is happening in our country, politically.