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Thank goodness this long (Queenie Jubilee) weekend is over...


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It's been borderline intolerable for people like myself who have found it pretty nauseating at times with this Queen celebration.

 

Queenie seems like a decent old lady, sort of, not that we really know, but this last 4 days has been over the top on a Diana-death kind of scale.

 

I think lots of people wanted to just have a good weekend but it also seems to have turned a few 'normal' friends into some weird 'so proud to be British' sheep. Not sure why - because we/they can put on a whopper of a party.

 

Sorry, just been overloaded with it all and worn me down.

 

I'm actually looking forward to work tomorrow! :lol:

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Bags - "I'm actually looking forward to work tomorrow! "

 

So you should be after a 10 day long weekend :)

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Haha, well 4 days.

 

I found this interesting I didn't write it:

 

Everything that is flawed about Britain 2012

Is underpinned by the monarchy.

The fact that it is a still a nation marooned in sentiment rather than aspiration, in elites based on privilege instead of ability and mired in the past rather than confidently facing the future can be traced to its notions of class and social rank as indices of virtue.

I do not believe the monarchy either brings or generates wealth for Britain. I do not believe in the concept of service as it is simply the job the monarch does. I do not believe the monarchy has helped the nation in its post Imperial phase to become at ease with itself. So, on every ground the cause of the monarchy is normally advanced, I can find counter arguments more compelling

And on the contrary, whilst clinging to its anachronistic tenure, it has genuflected unashamedly to populist whimsy and the celebration of a lowbrow dialectic. Kate Middleton, Katie Price, Diana Spencer, Jade Goody are identifiable more by their similarities than their differences. One morphing into the other in a cartoon of Britishness.

They may have not much executive power for which we should be grateful but their continuing sway over our socio-psychic identity remains at once redundant and entropic.

Yes, Her Maj herself seems a nice lady but then so is Barbara who runs the local dry cleaner and Barbara means more to me I guess.

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I think my Gran will have enjoyed it all. It's a Gran thing.

 

It all seemed to be done really well, UK can put on a show when they put their mind to it.

 

Pity it's a show to celebrate something as weird as what this was. It all seemed rather over the top.

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Haha, well 4 days.

 

I found this interesting I didn't write it:

 

Everything that is flawed about Britain 2012

Is underpinned by the monarchy.

The fact that it is a still a nation marooned in sentiment rather than aspiration, in elites based on privilege instead of ability and mired in the past rather than confidently facing the future can be traced to its notions of class and social rank as indices of virtue.

I do not believe the monarchy either brings or generates wealth for Britain. I do not believe in the concept of service as it is simply the job the monarch does. I do not believe the monarchy has helped the nation in its post Imperial phase to become at ease with itself. So, on every ground the cause of the monarchy is normally advanced, I can find counter arguments more compelling

And on the contrary, whilst clinging to its anachronistic tenure, it has genuflected unashamedly to populist whimsy and the celebration of a lowbrow dialectic. Kate Middleton, Katie Price, Diana Spencer, Jade Goody are identifiable more by their similarities than their differences. One morphing into the other in a cartoon of Britishness.

They may have not much executive power for which we should be grateful but their continuing sway over our socio-psychic identity remains at once redundant and entropic.

Yes, Her Maj herself seems a nice lady but then so is Barbara who runs the local dry cleaner and Barbara means more to me I guess.

:clap:

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is it the monarch that brings that wealth or is it the institution of the monarchy? If it were the institution, rather than the actual monarch, then it can be argued that even without them, people would still come to view the places/stately homes and various historical sites that they used to live in (as long as they were so marketed after compulsory seizure into public hands after the change to a British Republic)....so generating the wealth without them sucking it back out through the back door.

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I think for lots of people overseas --- it is both.

 

Empty houses would not create the fuss as per this last weekend, last year with the wedding etc.

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A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.

Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government's Work Programme.

Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.

One young worker said she was on duty between London Bridge and Tower Bridge during the £12m river spectacle of a 1,000-boat flotilla and members of the Royal family sail by . She said that the security firm Close Protection UK, which won a stewarding contract for the jubilee events, gave her a plastic see-through poncho and a high-visibility jacket for protection against the rain.

Close Protection UK confirmed that it was using up to 30 unpaid staff and 50 apprentices, who were paid £2.80 an hour, for the three-day event in London. A spokesman said the unpaid work was a trial for paid roles at the Olympics, which it had also won a contract to staff. Unpaid staff were expected to work two days out of the three-day holiday.

The firm said it had spent considerable resources on training and equipment that stewards could keep and that the experience was voluntary and did not affect jobseekers keeping their benefits.

 

All for a good cause though!

:thumbsup:

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I bet that makes all the Olympic athletes sleep soundly in their beds knowing they have such qualified security.

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A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.

Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government's Work Programme.

Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.

One young worker said she was on duty between London Bridge and Tower Bridge during the £12m river spectacle of a 1,000-boat flotilla and members of the Royal family sail by . She said that the security firm Close Protection UK, which won a stewarding contract for the jubilee events, gave her a plastic see-through poncho and a high-visibility jacket for protection against the rain.

Close Protection UK confirmed that it was using up to 30 unpaid staff and 50 apprentices, who were paid £2.80 an hour, for the three-day event in London. A spokesman said the unpaid work was a trial for paid roles at the Olympics, which it had also won a contract to staff. Unpaid staff were expected to work two days out of the three-day holiday.

The firm said it had spent considerable resources on training and equipment that stewards could keep and that the experience was voluntary and did not affect jobseekers keeping their benefits.

 

All for a good cause though!

:thumbsup:

 

used to be called "slave labour"

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