ideally, in a democracy, you want checks and balances, but the constitutional monarchy has never provided that

It's not going to change in my lifetime, but monarchy is on its way out. There is too much instant communication for it to survive

After the last Tory stint, the idea that the monarchy holds the Westminster government to account in any meaningful sense is laughable.

I’m not as bothered about the Monarchy ending as you are about them continuing. :laugh:
The public and the press would still be interested in them anyway, especially Kate and William and their children as they grow. It isn’t as if they would disappear, never to be seen again.

I think he means the Lords.

no, i mean the monarchy. The British monarchy has never provided any chacks and balances in recent times. I think Victoria attempted to clip the governments wings on a couple of occasions, but was never very effective in that regard

Use the bin you scuffy, smelly, dirty, selfish, polluting bastards.

Why would Anti - Monarchists want the end of these types of initiatives that benefit so many? It seems so selfish and uncaring of others. That's what I don't get.
This is what the Royals DO, their work.

An example.

https://www.princestrustglobal.org/
Background
The Prince’s Trust helps young people who have faced disadvantage and adversity to build a better future for themselves, through employment, education and enterprise. Founded by HM The King in 1976, the charity supports 11 to 30 year-olds who are unemployed or struggling at school. Many are in or leaving care, facing issues such as homelessness, poverty or mental health problems, or they have been in trouble with the law. The Trust helps young people to build skills and confidence and find employment. Over the last five years, three in four young people supported by The Prince’s Trust moved into work, education or training. The charity has helped more than a million young people to date and helps tens of thousands more across the UK each year. Facts and figures The Trust supported more than 46,000 young people during 2020/21. The Trust has helped more than a million young people since it was founded by HM The King in 1976.

Some others:

Early Childhood
https://royalfoundation.com/early-childhood/

The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
https://www.royal.uk/royal-foundation

The Duke of Edinburgh Awards
https://www.royal.uk/duke-edinburghs-award

The working Royals carry out over 3,000 engagements a year in support of their charities.

Even then they at one point did an OK-ish job at deflecting some of the barmier govt. suggestions but these days they seem to be completely ineffective.

Hm sure, as far as I know they can't outright say NO, but keep bouncing it back with suggested changes?

A year or two ago there was a debate on the trans stuff, and some of the Ladies were saying things which would probably endanger MPs' lives careers etc.

I believe in accountability and democracy, but it's refreshing to have people who can say what they like without fear.

Yeah, I agree. When people waffle on about how rosy life was before the pandemic I want to scream. Every era has its highs and lows and people whinge and moan about the lows and how much better things were in the past every year. There were a lot of things about the past that genuinely were better but 2006 would be my reference-point for that, not 2016.

I genuinely believe that Western society (for the average person) more or less "peaked" in the 90's and 00's.

Before the 2008 crash, because that was the beginning of the ramped up decision to shift wealth upwards across the world, with austerity movements and by balancing the crash on the back of the poorest, rather than the folks that caused it, which forced a a shift ever more rightwards. Freedoms have been taken away and lost over the last 15 years that it might take centuries to ever get back.

Yup.

Especially for average LGBT people; I feel that was the best time for actual acceptance, in that no-one gave a sht. Better than the offputting performative "wokeness", for want of a better term.

To what freedoms do you refer?
(Pre-pandemic)

Personally speaking 2016 has been the worst year of my life so far for a multitude of reasons.

And I agree that 2006 was a great year, but that could be my childhood nostalgia talking tbf.

Yeah, no, there was a lot of stuff to genuinely miss about the noughties. 2006 was quite a sweet spot.

2016 was so-so for me. We lost an auntie to cancer that year so there was that but there was quite a bit of good stuff going on (more-so nearer the end). But Brexit was in the air and it … yeah. Lots of awful things about that 2013 to 2019 period. The back-end of 2013 and first two months and a bit of 2014 were okay (the fact that we were climbing out of the recession/credit crunch helped). So nostalgia’s deffo valid but a lot of people’s reference points are about 10 years late. Either they’re that young or they have very short memories and can’t remember what life was really like before the pandemic so rate it as better than it was. It was cute 2 years ago but at this point it’s just annoying.

Not so much in America but definitely in the UK. I agree. The way TV declined after 2012 was no joke.

I'm sorry to hear about your Auntie, Redway, I would think that it was a traumatizing experience.

But I do agree with you that every era has it's pro's and con's, I think childhood nostalgia can bias people into which era is their favourite.

It’s cool.

But yeah. We’re all a little nostalgic about something from the past and maybe with good cause but those pre vs. post-Covid people are just pathetic. Life didn’t magically start in 2018/2019 and sh*t happened then as well, just like it always has. Hindsight just tints the past in golden rose. Even if most of it was pretty bad.

To be fair though there were a few fundamental shifts during the Covid era, such as the slide into remote working/company structures being rebuilt around remote operation. It was probably coming anyway but Covid sort of catalysed and accelerated a lot of things.