I watched "The Queen" last night
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Posted on Aug 15, 2007 08:30 am
dbmasters
Administrator Since: Apr 03, 2002
It was a look into the British Monarchy during the death of Princess Diana and the surrounding turmoil and civil unrest.
This got me to thinking, knowing this is a movie and likely dramatized, I wish to ask my British friends this.
What the hell does the Queen do? It seems Blair did the governing and just has a weekly meeting with the Queen to get pushed around and disrespected for no good reason.
Who runs Britain? What role does the Queen have? Simply a figurehead of excess at the peoples expense or does she actually rule at all? What role does the Prime Minister have? Is there a King? WHo was the guy sleeping with the Queen and all that? Husband but not King?
I guess the realtionship between Queen and PM?
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flame...bringing sexy backMember
Since: Jul 01, 2002
Aug 15, 2007 08:42 am The Queen, on paper, I'm sure does a tonne of stuff to do with the general loose remit of 'running the country'. In reality, she doesn't actually seem to do ANYTHING, save bring in tourism and have her face printed on stamps and bank notes.
Haven't seen the film, so I don't know how it portrays Blair but I guess he would be answerable to her to a certain degree - but most likely not a great deal. I'm pretty sure whoever is PM at the time has the most swing of anyone in the country. You didn't see GWB getting cosy with the Royals very much did ya? I suspect theres a good reason for that.
As for who sleeps with the queen, I have no idea. Someone OTHER than the racist old lunatic Prince Phillip?
On a humourous sidenote, here's some examples of what the Queens husband has said on official visits around the country:
"In 1986 the queen's husband remarked to a British student during a visit to China: ''If you stay here much longer, you will go home with slitty eyes."
"One of his most notorious remarks was made during a small town visit in Scotland. In a brief conversation with a driving instructor, he asked, "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the (road) test?""
"When touring a Scottish factory, he came upon an old-fashioned fuse box and commented, "It looks like it was put in by an Indian.""
"Another one of the Prince's most famous Asian slurs: "If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an airplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.""
"He once told a group of deaf children standing near a Jamaican steel drum musician, "Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.""
"On a visit to the Cayman Islands, he asked an islander, "Aren't most of you descended from pirates?""
and best of all:
"In 2001 he told a 13-year-old schoolboy he was 'too fat' to become an astronaut."
flame...bringing sexy backMember
Since: Jul 01, 2002
Aug 15, 2007 08:45 am and a few more I just found:
Sharing a joke with a blind, wheelchair-bound girl with a guide-dog: "Do you know they have eating dogs for the anorexic now?"
During the 1981 recession: "Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed."
During a 1984 visit to Kenya, he's presented with a small gift from a native woman: "You are a woman, aren't you?"
When asked to stroke a Koala bear in Australia in 1992: "Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease."
Accepting a conservation award in Thailand in 1991: "Your country is one of the most notorious centres of trading in endangered species in the world."
Pointing at 14-year-old boy during a visit to a London youth club: "He looks as if he is on drugs!"
Aug 15, 2007 09:00 am Wow, that must be who that character was, cuz that is how he acted, very belligerent and arrogant.
The film was very good, I enjoyed it, but it did portray the royals as very unwanted...by the end the Queen appeared to have softened a little and learned some valuable lessons about the British people.
I found it funny how she lectured Blair that nobody knew the British people better than her, yet she never left the palace or private grounds...and the customs while in her presence were almost stupidly comical...bow, kiss her hand, never show your back, yada, yada, yada...yet I still see no reason she deserves that respect...nothing she did or does other than the person that birthed her...
I just find the whole "royal" concept weird.
TallChapAnswer:On a good day, lipstick.Member
Since: Jun 24, 2004
Aug 15, 2007 11:10 am Right on, Flame. "Phil The Greek" is an idiot. A bigoted, bloodthirsty egomaniac with no social skills.
As for the Queen, dB-Wan, she is a 'constitutional monarch' which means that although the Prime Minister, and Parliament do make the overall decisions as to the rule of the country she does have a great deal of influence over the policies set forth. She reigns, but she does not rule.
Her business schedule would boggle your mind. She works CONSTANTLY. In 1998, for example, she had over 400 domestic engagements and about fifty foreign ones. Outwardly it would look like she sits around in palaces and drinks tea all day, but she works pretty much all the time and is one of Britain's (and the Commomwealth's) greatest ambassadors. She's been on the throne since 1953, which makes her one of the world's longest reigning monarchs.
Much of the tradition behind the monarchy are quite archaic, but many of the little customs come from a long history. She opens Parliament every year, but has the door to the Commons slammed in her face (this goes back to Cromwellian times).
She actually wasn't so close to the line to the throne until Edward VIII abdicated (to marry American divorcee Wallace Simpson). The Queen Mother, until her death, called Wallace Simpson 'That woman that killed my husband!' The Queen's father was a very shy, stammering man who did not want the throne at all - but had to when his brother abdicated. He also got to be King through WW2.
As for the film, I think Blair was shown as the 'average Joe in boxers and sweats...' and as a left wing die-hard. As we saw from his policies, he was a LOT more right wing than he would ever have admitted. He was just a puppet to Shrub.
I think it's great that Helen Mirren has now played both Queen Elizabeths. And it was remarkable in the fact that it's one of the few Helen Mirren films where she didn't get her kit off!
I'm not going to tell you that the monarchy is fabulous and to leave it alone, but it is what it is, and it generates more goodwill, tourism, and trade than you could imagine.
How the Queen got her wealth is probably a very sordid history (and a LONG history)), but that's the past. Noone remembers whose great-great-great-great-etc.-grandfather was bullied off his land by whom.
If you want to get into the ills of bullying people off their land, you might check into US history in the 1800's.
Aug 15, 2007 11:26 am Ummmm, OK, well I don't really have a problem with who bullied who and when, as it's happened everywhere, and will continue to happen. I was just very confused in watching the film as to what role the Queen actually has other than giving a face to put on currency...since it always seemed that there was no direct role in gov't or governing.
As far as Blair being a puppet for Bush, the US being bullies, the royal family being bullies and all that, I have no intention of letting this thread go downhill into political infighting and bashing as you seem to want to start. I just wanted some education on what the hell she does for a living...
TallChapAnswer:On a good day, lipstick.Member
Since: Jun 24, 2004
Aug 15, 2007 11:41 am Sorry, I'll leave Shrub alone. I seem to have misunderestimated his strategery....
Really, the Queen does have more say in the running of the country than is outwardly shown, and she does work very hard.
Imagine being just 21 when you're suddenly the Queen of Britain, and the Commonwealth (and a dying Empire)! Pressure?
Feb 24, 2008 08:01 am Hello! I'm busy with a linguistic research on the perception process. And I really need English-native speakers, the British. As I don't have an opportunity to visit Britain, I'd like to ask the Englishmen to answer few questions about the film The Queen (2006). English should be your mother-tongue. And you should have seen the film.
Please, write down you gender and age. It would be helpful in analyzing results.
From three personages choose the one that differs most of all by his (her) personal qualities from other two personages. Name this personal quality that distinguishes the first person from the other two persons and name the opposite quality that unites two other persons.
e.g.
person 1 - person 2 - person 3
person 1 and 3 are clever - person 3 is stupid.
person 2 and 3 are serious - person 1 is funny etc.
1. Queen Elisabeth II - prince Philippe (her husband) prince Charles
2. Queen Elisabeth II - prime-minister Tony Blair - prince Charles
3. prince Philippe - prince Charles - princess Diana
4. Queen Elisabeth II -prince Philippe - princess Diana
5. Tony Blair - princess Diana - Queen Elisabeth II
6. prince Philippe - Tony Blair - princess Diana
7. Tony Blair - prince Charles - princess Diana
8. Queen Elisabeth II - Tony Blair - I (myself)
9. prince Charles - princess Diana - I
10. Tony Blair - prince Charles - I
11. Queen Elisabeth II - princess Diana - I
12. Mother-Queen - Queen Elisabeth II - I
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Feb 24, 2008 08:37 am I may just be a lazy american =), but that seems a lot of work for a home recording forum.
Feb 24, 2008 08:49 am yeah, that's like a patch bay in a studio full of stuff i've got not idea about. i'll connect blair to bush and hook the queen up as a sidechain and see what happens, i guess.
JDODBrother Number OneMember
Since: Jan 22, 2008
Feb 24, 2008 11:51 am Ha ha! Don't worry about Price Phillip. He's turning into a bit of a national treasure! He actually does quite a lot of interesting work relating to environmentally sustainable ethical farming.
The Queen - Hmmm, aside from her role in basically being a tourist magnet (she more that generates enough money for the country to cover her costs) she acts us an independant advisor to the government. Kind of like a mediator. She has nothing to loose and nothing to gain so she is kind of in a unique postition to advise on policy as the outcomes will actually affect her very little. Unless of course the debate is regarding becoming a Republic. Being Welsh myself, I'm all for creating a Peoples Repulic of Wales but leaving the Enlish to their Queen
flame...bringing sexy backMember
Since: Jul 01, 2002
Feb 24, 2008 12:17 pm Nah, its ok, we'll be the republic, you can have her
Feb 24, 2008 10:39 pm OK. This is one thing that I would like to know about the Queen. How is it that she can own a sugar plantation over here in the states, and receive government subsidy for it?
This just doesn't seem right to me.
JDODBrother Number OneMember
Since: Jan 22, 2008
Feb 25, 2008 03:56 am Oh, officially, she's also the head of the British armed forces.
CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
Feb 25, 2008 11:57 am Quote:
"If you want to get into the ills of bullying people off their land, you might want to check into U.S. history in the 1800's"
Ummmm.... What? I'm sorry if I missed something, but I was reading along and then all the sudden this popped up out of nowhere. In your own words "that's the past", you don't get to draw a magical line that makes your countrys past irrelevant.
I agree with DB on not wanting to start a big ole debate. But a lecture on occupation from a Brit is laughable.
BeerHunterwww.TheLondonProject.caMember
Since: Feb 07, 2005
Feb 25, 2008 12:30 pm Hey man, don't forget that the queen is monarch to a lot more than Britain.... last I heard she was also OUR queen too (Canada)... a little bit of info for ya.... I met the queen around 1975.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Feb 28, 2008 09:33 pm I partied with the Queen.
Oh wait, that was Freddy.
