But that's got nothing to do with the Queen or the King, it's the policy of the government. I get your point about Yemen. I certainly wish we could wash our hands of the Saudis completely. I suspect there would be huge detrimental knock on effects if we did though. Unfortunately very little in life is black or white. There are few good choices, often the least bad ones.
The license for said arms go through the Ministry of Defence, which is part of her/his majesty's government and army. Surely it has everything to do with said King/ Queen. Also ironic that King Charles' speech referenced the families of Britain, many of which were brought in kindly at gun point
The armed forces ‘report’ to the Ministry of Defence and ultimately the Defence secretary whose responsibilities include Policy making.
My mate is from Bridgend, he hates ( gets on his t**s would be a better term) Welsh speaking zealots who think they are more Welsh than he is.
It's a funny one this...undoubtedly the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are Royal, but I heard it argued that even since Charles the second the Army was considered to be Parliament's Army. ( I am not an expert)
I remember reading a book about the Falklands War and apparently the Welsh lads could not understand the captured welsh speaking Argentinians.
there’s a catch all article here which doesn’t really explain much of the origins https://www.forces.net/heritage/history/why-it-british-army-and-not-royal-army popular myth and indeed the story I’ve always believed is the army came from Cromwell and the new model army, hence parliamentary but I’m not 100% sure if that’s just become said so often it’s now true
All the families have the option to leave the Commonwealth. I believe Antigua and Barbuda have announced the intention to have a referendum on leaving. The others, including Canada, have expressed, up to now the wish to remain. Again your insistence to blame the Monarch for the actions of the Government is bizarre. In that case the monarchy is equally responsible for the introduction of the NHS, progressive legislation on LGBT rights, racial equality, workers rights etc, etc. Are you going to give them the credit for all that? I'm not because they had nothing to do with it beyond signing a bit of paper at the end of each one.
The language thing is an interesting one. I lived in Chester for eight years and travelled into North Wales a lot. I think I only ever heard Welsh being spoken once. I then moved here to the Dingle peninsula and live just a few miles outside a ghaeltacht which is an area designated by the Irish government to promote, encourage and develop the use off the Irish language. My other half speaks gaelic and her daughter went to a school in Dingle where everything was taught in gaelic and English not allowed to be spoken. I work in Dingle and go in, on average twice a week at least. You almost never hear gaelic being used. My partner and her daughter almost never use it. The only time this year was last week when they were discussing a film they'd seen but I hadn't and I didn't want to know what happened. For a while, when I moved over, I couldn't see the point in the teaching of gaelic as barely anyone uses it, even in the gaeltacht. I cane around to the conclusion though that I do live in Ireland. I like the fact that it's Ireland and don't really want it to feel exactly like England. That's no disrespect to England, I just want Ireland to feel Irish and I guess the Irish want to retain their identity too. That sounds slightly patronising and isn't meant to and the whole point is apropos of nothing really but I just thought I'd chuck it in.
It's going to be an interesting time...Barbados left last year, it is interesting they didn't have a referendum on it...both of their governing parties had been sacked relatively recently by The Governor General for corruption and recently they have been offered millions in Chinese investment, the article I read suggested ( whether it was biased or not I have no idea) the Chinese money was dependent on them getting rid of the formal ties. Belize is another interesting case, they have separatists who demonstrated against William and Kate's recent visit there...but Belize has a problem in that Guatemala wants to take it over , but the UK presence there currently prevents it.
Correct, but holding up profanity and possibly inciting unrest could be. I’ve no problem with people having this viewpoint, but why do it there and with such a placard. Not exactly child friendly…
Who report to the Ministry of Defence not the other way round. The person in charge of the MoD was appointed by the PM. So your assertion that I replied to was wrong.
I think it's important to preserve language and I'd support that or any other heritage preservation anywhere. Over the past few years I've been doing the family history and it's been a real education. My Mum's side ( the Fitzpatrick's) came from Mayo during the famine and rocked up in Kidderminster...and fortunately from my point of view started to rip the place apart . They were involved in several court cases, which revealed they only spoke Irish ( which had never occured to me for some reason!!) My GGG Grandfather was one of a gang who attacked a bloke in a boozer, they made a right mess of him with nail studded clubs...luckily for me the GGG was a bit more Queensberry rules...he only used a brass candlestick!!...perhaps surprisingly they were found not guilty.
Lol. The word hooligan is, I'm told, derived from an actual Irish family called Hooligan who were so violent and disorderly their nane became a byword for...well...Hooliganism.
yes, I've heard that - totally bizarre! a boatload of Welsh people went to Patagonia in the 1860's - this was because they were worried the Welsh Language and Culture was under threat in Wales. Why they just didn't move to mid-Wales I don't know.
there is a sort of class system amongst the Welsh. My English born nephew - living in North Wales has learnt the language pretty well but is treated as a slightly second-class Welshman by some people. And another relative born in Wales but doesn't speak Welsh is looked down on by some Welsh speakers. His children go to a Welsh School and some of the other parents ignore him because he doesn't speak Welsh -- bears out wht you say about your Bridgend mate. The Taffs are a funny lot !