I hate all this Diamond Jubilee bullshit and am not the least bit surprised to hear this:
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.
Southern Beale
This is OT but honestly, wingnuts are the dumbest motherfuckers I’ve ever seen. Now they’re organizing a plan to drive to the nearest highway and then pull over, because of Obama and Kenya and Socialism and … yeesh, I have no fucking clue.
rlrr
@Southern Beale:
I noticed nothing different on the roads on March 13…
SatanicPanic
That sounds like some great work experience they’re getting there. I’m only half snarking, because this probably really is the future for a lot of people.
Southern Beale
Woops just realized that was really old.
rlrr
Diamond Jubilee
This country fought I revolution so we wouldn’t have to care about that shit…
Keith
CNN was showing MORE of the jubilee this morning. This time, it was the church service. It almost amazes me what CNN thinks the rest of the country is really interested in watching. I can kind of understand when a thunderstorm hits NY and it’s non-stop coverage because a lot of these folks live in NY and think it’s the center of the earth, but what’s the deal with CNN covering so much British royal social events?
Ash Can
@Southern Beale: That sounds familiar. Weren’t they talking about doing the same thing in 2008?
ETA: OK, I see your comment @ #4. Got it.
And in other news, from the folks who gave us “Amercia” and “sneak-peak,” take it away, Romney campaign. (via LGF) Republican school-larnin’ in action, I guess.
rlrr
@Keith:
I find it annoying, but I can understand why BBC American was showing it. But why should CNN have liver coverage?
Valdivia
Sounds like a Paradise Circus.
Or actually like a footnote in Dickens. To the workhouse!
Butch
Amazes me that poor people will put so much energy into celebrating a rich person (speaking of the celebration, not these workers).
Steve
@Southern Beale: This is not intended to pick on you because your link is interesting, and I like your blog to boot. But what the heck is with the BJ tradition of people waiting for a new thread to go up and then instantly pouncing on it with an “OT” link that was apparently too important to post as the 100th comment in the prior thread? It seems like someone does this within the first 10 posts of every thread.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Southern Beale: As I recall it was a big kind of nothing last year. Way to reprise a winning idea.
Keith
@rlrr: What’s even stranger is that royal events seem to be the only time that CNN does not saturate their airtime with commercials. I’m a channel flipper, and I miss a TON of CNN simply because when I check it, it’s usually on commercial (or, my favorite, they come back from commercial to say, “When we come back, we’ll be talking about this,” only to go to more commercials.
But something happens with the royal family, and suddenly they don’t need the ad revenue any more. Guess they really do have nothing to talk about any more.
beltane
@Keith: Put yourself in CNN’s shoes. I mean, without a Casey Anthony trial to cover they’ve got to find something else that will entertain and distract stupid people.
rlrr
@Keith:
If only CNN covered other international events so thoroughly, they might start to be worth watching.
Villago Delenda Est
@rlrr:
Because it’s cheap to cover this shit. Set up a camera, have a color guy make notes about the coronets and such, and your done. No actual work involved.
Plus, it’s guaranteed an audience of idiots in this country, who forget we fought a fucking revolution 237 years ago to be rid of this crap.
The Republic of Stupidity
“Jubilee Stewards…”
What an appropriate name…
The only thing that would have made this even sweeter was if they had ’em dress up in some sort of truly absurd ‘beefeater’ type outfits…
rlrr
@beltane:
they’ve got to find something else that will entertain and distract stupid people.
I hear Glenn Beck is looking for a TV gig…
GregB
I watched about three minutes of CNN’s fawning coverage with that insufferable tool Piers Morgan before I decided to switch the channel.
I can’t imagine a nation that still plays along with the kings and queens horse shit.
Ash Can
@Steve: I can’t answer for Southern Beale, but I know I do it when I spot a news item that I’m pretty sure would be of particular interest to most people here. I’ll put it where people can see it, rather than burying it (especially when the thread I stick it in is on a topic that doesn’t have much substance).
gypsy howell
Every snippet I hear from the Jubilee news is some blather about how selfless, tireless and dedicated the queen is. Jeezus, she’s one of the richest women in the world, by virtue only of the tax money her subjects are forced to remit. Her entire life – every stinking tiny bit of it — is paid for by someone else. So she has to cut a ribbon now and then? Normally, I don’t give a hoot about the queen or the british royalty – that’s their deal and I guess if they like it, that’s none of my business. But please spare the “sacrifice” baloney.
jonas
Supposedly the security firm using these folks was offering them a free “try-out” in order to be hired for the upcoming London Olympics — that’s why a bunch of job-seekers signed up for this. How much “security” a bunch of poor schmucks who’ve been sleeping under a bridge in freezing weather all night with no pay can provide is another question.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Villago Delenda Est: All of that, especially this:
And it doesn’t require any actual work, the way reporting about issues of real significance does.
MattF
Poor people sleep under the bridge, Elizabeth sleeps in a palace. Is there a problem?
SatanicPanic
Except for the pretty girl that doofus prince married I don’t know why anyone even cares about this bunch.
gypsy howell
@jonas:
That statement assumes the objective is to provide actual security, as opposed to the more likely goal of sucking up public tax dollars for private benefit . Nice to know that the national security complex is as corrupt in the UK as it is here.
catclub
@gypsy howell: Exactly, plus, if she did not love doing it, she could quit and get a huge pension and just do less. That is the kind of job I would be willing to take if I am not to retire until 80.
gypsy howell
@MattF:
I guess even workhouses are too much to aspire to these days. Now you just get the underside of a bridge.
Villago Delenda Est
@MattF:
Well, Elizabeth is prohibited by law from sleeping under bridges, just like those stewards.
The majestic equality of the law!
Villago Delenda Est
@catclub:
That ain’t workin’! That’s the way you do it! Money for nothin’ and the corgis are free!
gypsy howell
It’s like the rich and powerful are once again practically begging to be beheaded.
Fwiffo
I don’t know how it got to become so normal to not pay people for their work.
chopper
@The Republic of Stupidity:
ugh, sorry i gobbed all over your carpet, squire.
Rafer Janders
Yes, thank god we live in a country of rugged egalitarian dignity, where we don’t do fawning coverage of absurd celebrities who’ve gotten where they through inheritance from their parents. Now excuse me while I go watch Luke Russert’s interview of Kim Khardashian, and then I have to catch what Donald Trump is saying about Mitt Romney.
At least Princes Phillip, Charles, Andrew, Edward and Harry all served or are serving in their military, and some of them are actual combat veterans.
jonas
@gypsy howell: No, of course this is a scam — my tongue was planted firmly in cheek with that rhetorical question.
greenergood
Diamond Jubilee – classic bread and circuses stuff. Next circus – Olympics. Gawd. Austerity? What’s that?
Keith G
@rlrr: So you’ld (and all here) rather have them covering another missing white girl or the latest gay psycho torture murder?
Fuck, I’ll take the House of Windsor over that stuff any day.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Rafer Janders:
Thank you, that is a point I have tried to make previously. Our royals serve, the aristocracy over here – not so much.
Mnemosyne
@Butch:
Well, it used to be that they would do it because it was a job that paid money to put food on the table. Now, apparently, not so much.
If you’re talking about the people who line the streets for the parades and such, why is it ridiculous to watch a parade with your head of state in it but totally sensible to watch your winning sports team parade by? People love pageantry and entertainment and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it within reason.
Walker
@gypsy howell:
Actually, this is not true and thinking about it this way is dangerous, because it lulls us into thinking that this cannot happen here.
The Queen (and other members of the royal family) only gets tax payer money for official state events. It is a minor fraction of her income. Most of the royal family money is from estates. That is hundreds and hundreds of year of accumulated wealth that is not subject to any inheritance tax.
This is what will happen if the “Death tax” is eliminated in this country.
Waldo
They were bussed into London and slept under a bridge? I’m outraged! Only in socialist Europe would they get free transportation and housing.
Keith G
London freezing in June?
Oh jesus, it burns.
This story reminds me of the treatment of Katrina and the BP spill workers here in the good ol’ US of A.
JPL
NBC just interrupted programming so we can watch the royal wave. I’m not sure the unemployed will be able to view it from under the bridge though.
Villago Delenda Est
@Walker:
Which is why Jefferson fought so hard to have an estate tax in the first place.
To prevent the sort of multigenerational accumulation of wealth that led to the bloodshed of the French Revolution.
We have demonstrated over the last 30 years that we are not worthy of his wisdom.
gypsy howell
@Walker:
I would liken that to a form of tax upon the citizenry, perhaps the most insidious form because it is so easily overlooked an undervalued. And trust me, I loathe and despise our galtian overlords here much more than I am repelled by the idea of the british monarchy. As litlbrit says, at least the royals give off the appearance of thinking they owe the country something back.
Steve
This is more of a story about privatization than a story about royal privilege. Not that the Queen is lacking in resources, but a truly decadent royal family would have its own massive security force to provide security and staffing for all sorts of functions. Instead, the contract for an event like this gets awarded to a private firm, who proceeds to round up a bunch of desperate job-seekers to work for free. But hey, if we did things the other way then people might resent the royalty’s bloated payroll so this way must be better.
gardenia breath
i guess this should make me feel better about America as a whole.
gardenia breath
@Keith G: well, the latter, i must say, is quite a story, imo. i can’t really blame the media for that part.
Scot
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
I thought it was religious persecution which you are even more afflicted by now. You have the British to thank for democracy so lighten up.
R-Jud
I spent the weekend holed up with 18 friends in a tiny medieval market town on the Welsh border. While I was walking back from the shop (I was the designated bacon-getter, being an early riser) an elderly woman greeted me with an enthusiastic “God Save The Queen!” Being an American in favor of small-r republican government, I could only say, “Mmm!” in reply. She scowled at me.
Other than that, it was nice that all my friends had two days off. Also, Champagne was half-price at Sainsbury’s.
Steve
@Walker: Is there a big difference between the property owned by the British royal family and what we call “federal property” in this country? I mean, the essential feature of a monarchy is that the state is essentially personalized through the monarch, but it’s still state-owned property either way, right? Even if the federal government in this country had to pay some form of inheritance tax, who would it be paid to?
JenJen
I will never understand how the British get away with these slave labor schemes for the unemployed. Wasn’t there a similar scheme involving a grocery store recently?
In Royal Bullshit news, I did get a kick out of some of the signs the not-so-loyal were displaying in the crowd during Sunday’s regatta. My favorite read “Don’t Ju-Believe It!”
gardenia breath
@Rafer Janders: oh, i still love you, dammit. i hate this unrequited business.
Mnemosyne
@R-Jud:
I guess your comeback could have been, “No taxation without representation!” but it’s hard to work into a conversation.
linda
I for one think it adds a nice medieval gloss to everything. Seriously,is there anything Americans give a rat’s ass less about, and yet that we are more overexposed to?
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Rafer Janders:
This. Right. Here.
Yeah, Her Majesty and her brood are filthy stinkin’ rich. So? So was Uncle Teddy and so were his brothers; but the sumbitches worked and fought for *all* of us.
The Princes have all worn their country’s uniform, have all served as genuine subalterns– show me a rich American who’s kid has ever worn one of the nations uniforms, and I’ll show you a fucking unicorn.
R-Jud
@Mnemosyne: Particularly with a hangover.
@JenJen: Yep, that was Tesco. Basically Britain’s Wal-Mart.
giltay
@Rafer Janders: The Queen served in the War with the Women’s Aux as a mechanic.
Roger Moore
@Steve:
Yes, there is. The property of the Royal family is their personal property, which they are free to do with as they please, with the exception of limitations from things like entailments. That makes it distinct from ordinary tax money, which has always been controlled by the House of Commons. In fact, the distinction has often been very politically important, being a driving force behind things like the English Civil War.
IIRC, the Monarch doesn’t actually get all the money from those estates anymore. One of the Queen’s impecunious ancestors made a bargain with Parliament to trade all his personal revenues for an allowance in perpetuity. The amount of the allowance has gone up more slowly than the revenue from the Monarch’s personal property, so what looked like a good deal to the King centuries ago has turned out to be a good deal for the rest of the country today.
redshirt
Bigger question: Why is anyone watching CNN?
Another Halocene Human
@rlrr: One of my coworkers (who was born overseas) remarked that the Queen’s barge was so ugly, and that if Americans put on something like that everything would be new and shiny.
I felt a little put out. We’re such wastrels. Anyway, the flotilla didn’t look all that awesome on TV. And I can’t stomach the simpering commentary.
I tried to start a riot in the Tower of London in their “worship da Queen” room a few years back bitching loudly and rudely that the crown jewels were stolen from Ireland and India, but my Indian friends hustled me out in a panic (I’m Irish).
Steve
@Roger Moore: But the vast majority of the royal family’s property is only “theirs” because they are the royal family. If the Queen were to abdicate tomorrow, she wouldn’t get to take all those royal estates with her. If the Queen were to die tomorrow, the royal estates pass to her heir (Prince Charles), but that’s only because there’s an Act of Parliament which makes Prince Charles the heir to the throne. So the royal property stays in the Windsor family only because Parliament wants it to.
burnspbesq
@GregB:
Imagination is not required. Such places actually exist.
If you meant to say that you don’t understand why there are still monarchies, I’d suggest you ask the Dutch or the Swedish. The institution seems to work pretty well for them.
Comrade Mary
@gypsy howell: The CBC is covering the Jubilee and the Canadian tour by Chuck & Whatserface TO DEATH (hey guys, we aren’t defined by being pink on the map any more, OK?), but one of the saner shows featured some journalists talking about covering Charles.
The takeaway?
1) Charles does have a work ethic in that he goes, goes, goes for hours on end for each day of appearances, paying close attention to every commoner who approaches him and never, ever taking lunch.
2) Of course, this means the journalists and everyone else on the tour don’t get to have lunch, either.
Sums things up nicely, I think.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
Yup, all true.
The British royals are expected to serve that way. And they do so gladly, knowing that they are privileged and obligated to serve as a consequence.
Unlike the fowl spawn of OvenMitt.
Cacti
@Villago Delenda Est:
Pardon me if I don’t get in a twist that the Mittlets don’t get to take military helicopters on joy rides to land on their girlfriends’ back yard.
But I’m sure HRH Willy Windsor got a good, stern talking-to for that one.
Suffern ACE
@Rafer Janders: You know, just having a royal family doesnt stop idle idol worship. It just adds another layer.
Brachiator
@Keith:
Ratings.
@rlrr:
Americans have always had an affection for and connection to the Brits, despite the Revolution. In a similar way, India kicked the Brits out of the country, happily and decidedly, but harbors few ill feelings, and even kept a few good ideas like that parliamentary democracy thing.
And if you ever want to see how everything old is new again, look through the archives of the NY Times or another paper with some history, and see how often Americans fawned over visits by British royalty or nobility.
Also, too, if Americans didn’t go apeshit over things British we wouldn’t have Christmas trees. Prince Albert brought the tradition from his beloved Germany, and Americans soon copied it.
Roger Moore
@Steve:
But the point is that the property is not Parliament’s to control without explicitly taking it over. They can change the rules of succession so a different person inherits it along with the throne, but they can’t control what is done with that property otherwise. If the Queen decided to demolish Buckingham Palace and turn the grounds into a park (and she had the personal funds to do it), Parliament couldn’t stop her. It’s her personal property. That’s very different from the status of property held by the Executive Branch in the US, which would need Congressional approval for anything major like that.
Rafer Janders
@burnspbesq:
Or even our neighbor to the north, Canada, which is a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth as head of state.
Amanda in the South Bay
@burnspbesq:
And in most Western European countries that still have monarchies, they are nothing but an expensive relic that has little impact in the day to day running of the nation. And we shall see how long the British monarchy lasts, with rumblings of Scots independence.
Amir Khalid
What stinks about this story, as the Guardian reported it, is that these unemployed people served as event stewards without pay or even accommodation. Would it have killed this outfit Close Protection UK to put them up in a dorm somewhere? To provide access to a changing room and toilets? To pay a stipend for working on a public holiday? “You get to keep this free rain poncho” sounds more like an insult.
Cacti
@Brachiator:
Bit of a reach with that one.
LanceThruster
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich and the poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” (Le Lys Rouge) ~ Anatole France
eemom
I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made….
Villago Delenda Est
@Cacti:
Actually, it was the German monarchs who the Brits aped who we aped. But, also, too, German immigrants brought that tradition with them at the same time.
The bottom line is, it was originally a German tradition that was aped by both Perfidious Albion and her across the pond colonies.
Amanda in the South Bay
And republican sentiment is stronger in Australia and New Zealand than Canada.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
It would have cut into sacred profit.
Surely by now you know how this works.
canuckistani
Terry Pratchett writing in The Wee Free Men comes to mind today – “Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna’ be fooled again!”
Cacti
@Villago Delenda Est:
That was my point.
A German prince, married to the British queen, is responsible for the Xmas tree in the USA, despite numerous German immigrants bringing the tradition with them.
All rather tenuous, no?
I’m just waiting for some Anglophile yabo to credit the Beatles for bring Rock and Roll to America.
burnspbesq
@Rafer Janders:
Which they tend to ignore until Harper needs to prorogue Parliament in order to avoid losing a vote of confidence. Then the Governor General becomes the biggest of big swinging dicks.
eemom
@Amanda in the South Bay:
Isn’t it funny how “republican” can actually mean something good somewhere?
fasteddie9318
@SatanicPanic: Even there, I mean, Kate Middleton is a pretty girl, and so is her sister, but neither one is zOMG TEH MOST BOOOTIFUL WOMAN IN TEH WORILD! like we’re constantly being told they are. The whole operation is a ridiculous (and ridiculously expensive) anachronism, but at least it’s not our ridiculous (and ridiculously expensive) anachronism. I don’t know how the populace of a country suffering economic contraction because its Important People decided that the peons should eat gruel can sit there and watch an extravagant and costly celebration of one woman’s steadfast refusal to die without going full pitchforks and torches, but that’s just me.
Brachiator
@Cacti: RE: Also, too, if Americans didn’t go apeshit over things British we wouldn’t have Christmas trees
Really?
Yeah, Christmas trees existed in America earlier, as did other traditions. But the Brits and mass media really brought it home.
burnspbesq
@Amanda in the South Bay:
If nothing else, the monarchies in places like Sweden and the Netherlands reinforce a sense of nationhood in increasingly diverse societies. You didn’t see people throwing bananas at Henrik Larsson or Patrick Kluivert when they took the field for their respective national teams, the way you do when naturalized Brazilians play for countries like Croatia or Ukraine.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: I am still pissed at Michelle Jean for agreeing to go along with Harper on that. I actually had some respect for her before that happened. After that she was just another tool.
Another Halocene Human
@redshirt: Don Lemon. I feel so sorry for him. He looks like a kicked puppy reading all the ridiculous news that comes up on his ‘prompter.
Rafer Janders
Christmas trees were brought to England by Albert, true, but here in America, we got them directly from the millions of German immigrants who immigrated to New England and New York in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as from German mercenaries serving in the British Army during the Revolutionary War years.
Another Halocene Human
@burnspbesq: Not sure monarchy is the crucial difference here. Need more info.
It is interesting the role that the remaining monarchs played in the Holocaust. Yet the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which fueled a lot of anti-semitic violence, came from the Russian Czar. And the Vatican monarchy did too little, too late.
It may be that monarchs keep a lid on the crazies, much like GWB calmed down the anti-Muslim bloodlust at home after 9/11 (redirecting it towards other countries, of course).
Brachiator
@Amanda in the South Bay:
In an odd way, the upcoming Pixar film Brave may add to the rumblings for Scots independence. That and Sean Connery’s “Scotland Forever” tattoos.
burnspbesq
@Cacti:
What the Beatles were, was acceptable to mainstream America in ways that Chuck Berry or Bo Diddley never could have been.
burnspbesq
@Brachiator:
Scotland bailing from the UK would be a huge mistake. No way does it have a tax base to pay for its social safety net.
Metrosexual Black AbeJ
@eemom:
Do you think that works as a karaoke song?
Amanda in the South Bay
@burnspbesq:
You should be comparing Western European constitutional monarchies with Western European republics, not newly formed East European countries with a very recent history of both communism and fascism, and little of that rule of law stuff that has a much longer history outside the former Soviet Bloc.
Patricia Kayden
@gypsy howell: You made me laugh out loud! Please keep the violent anti-rich comments coming!
Ed Drone
@Waldo:
And in this country, they would be paid, and leftover (confiscated) Occupy tents provided them, so the Republicants could bitch about increasing the size of the government, and insist that some granny or other lose part of her Social Security to make up for it.
Ed
Ed Drone
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
Which proves that Rmoney is NO UNICORN!
Ed
Brachiator
@burnspbesq:
True, and despite some polls suggesting that a majority opposde independence, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond is pushing for a million Scots to sign a “Yes, declaration” petition to help the drive toward a 2014 referendum on the issue.
It’s kinda interesting that the SNP wants people as young as 16 to be able to vote on the question of Scottish independence, hoping perhaps for youthful enthusiasm over fuller consideration of the economic and larger political issues.
Alex
To paraphrase Anatole France, standing on his head: “The law, in its majestic equality, permits the rich and the poor alike to sleep under bridges.”
Ed Drone
@Cacti:
Imagine if it’d been George W! He’d have crashed the damned thing. Or John McCain, who did in fact have a career with several “oops” landings in it.
Ed
eemom
@Metrosexual Black AbeJ:
Totally. I noticed they are having karaoke at NN. : )
Interrobang
@Rafer Janders: Elizabeth didn’t serve in the military, but she worked as an ambulance driver in London in WWII. I personally know someone (one of my best friends) whose father worked with her. Everyone working with her at the time called her “Liz” and nobody knew who she was actually — in the 1940s, when she was very young, she was not well known.
Forty years later when she was on a royal tour to Canada, she met my friend’s father (and my friend), and she not only remembered him, she called him by name.
Not only that, but the British royal family could have left Britain during the war (lots of European royal families did; the Dutch royal family was living in temporary residence in Guelph, Ontario), but they didn’t.
If you’d do a little reading about this, you’d know that the responsible party involved with this is a charity which has a shitty reputation in the UK for extracting a lot of for-free out of vulnerable people, and, in the words of one commenter, “forcing sick people into jobs.”
Perhaps those of us who are actually British subjects (kindasorta) might do well to write to Her Maj and express our displeasure. I hear she’s good about that sort of thing.
burnspbesq
@Amanda in the South Bay:
No, I think you’ve missed the point on two counts. Alas, I don’t have time to get into it in detail right now. Work intrudes.
BeanTooth
They made them sleep under London Bridge? Oh, the cruelty. The commute from Havisu, Az must have been murder.
uptown
The good news (for wanna be terrorists) is