Heh. And yeah the conservatives at the time sounded almost as bad as the ones we have today – wielding the power of counties with almost no constituents (e.g. the empty ancient city of Sarum had 2 MPs, the undersea city of Dunwich had huge voting power, and the Isle of Wight transparently bribed the few sparse voters it had because of how large it was)
Comment on In the spirit of the King's Birthday
huf@hexbear.net 2 days ago
IIRC william was an unusually politically savvy king.
he did his coronation on the cheap so as to ease public sentiment. and then when told “sire, the peasants are revolting”, he did not say “yes, of course”, but (eventually) put pressure on the conservatives to get the reform bill passed.
tetris11@feddit.uk 2 days ago
huf@hexbear.net 2 days ago
and also, their only idea to solve the crisis was to commit a thousand more peterloos, which doesnt seem like a great idea in the long run…
tetris11@feddit.uk 2 days ago
if at first you don’t succeed…!
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 days ago
George V was also pretty based. Essentially, the House of Lords kept rejecting the Common’s bills to limit the Lords so he threatened to fill the Lords with people who won’t reject it.
We’ve been pretty good with monarchs in recent history anyway, barring Edward VIII
Sure, you can complain about the system, but now we have a funny old man who likes nature and pedestrian based affordable towns who’s worst flaw is that he cheated on his wife compared to his clownterpart across the pond who’s done it several times.
tetris11@feddit.uk 2 days ago
I dont like the monarchy, in the same way that I dont like the BBC.
But to remove them and replace them with something far far worse? No thank you.
I’m weirdly glad that some of my taxes goes towards experimental green towns, or part of my license fee goes towards high quality educational kids shows.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 day ago
Tbh I think we have a lot to be thankful for in the BBC. I don’t think it’s possible to have a perfect system or broadcaster. The monarchy has worked for the UK for centuries. We haven’t slipped into fascism - the type of coup people describe Trump as doing would most likely be impossible in our lifetimes in the UK under the monarchy (depending how George Wales turns out, but he has good parents)
tetris11@feddit.uk 1 day ago
I’d argue that it wouldn’t happen under the monarchy, because the monarchy has always had a tenuous hold over public opinion and their livelihood could tip either way depending on how the public was feeling.
But under a system where the powers that be are beholden only to shareholders in major companies? No, those countries have more in common with Sparta than a democracy
tenebrisnox@feddit.uk 1 day ago
Why do we need anything “far worse”? Why not just remove them constitutionally and let them do their own thing? Smaller state and all that.