8:02 am ET
Apr 29, 2011


Why The Royal Wedding Makes Us Feel Terribly British

    • In my opinion the british monarchy is a liability. It feeds Britain's post-colonial fantasy that it still is a world power. In retrospect, the US should have insisted as a condition to entering World War One that the monarchy be abolished. After all, without the US, there wouldn't have been victory. And if Britain had asked for an armistice instead of Germany, the british monarchy most likely would have had to abdicate, as the kaiser was made to do.

    • Boo, hiss! to this article!

    • What a hater.

    • Everyone is entitled to their opinions, englishman.

    • I don't know who this writer is or how come the Journal chose to feature his remarks, buit it is obvious that he did not live through WWII or serve in the Britsih military. He sounds like a spoiled 30-something with no sense of history or tradtion or national identity.

    • john adams, did you serve in the British military?

    • American speaks the truth here. Especially about Britain’s post-colonial fantasy that it still is a world power.

    • When I saw the royal wedding, I reached the conclusion that no justice exists in this world and the concept of justice is only made by the human mind. Someone only because he comes to the world from a royal family, he receives so much prosperity, wealth and fame in his life and the whole world's attention. And the other one struggles for a piece of bread in famine Africa while people turn their face to a royal fairytale instead of caring and doing something for him/her. While William and Kate enjoys this anglophilic attention, youth in Syria, Bahrain, Yemen are killed by dictators. Don't you really know that Bahrain is a royal country? While Windsor royal family in UK are not dictators anymore, they are remnant of those dictators who took people for slavery. This wealth has been produced by poor slaves. This celebration shows humanity is not mature enough to understand that all people are equal and someone deserves more respect for what he has achieved not where he comes from.

    • Why is it that not everyone can appreciate a brilliant spectacle of the bringing of two people joining their lives together without going on about imperialistic behaviour etc. They are who they are. The monarchy is believed by many of us as a constant uniting strength running in the background politics and politicians. Ask any British military person if he would have rather have a politician hand him his medal or the Queen, as head of state with over a thousand years of history behind her. As to the comments over the US winning the second world war, fair enough you eventually joined against the incredible evil of the nazis and were industrially the saving grace of the free western world, but if Britain and its Commonwealth had fallen and the might of the axis and production then available to Hitler had been turned against the US the result may have been much different today. I have met and made friends with many Americans and have the greatest respect for your armed forces and country and believe that it is good for the world that we share many goals and our views on democracy. I would gladly give my all to protect our parliamentary and monarchy system that gives so much pleasure and respect to millions and a deep feeling of continuity of our history. Take care, all powerful states and empires eventually suffer a demise.....

    • Whilst I am not a monarchist, the royal wedding gave a lot of pleasure to the people who watched it and for some people it gave a respite from the constant grind of news depicting death, destruction and sadness. The monarchy may well be an outdated institution and holds very little real power but of course that is what the democratically elected british government is elected for and what so many non UK people don't seem to realise. Yes, the Americans may well have have played a large part in WW2 in particular but only when they realised that they would have to, it was a grudging act at best and they have been recompensed financially and allowed to take all the credit despite other countries being involved. As a Brit, I get a little tired of the constant bashing our nation receives especially from Americans and the assumption that we consider ourselves to be a powerful and great nation. The ordinary people of the UK are not self promoting and flag waving except on certain occasions, we leave that to the more self satisfied nations. Yet we are proud that despite having a class system and an outdated monarchy we have managed to provide free healthcare, a mostly subsidised higher education system and a guaranteed minimum wage, this is something some supposedly more advanced nations are only just embracing. As for the royal wedding, well I worked that day as I am a socialist and not a monarchist and so didn't watch the wedding along with many others. More fool to the foreign reporters who gushed over a wedding that had nothing to do with them and ignored more pressing matters in their own countries. Don't blame the royals, or the British, most of us couldn't have cared less who watched it quite frankly.

    • Jen - Like most Britons, you are out of touch with reality.

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