"Well, you detractors might wanna go live somewhere the Crown doesn't protect yer ass. No democracy. No health care. No unions. No whatever. Don't forget to write and let us know how it's working out for you."

The Crown doesn't provide any go those things. We pay for some of them, some of them come from the suffering of ordinary working folk that stood up to the system and democracy in the UK today means corporate governance without accountability. The Queen has no power, she's a distraction and her son Chaz is a man with outright disdain for the democratic process, which he ignores when it suits him (as in the Chelsea Barracks debacle). This idiot, who prefers magic to science will be king one day, may the old gods help us.

Whilst the masses have been waving flags and celebrating a thousand years of their ancestors getting shat on for the dubious benefits of monarchs, god and the glory of empire (i.e. invading other countries and killing people), over in Chantilly, the 1% mutual wankathon for the rich and powerful Bilderberg has signed off on intervention in Syria, is re-jigging the internet to their own ends (Google it) and done all this and fuck knows what else without ever bringing 'democracy' into the process to muddle things.

You might gain some insight from listening to the people who actually live here. There's a long history here in the UK of republicanism and ridiculing the monarch, her family and government and long may it continue. Not everyone automatically defers to authority figures, some have a mind of their own and many of the most original thinkers of these islands have been iconoclasts. Thank fuck.

The 1000 ships on the Thames was good though, especially the little ships from Dunkirk and the narrow boats.