Prince William and Kate expecting a baby

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 12:29 PM

Why should it, Richard? Even if there were any truth in that canard, which is highly questionable, it wasn't Wills but his bro Harry of whom that silly tale was told.

You are often a bit of a silly old thing, RB, but you don't usually get your facts so completely confused.

~M~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 12:24 PM

Most of this thread is quite amusing apart from MLC's usual drivel.

I wonder how like Major Hewitt the child will look and whether it will be ginger.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 12:21 PM

Is 2012. You can read the news on youe iPhone, Kindle or computer and have what you don't like filtered out.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 12:19 PM

You could just change the channel. Look, if we can put up with hearing about Kim Kardashian and Honey Boo Boo, you can surely put up with hearing about the Royals.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 12:05 PM

Not so, Doug ~~ I repeat what I wrote to Lizzie a few posts back

-This morning's Times, for instance, gives as much space to the forthcoming report on Nursing, and to The Leveson Report, and to the new Girl Guide oath, and to abuse in Rochdale, as to the Royal story.-

Why not just look at some of the papers before being so needlessly and inaccurately assertive?

~M~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Allan Conn
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 12:01 PM

As far as I can see the proposal is to let the monarch marry a Catholic but the monarch themselves still couldn't be Catholic. Hence if the hypothetical couple had a child they would have to choose between the succession or the Catholic faith. Irrespective of what stance the Catholic church takes there seems no good reason why a Catholic couldn't be titular head of the Anglican Church as it is only symbolic anyway. She is already a Presbyterian after all as well as an Anglican!

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 11:57 AM

Then read another paper

With saturation coverage, which other paper do you suggest? The Times and the Telegraph will be just as gushing and sycophantic as the Sun and the Mirror.


DC

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 11:33 AM

Marriage to Catholics? I believe that the good Vicar of Bray will perform marriages to anyone. ☺

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 11:24 AM

I didn't say YOU were a 'worrier', Lizzie. Describe your view of the matter as you will. And I have demonstrated, by ref to one of this morning's papers, that journos are not 'silent' about other important matters & issues, but have just as much to say about them as about HRH's pregnancy. But when you assert of one of your own particular pet obsessions that "NOTHING else really matters", I think it would appear to any fair & objective observer to be your own tendentiousness and lack of balance that you demonstrate, not those of any member of my former profession.

~M~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 11:18 AM

Some trolls don't know what they're talking about Marriage to Catholic

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 11:05 AM

I'm not a Climate Change 'worrier' Michael, I am a Climate Change REALIST. There is a huge difference.

We stand at the crossroads of our children's futures.
NOTHING else really matters, to be honest, for ALL will pale into total insignificance if we do not change the way we are living, the way we view life and the reasons for our place upon Mother Earth.

We are the most fecked up species of ALL species upon this planet..and if we were watching another species behaving as we are, we would, no doubt, annihilate them, for to leave such a Species 'in charge' who have become so utterly selfish, so stupid and so uncaring is...INSANITY!

Yes, I am a black or white person...
Right now, I know that 99% of what is in our media is crap.
Right now, I know that unless that changes and The Word IS got out there BIGTIME, then as a species...we are lost, and we will take hundreds of thousands of totally *innocent* species down with us...

But hey, Kate's pregnant, right, and with a bit of luck, for the media, she may lose her child and then they can drone on and on and pretend how fecking upset they are, when ALL they are doing to her at the moment is stressing her out even more, not caring a jot about her weight loss or her inner soul....

I am deeply ashamed of people who call themselves journalists, who remain Complicit by their Silence in what is happening around us....

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 10:59 AM

I sort of imagine that William and Kate, (if I may be so familiar), probably wish all the hooha would go away too.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 10:49 AM

and you lot are waffling on about some woman none of you know getting pregnant.

Oi, at least I'm trying to antiwaffle! :-)

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 10:45 AM

IF they truly were there for The People, then they would be SHOUTING OUT about Climate Change, about The Corporate Bastards who are fecking our planet to pieces, about the Crooked Politiicans and Corrupt Bankers, getting the people out onto the streets to take BACK their world from all these people who are doing such terrible, irreversible damage!
Instead, they are camped out on a pavement at the back of Harley St, where I used to work, waiting to get the first photo of a sick, pregnant woman leaving hospital.
.,,.,..,
No "instead" about it Lizzie. You do tend to be a bit of an 'either/or' merchant, if I may say so. They are doing both. They always do. There is never a time when a paper exclusively covers just a single item of news. This morning's Times, for instance, gives as much space to the forthcoming report on Nursing, and on The Leveson Report, and on the new Girl Guide oath, and on abuse in Rochdale, as to the Royal story; which, I repeat, is a matter of great interest to a vast demotic who have as much right to have their legitimate interests catered for by the press as do the Climate Change worriers and any other interest group.

I'm a bit old at 80 to be still a very active journo, tho I still do a certain amount of theatre reviewing for an online Shakespeare journal; and I never did work for the Mirror: my main outlets were The Times and The Guardian, way back when... So I am sorry not to be in a position right now to pass on your message personally.

~M~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: theleveller
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 10:31 AM

Reality check!

There's a bloodbath in the Congo, Israel is trying to wipe out the Palestinians, the British press is in the deepest shit ever, this unspeakable government is ruining the lives of millions of our citizens and you lot are waffling on about some woman none of you know getting pregnant.

D'you know, sometimes I fucking despair of the human race.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 10:29 AM

"No, Lizzie. You may have some good points, but you grossly overstate the abusive parts. The press are there to cater for the legitimate interest of a vast swathe of the populace. There is nothing reprehensible in their carrying out this popular function in a proper and respectful fashion. We are not all 'sociopathic leeches' who work in journalism and the media, you know."

No, they're not, Michael. They are there purely to sell papers these days. IF they truly were there for The People, then they would be SHOUTING OUT about Climate Change, about The Corporate Bastards who are fecking our planet to pieces, about the Crooked Politiicans and Corrupt Bankers, getting the people out onto the streets to take BACK their world from all these people who are doing such terrible, irreversible damage!

Instead, they are camped out on a pavement at the back of Harley St, where I used to work, waiting to get the first photo of a sick, pregnant woman leaving hospital.

They are scum, in my eyes, total scum...for the media hold The Power to unleash one hell of a lot of GOOD into this world, but they bow and kowtow to their Sociopathic bosses, who want to run the world THEIR way, dumbing down the major populations around the planet, so they can continue on with the Evil..and there is true evil being done these days..

It's way past time everyone woke up!

And IF you are still a journalist, Michael, then I politely suggest that you talk to your colleagues, and to the Man in The Mirror, because to stay silent whilst we are allowing The Few to destroy Mother Earth and our ability to live upon it, is to be Utterly Complicit in the Evil.

Get them to get BEHIND Prince Charles, to deliver his message to the world about what is going on, for he at least is fully aware that we are literally on the Brink of Catastrophe now. Instead, they are ignoring him, rubbishing him as much as they can, whilst they sit like bloody vultures, licking their lips in the hope that maybe Kate WILL lose her baby for that would sell even MORE of their bloody rags!

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 10:28 AM

"Then may I fecking well suggest that you join William's father and do all you can too to take on The Corporate Bastards over Climate Change ... "

How do you know I'm not?

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 10:25 AM

The press are nothing more than a bunch of paid bullies, paid to make the lives of others hell....

Hmmm. Maybe, but the royals don't half make good use of 'em at times. There may be a few tittie-snapping rascals around but there are also plenty of sycophants who are more than happy to indulge and lionise these tedious people.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 10:20 AM

I fear that Dexter is correct about the Duchess. She has never done a hard day's work in her life. Comment is free but facts are sacred.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 10:18 AM

The top headline this morning in the news on the Beeb website:

William visits Kate in hospital

Well blow me down. Bugger me sideways with a fish-hook! He visited her in hospital! Never! Can you Adam 'n' Eve it!! Phew!

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 09:56 AM

No, Lizzie. You may have some good points, but you grossly overstate the abusive parts. The press are there to cater for the legitimate interest of a vast swathe of the populace. There is nothing reprehensible in their carrying out this popular function in a proper and respectful fashion. We are not all 'sociopathic leeches' who work in journalism and the media, you know.

~M~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 09:53 AM

Tell us what you really think, Lizzie! ;-D

Kate knew what she was getting into, far more than Diana, and she came in without all of the "she must be a virgin" nonsense. No doubt there are compensations to living in the fishbowl.

SRS

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 09:49 AM

I am not a 'staunch royalist'; much more a believer in the "ain't broke, don't fix" principle. And our royals do seem to me to act more effectively and respectably as symbolic heads and personifications of our polity than many an elected president or such personage elsewhere.

~M~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 09:47 AM

"....Not quite true that she didn't ask for all this media attention; she knew well it was what she would get when she 'joined'...."

She didn't 'ask' for it. She merely fell in love with William, whom she met a long time ago at University. She married into his family and now has to endure all the shit they do. What was she supposed to do? Refuse to be with him because of the paparazzi pariahs? She loves him! You can see how thin she's become since her marriage.

They will hound her, possibly to her death, just like they did with William's mother. They are sociopathic leeches who ONLY care for 'the story' and nothing else.

I can imagine nothing worse than knowing that you are being watched ALL the time, wherever you go, every single moment of your life. She took that on ONLY because she loves William..and it is already taking its' toll.

Those leeches will be camped outside King Edward VII hospital right now, waiting to get the first photo of her as she leaves, regardless if she leaves still pregnant, or having lost her baby.

They don't give a damn either way.

Having terrible nausea 24/7 makes some people want to die, literally die..It is the same as severe seasickness, where many sailors used to have to be tied down to stop them throwing themselves overboard...

You can't eat, you can't drink, you can't sleep, you can't think, you can't function. I KNOW because I've been there myself and I know that Kate should be left ALONE, for at the moment, her body, already weakened from weigh loss will be fighting its' own battle to keep going, to keep her baby going....

I'm shocked at all the media attention under such circumstances. The press are nothing more than a bunch of paid bullies, paid to make the lives of others hell....

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 09:37 AM

As one involved in folk music for more years than I care to remember, I can't recall anyone with any credibility ever being a staunch royalist. It somewhat goes against the tide of our culture.

You obviously never met me and a lot of other folkies I know...

Good luck to them both I say.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 09:34 AM

Lizzie ~ Am, as usual, in agreement with your points in general; but I think you are a bit unfair to those who like to pay the Royal Family attention, and the media who cater to that wish. Not quite true that she didn't ask for all this media attention; she knew well it was what she would get when she 'joined'. There are many people who love royal media stories, which seems to me a harmless and not unpleasant interest, though not one I happen to share. The people I think at fault are those who grudge them this innocent interest, and attempt to spoil it for them by enviously and spitefully belittling the objects of it ~~ all of whom I repeat, are perfectly respectable and hardworking people, with whom I feel much more in common than with the likes of the disagreeable Dexter.

Regards azevva

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 09:34 AM

Don't feed the troll. The original GUEST: dexter posted several years ago and is from the US. This isn't him.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 09:24 AM

>>>Lizzie, Kate has the option to live and give birth in any number of royal palaces, I'm sure with the finest of medical care and with a loving husband. Compared to that, a few foul words on the Mudcat ain't much.<<<

I don't give a damn about her background. She is a human being and she has NOT asked for ANY of this media attention. They should leave them both alone. I don't hear you or anyone else going on about the media who are the real pariahs here!

Dexter, I don't know you, but I already know that I'd far rather be trapped on a desert island with Kate and William, than with your ugly, bitter, disgusting personality.



>>>>>So you know them well, do you Lizzie?<<<<<<


William has always been a nice lad. I've no doubt at all he's very well liked by the men he works with. He did not ASK to be born into the family he has been. Kate did not ASK to fall in love with a man born into this family either. They are just two young people trying to do the best they can. She may be in grave danger of losing her child, so just back off and give her space.


>>>>Sadly, whenever I see a little child, or hear of a pregnancy, these days, I find myself thinking: that kid's going to have to suffer the consequences of a 2, or 4, or even 6 degrees C rise in average global temperature; it ain't going to be pretty and may not be survivable!<<<<

Really, Shimrod?????? Then may I fecking well suggest that you join William's father and do all you can too to take on The Corporate Bastards over Climate Change, because Charles IS out there doing all that he can to get The Insane Ones to LISTEN!! Find him on Youtube, masses of videos!

He cares PASSIONATLEY about the kind of world he is leaving for his children and he cannot understand why everyone else isn't out there fighting for theiri future too.

Don't fecking feck with people PURELY because of the family they were born into! LOOK DEEPER, or remain a Shallow Headed Prat for the remainder of your days!!


John, thank you for your words about Mudcat and thank you for closing down that thread. Joe was, imo, wrong to resurrect it. There is a 'free speech' and then, there is 'abuse of free speech' and to allow unfeeling, uncaring, sociopathic nutcases complete liberty to pour out their vitriolic minds on Mudcat is appalling.....

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 09:09 AM

I can't understand how people who don't know them can call them 'tarts' either, or imagine that they can be summarised by the fact that they fart & have itching piles. You really are rather an unsavoury sort of individual, Dexter. I should like to think I have much more in common with a respectable hardworking RAF officer helicopter pilot, and his former industrious photographer and web-designer wife, than with the likes of your resolutely, priggishly, self-satisfied and disagreeable self.

~M~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 07:51 AM

"As to Kate and William, they are both sweet people, ... !

So you know them well, do you Lizzie?

Sadly, whenever I see a little child, or hear of a pregnancy, these days, I find myself thinking: that kid's going to have to suffer the consequences of a 2, or 4, or even 6 degrees C rise in average global temperature; it ain't going to be pretty and may not be survivable!

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Allan Conn
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 07:35 AM

"It really isn't compulsory to read the stuff if one doesn't want to."

I didn't read it! wouldn't waste my time. Just gleamed that info from the headlines as I turned page after page. It isn't as easy as buy another paper anyway. As i've already said I woke up this morning to my local radio news and the main story on that was "will William change nappies or not?". The general media saturation is way over the top - as it always is with things like this. People can't help but hear about it adnauseum. It is not surprising that people get fed up if with it and moan when it goes over the top! People are just as entitled to moan as other ar entitled to get wrapped up in the soap opera!

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 06:59 AM

Then read another paper, Allan It really isn't compulsory to read the stuff if one doesn't want to.

~M~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Allan Conn
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 06:55 AM

"I just turn over the page when I get to those pages in the paper."

In the case of one certain newspaper this morning it would be turning over the first 15 pages! One doesn't need to read it right enough but many people will already have paid for their newspaper to find little actual news in it apart from what her hair was like last week and what kind of maternity fashionwear she is likely to have. It isn't news of any kind. It is something that more properly belongs in fashion mags like Hello. Of course there must be a market for it. Of course they have a right to read it just as others have a right to moan about the blanket saturation they have to put up with. Saying that I don't like the rude and personal attacks on Kate etc. I wish her well in her pregnancy. I just don't look forward to hearing about it all the time!

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 06:40 AM

Unfortunately Lizzie, bad taste isn't a good enough excuse to delete posts on Madcut. I know, because I've been there.
While Jade Goody was dieing of cervical cancer, some eedjit on here asked if anybody had any good jokes about her. Now that is what I call bad taste. Sure she was no better than she should be, but she was dieing FFS. Thread was deleted by me, and reinstated by Joe Offer. One of the many reasons I am no longer a mod on this site. I would add that Madcut left me, not the other way round :) Before the mud slinging starts.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 06:35 AM

Lizzie, Kate has the option to live and give birth in any number of royal palaces, I'm sure with the finest of medical care and with a loving husband. Compared to that, a few foul words on the Mudcat ain't much.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 06:02 AM

I agree entirely with you, Eliza. Many of the comments in here should be removed, not only because they are appalling, but because it also degrades Mudcat by letting them stay on here.

As to Kate and William, they are both sweet people, regardless of their backgrounds. I just hope this little babe is born safely, for she is having major problems at a very early stage and she hasn't looked well for a very long time, being way too thin.

To be pregnant in an ordinary world is hard enough at times, especially when you feel so ill, but to be have to go through it all in a media-frenzied Goldfish Bowl, surrounded by some of the like-minded people as are in this thread, is going to be horrible for her.

I just hope her doctor has her diagnosis correct, for having had a Hydatidiform Molar pregnancy myself, where sickness continues 24/7 until you can barely stand up, ending in either the almost unavoidable death of your child, or you having to be taken into hospital for other reasons, I know how truly Bloody Grim it is to feel as she's feeling right now.

Leave her alone, for God's sake and just let her cope with all she has to cope with right now without feckingly foul numbskulls saying such hateful and disgusting things as can be seen in here!

Clean up your act, Mudcat Mods and zap some of these putrid posts.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 05:49 AM

BTW ~ Re the press coverage: I just turn over the page when I get to those pages in the paper. There is no compulsion to 'read all about it' if not so inclined. Some people like to, however, and I can't see why anyone should grudge them that innocent pleasure.

~M~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 05:45 AM

No, not much of a bugger, Al. I've never met them, though I once met his Uncle Edward when he used to perform in student shows at Cambridge when I was a theatre critic there, and rather a boring young man I found him, though quite a good dancer. But I can't see why such as Dexter seem to get such satisfaction out of coming on as if the very existence of the young couple under consideration were some sort of personal insult by a hostile world aimed specifically & personally at him. I mean, he might protest "they are only people", and come on all innocent of any animus towards them; but of what other people whom he doesn't even know would he then go on to describe the wife as a 'tart', and define their personhood solely by the attributes of scratching their piles and farting? He is a coarse and disagreeable individual, however one looks at him.

~M~

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: banjoman
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 05:40 AM

The birth of any baby is something to be celebrated. However, I am pissed off at the constant headlines since the anouncement. Its not as if she (or he) have done anything unusual or something restricted to Royals Only.
Most other expectant mothers dont have the choice of extended rest or hospital care for sickness.
Please can the media leave them alone or are we going to be subject to a nine month monitoring of her condition followed by the homecoming, the baptism etc etc.
Please spare us

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: GUEST,Big Al whittle
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 05:32 AM

Predictable.....

now if they were expecting a lizard, green shoots of recovery in the British economy, England winning the world cup, ...or what if all these Islamic countries said we want Moorish dancing restored to its proper place, and sod all these so called Morris dancers...give us it back, or we'll send suicide bombers!

that would be unexpected, and it would be interfesting.

hand on heart, does anyone give a bugger?

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: GUEST,Marianne S.
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 04:48 AM

There's one good side effect - the saturation coverage is explaining in agonising detail that for many women, morning sickness isn't just feeling queasy in the morning for a couple of months.

As someone who was still honking on the way to the delivery room, I will be delighted if this leads to more understanding and sympathy for sufferers.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 04:46 AM

I can't imagine the type of characters who would post such vituperative, crude and misanthropic rubbish about a pregnant woman. I wish the couple well and hope that Catherine's morning sickness is speedily resolved. It's perfectly natural to be interested in the birth of a child who will one day inherit the throne. Goodwill towards a young couple embarking on parenthood isn't much to ask. I'm very pleased for them and for the Royal Family.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 04:38 AM

What do I know about nappies?

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: GUEST,Backwoodsman sans Cookie
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 04:35 AM

I changed my kids' nappies (or, to use the silly US-Ian expression, "diapers"), hundreds of them. And I bathed the kids, wiped their arses, fed them, dressed them, cuddled them when they cried, did everything and anything they needed. And every single time, it was a joy and a privilege.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: ChrisJBrady
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 03:17 AM

Twins?

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 03:00 AM

If he can afford to hire someone to do it and he doesn't he is a fool. IMHO.

Not that I have ever had a child. My wife, the proud mother of one does not agree.

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 02:56 AM

Thank God they don't get to decide anything!

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Allan Conn
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 02:56 AM

"Ya don't like it, move. Apparently, a lot of your country(s)men like it."

It is a bit absurd that Brits should receive a lecture from foreigners about how lucky they are to live in a country where the royal family reigns! Many of us are royalists but a great many of us aren't. It doesn't make anyone less patriotic or respectful of their history! In fact much of the history since at least the 17thC had to do with the curbing and diminishing of royal power. (ie think of the Scottish Covenanters; the English Civil War; Cromwell; the Williamite Revolution;arguably the Act of Union itself) Some would like to take that a bit further - or even to do away with them altogether. I suspect most Americans would baulk at the idea that a baby currently in the womb should be promised (barring premature death) the position of Head of State of the US sometime in the future! Why should Brits be castigated for holding those seem feelings?

Anyway what is more to the point is that even many people who are happy enough with the status quo re the monarchy will be less than happy with the blanket media coverage we are in for. I woke up this morning to little world news on our local station other than two women prattling on as to whether William will or won't change nappies!

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Allan Conn
Date: 04 Dec 12 - 02:32 AM

"I thought gender was being removed from succession of the Crown. Would that not make Anne second in line?"

No on two fronts! Firstly the plan is to change the law specifically worded in regard to the descendents of Charles. Hence the first ones to be effected would be his grand-children as both his children are male anyway. Secondly even if the law immediately changed for all exisitng royals shaking up the current line then Anne still wouldn't be second in line. The oldest sibling next to Charles would have been second in line until Charles himself had offspring. Disregarding anyone's sex then Anne would only be 4th in line at the moment and would be pushed down to 5th on the birth of this baby!

Subject: RE: Prince William and Kate expecting a baby
From: Beer
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 11:36 PM

Bless em All.
Adrien