Posted on 06/20/2006 10:24:54 PM PDT by farlander
The guards that wear those hats may have a thing or two to say about that, wearing one is a high, high honor, and the guards that do wear them are some of the best of the best. The Coldstream Guards and the other outfits (forget the rest right now) that make up the units may not take kindly to some fop of a minister trying to stomp on one of their highest traditions and honors. I remember a show on the BBC detailing the daily life of the guards, and it's not an easy duty, but they do it willingly, for the honor and tradition it is.
One of my fondest memories of London, was on my way to school (private American High School) in London, walking near the park, and having a dozen or so of the Queen's cavalry thunder by. They exercised the horses every morning, it's quite an unexpected site on the quiet city streets.
We all indulged in pestering the guards, but eventually felt sorry for them as we watched them get harrassed daily, even telling some really obnoxious tourists to lay off - and warning them, don't touch.
You really don't want to touch them.
That was the late 70's. Like someone else said, I'm glad I got to see it, it's quickly all being stripped away.
'It is sad what is happening to the UK. It seems so much worse than here. Only Austrailia seems to be holding steady.'
That's because everything you know about Britain you get from the media. If I believed everything the media says about the US, I'd recommend it was nuked immediately! :D
'I'm glad I saw the UK before it disappears.'
I'm glad I spent lots of time in the US before it became so mexicanised, it was great back in the 70's and early 80's.
'> The UK doesn't have bears anymore.
What happened to them? Over-hunted, disease, other (non-human) predators, loss of habitat to cities? Just curious; bears are usually pretty resilient.'
The only bear that has ever been native to the British Isles was the Brown Bear and it became extinct around 500 years before the birth of Christ, so there aren't any records of why.
I expect a complete ban on meat and other animal products (wool, leather) before a decade passes.
Not to mention that the hats exist.
Why ban them? It won't bring any bears back.
Not quite. You call yourself a conservative, but by Australian standards you will be at best be a centrist. Moderate conservatives in Australia will be very conservative by British standards.
You got that right. If I got my view of the US from the UK Guardian then I'ld believe the US was like the world of "Robocop".
Still, the US and UK can take care of themselves: - what really bugs me is the way both our lefty MSM pile in on Israel. Many UK conservatives that I know seem to accept the Guardian's version of history in the Middle East. Thank God for people like Mark Steyn!
'Not quite. You call yourself a conservative, but by Australian standards you will be at best be a centrist. Moderate conservatives in Australia will be very conservative by British standards.'
I don't call myself a conservative, I call myself a Conservative, to wit, a member of said-named political party.
You know nothing of my political leanings and thus your post is ill-informed. I make decisions based on the evidence in front of me, not on political dogma.
I support a free market economy, minimal govt intervention, low taxation and low public spending. I abhore welfare state payments and national health service provision above those minimum levels necessary in modern society. I have served my country with distinction and feel pride about Britains achievements of Empire and commonwealth and how English culture and language now dominates the world and how The Union Flag still flies over many of the best countries in the world to live in and how many still have Her Majesty as their head of state. I am an entirely self-made man who employs others and has in pride of place on his office wall, two personally written letters from my political hero, Margaret Thatcher, thanking me for my campaigning efforts during the 1983 and 1987 elections.
I care not two hoots where my political beliefs fall compared with Australia - I am a life-long Conservative who is considered a 'true' consevative by Margaret Thatcher. If that's not good enough for you, then you know what you can do kiwi! :D
Sir, the fact that you believe these things disqualifies you from being a political conservative.
Fact 1: You believe fascism = right-wing.
Fact 2: You believe the BBC is absolutely trustworthy.
These two facts alone are disputed by the Australian right, let alone their American counterparts.
'Still, the US and UK can take care of themselves: - what really bugs me is the way both our lefty MSM pile in on Israel. Many UK conservatives that I know seem to accept the Guardian's version of history in the Middle East. Thank God for people like Mark Steyn!
I must admit that Israel doesn't hold the special place in my heart that it seems to for many members of this board. To me they are just another deomcratic foreign country with it's own aims and ambitions. Perhaps my views are coloured by the terrible terrorist atrocities zionists commited against members of my own regiment in the lead up to 1948. They do not get my automatic support because they are Israel, they get it when they are doing things I agree with.
As for the Grauniad - I find it hard to believe any conservatives read it. You'll be telling me next that the BNP read Socialist Worker. . . . :D
Coldstream Guards, Grenadier Guards, Scots Guards, Irish and Welsh Guards regiments, now all part of the Regiment of Foot Guards.
'Sir, the fact that you believe these things disqualifies you from being a political conservative.
Fact 1: You believe fascism = right-wing.
Fact 2: You believe the BBC is absolutely trustworthy.
These two facts alone are disputed by the Australian right, let alone their American counterparts.'
Looks like Flashman preparing for a deployment to Afghanistan's killing fields.
It was. The nukes landed in Detroit, and did over ten megatons of civic improvement.
Bush's fault.
Calling fascism "right wing" is a fabrication by the leftists to disassociate itself from Hitler.
Fascism and communism are branches growing from the same Marxist tree.
I recommend "America's Thirty Years War" by Vazsonyi. He lived under both Hitler's and Stalin's Europe and called fascism and communism "the ultimate Marxist competitors."
I also suggest reading "The Vampire Economy: Doing Business Under Fascism," by Günter Reimann, Vanguard Press, New York City, 1939. It's not an easy book to find, but your chances of finding in Europe are good, while it's almost impossible to find in America.
The book published letters from German businessmen who complained that doing business in German, with its legions of functionairies dictating endless demands, was like living in a Marxist society.
These German bureaucrats operated in the same manner and performed the same function as the soviets did in Stalin's Russia, mainly, carrying out the will of the state for the Marxist common good.
'It was. The nukes landed in Detroit, and did over ten megatons of civic improvement.'
If you've got any spare, could you return the favour and send one over to Stoke-on-Trent? Ta!
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