Kids lose accents really quickly. He probably lost it well within the year he was in the US legally.

This is not directly on topic (although they didn’t seat us until the entire party was there, which I understand) but you clearly have been in the business for a while and I’d appreciate your perspective. We ate at Din Tai Fung, a restaurant that is present in many places (newly London) and has supposedly legendary…

If Anne doesn’t do it, no one’s going to.

Indeed, and some arguably even more prestigious than the royals. William was allowed to marry Kate, but there was no way in hell the Duchess of Northumberland was going to let George Percy marry Pippa.

William’s and Kate’s isn’t a morganatic marriage. If it had been, their children would not be in line to inherit the throne.

Right, but it seems a bit harsh to blame a man who literally risked his life fighting the Nazis because his sisters chose to marry some of them. None of the British royals were ever down with the Nazi party, except for the one who abdicated.

The missing 1/4 is the royal quarter, from Charles. So within that 1/4, Charles is 1/4 Bowes-Lyon from the Queen Mother, 1/4 George VI (which is admittedly very German) and 1/2 Philip. Philip’s parents were Prince Andrew (Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg) and Princess Alice (Battenberg). So, yes, the Charles…

I think that’s right. Pretty much everyone I know has white no sugar, but I always have to unearth some sugar when I have builders in.

Even if we accept that the royals are all Germans (which they are not, the Queen Mother was a Bowes-Lyon), Harry is 1/2 Spencer (one of the oldest English families out there). William’s children are 1/4 Middleton, 1/4 Goldsmith and 1/4 Spencer. Harry’s children will be 1/4 Spencer, 1/4 Ragland and 1/4 Markle. 

Philip’s family was split, like many aristocratic families of the time. His sisters married Nazis, yes, but he chose the correct side and was a legit hero in the Royal Navy. His mother also chose the correct side and hid a Jewish family in Athens, and is recognised as one of Yad Vashem’s Righteous Among the Nations.

That video conveniently neglects to mention a number of things. Most importantly, that George III transferred all of the Crown Estates to the Treasury (not just the revenues) along with the responsibility of paying for the government, in exchange for the Civil List payments (now the Sovereign Grant). The Crown Estates…

The Queen’s great. Even Charles and Anne work hard (we won’t talk about Andrew). But god, the younger generation are lazy.

No, it doesn’t.

I can be mad at the Tories and still have the correct opinion that the royals cost us more than they put in.

Nope. The number of tourists who would not come to the UK if there were not present-day royals in no way outweighs the cost of their upkeep.

The tourists would come whether we had royals living in the buildings or not (and we’d be able to keep them open all year round). Versailles and Neuschwanstein don’t suffer from a lack of present-day royals. The royals are a financial drain on the UK.

The royals are funded with properties (the Crown Estates, the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster) that belong to the British people. Taxpayers pay directly for their security (over £100m per year) and various other costs.

The Crown is a concept, not a trust. The Queen does not own the Crown Estates personally, but “in right of the Crown.” The Crown is a complicated concept that essentially boils down to the British state. The Crown Estates belong to the British people, not the Queen. 

Yeah, no. Goose has so, so much fat. It is goddamned delicious. And roast potatoes, roasted in goose fat, are the food of the gods. And I lived for the first 25 years of my life in North America and I did not understand the dried fruit experience. Fruit cake, mince pies, Christmas cake. None of them are any good…

That makes sense. I will be honest - a lot of Americans have never lived outside the US and think that everything ought to be done elsewhere as it is done there. (And a lot of Americans are very loud). As a Canadian who first lived in the US for 7 years (first the north and then the south) and then moved to the UK, I…