Princess Elizabeth Shooting Lee Enfields

[Peter Laidler]

We're a tad less servile and fawning and perhaps slightly more republican than we were is all I feel the need to add. PM sent Richard......

[Richard Hare]

A Very good point Peter!
With being out of the country 31 years and never been back, I am likely stuck in the past, and have not 'evolved'. Happens all the time in the "Colonies"!
Apologies if offense was given. Was merely trying to set record straight about some first rate shots in the Royal Family.

ATB,
Richard.

[Peter Laidler]

No offence taken or even imagined Richard. But whether these Royals were good shots - or not - is unverifiable surely. And who were the arbiters? After all, unless you want to be locked up in the tower and miss out on your OBE, you're not likely to tell the world that his or her shooting prowess is, er......, 'wanting' are you? It's like me saying that my daughter is a top-shot piano player

[Richard Hare]

Well taken Peter, and you Do have a point!

It appears though, that the shooting in the early 20th century was very demanding. ....To have four birds dead in the air (two in front, & two behind) was a feat often performed by the best shots, King included.
There was a price to pay though. Often a shocking headache the next day, after firing maybe 2,000 cartridges.

No, I believe the title "best shot' was earned, and not merely awarded because of who you were.
This does not mean I like or condone the old idea of the battue, with its great slaughter of game, but to give credit where it was due, you Had to be fit to stand the racket!

All best,
Richard.

[villiers]

As a fawning royalist, I´m perfectly certain that she´s a very good shot.

[Surpmil]

We're a tad less servile and fawning and perhaps slightly more republican than we were is all I feel the need to add. PM sent Richard......

There's no servility or fawning involved Peter. From over here it's part of our constitution and having a check to politicians with delusions of grandeur or worse is a very good thing; other that is, than some unelected "supreme court" appointed by the same politicians.

So who's your new Prez going to be? Tony Blair or some other Euro lickspittle?

Sure, Charlie's a bit eccentric and his dad is a right old Prussian, but if people knew what goes on in the brave "republics", they might bitch a bit less about what they've got, and appreciate it a bit more.

Just my tuppence of course.

[Richard Hare]

I tend to agree Surpmil,
Not so much What they do, its the Position they bar to others that counts!

Mind you, a few less hanger's on would be a good thing as well!

[Surpmil]

All power attracts hangers-on. Better to have the relatively harmless and relatively inexpensive hangers-on of royalty than the grasping and vicious swine who accumulate around other power centers. It's a pity so many people in the UK p1ss and moan about their institutions while forgetting that they were the model and the envy of the world for the last 800 years or so. If they had a bit more sense they would pull together socially and economically and put the "great" back in the name, since they allowed it drift away since WWII. All the raw materials are there, all that is lacking is the will. Yes, the losses of wars and emigration have sorely depleted the human reserves over the last few centuries, but one former American ambassador wrote that he still felt there were more people of real talent per square yard in the UK than anywhere else on earth.

[Robert303]

I was told by a lecturer that we still had the best Nobel Prize winners to population ratio in the world. Mind you that was about 30 years ago!

[Seaspriter]

As an American who works in Canada extensively, I am always a bit honoured and a bit amused when I sign a contract with a Ministry in the Canadian Government (provincial or federal). Typically the contract begins with something like "In the name of Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada." New Canadian citizens swear allegiance to The Queen of Canada. Elections are called and laws are promulgated in The Queen's name. It's a beautiful tradition and historic symbol of connectedness. (although I'm not sure it sits well with the Quebecois). Heritage still plays an important part in the culture of all the Commonwealth nations. It's something most American's are totally unaware of.