For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it.

Unfortunately, my lineage goes back to England and Wales.

Paschal
Warren
Pugh

They were my great great greats. I guess I shouldn`t be ashamed of it, as we all come from somewhere. Does that make me feel English or Welsh? Not in the slightest, and because I am not. Nor do I want to be. But then again, being English or Welsh is not such a bad thing. Not really, We are just sporting on these forums.


Well, we believe that the political clout of the father can be passed to the son. Daddy`s power can help the son's career. As long as the son shares the approved agenda, we are all for it.

In the case of the Bush Administrations, we never liked the first and we absolutely hated the second. He broke our nations back and economy. Clinton didn`t help with his free trade with China either.

We respect the Queen and we still think of her as "our Queen" in a sense. It is why the US has this fascination with everything Royal. We don`t like Charles much, and the boys are just living it up as elite pups. Anyway, the UK shook off the Monarchy years ago, but you let her keep her house and you give her a meager pension to survive on. Her duties? You know them better than we. Dissolution of Parliament, Appointment of the PM, and the Royal Prerogative. The last on took some study before I understood it.

I estimate my family`s last royal ruler was K. George III. Sorry about that, but you just had to go. You were treating us like POLES!!

Lols,dont worry about it Micheal,an ancestor in one branch of my family was some fella called John Paul Jones.....my lot have tended to be free thinkers bound by ideals rather than servitude,just most of them stayed over here :)

michaelmansun wrote:


I think I'm starting to like this crazy guy.

.. This is why you still give tax money to a queen?

Well, you know, it isn't as if she gets oh so much. Some people thinks she get billions a year. Not hardly. And anyway, you know, you cannot just kick the Queen of England out of her castle and tell her to rent a flat. England would revolt. You may think it is odd, but the Queen and the Monarch do maintain a sense of stability and continuity. She does have powers, but they are rather dormant. She can sack the Prime Minister and she can dissolve parliament. She can declare war on another country.

She cannot raise taxes on her behalf and she cannot raise an army on her behalf. She maintains political neutrality. She is often counselor to ministers of the government. She is concerned for the welfare of the Kingdom, and she is not absent mindedly wandering the grounds at Windsor with her little dogs.

She has lands and properties as does Charles. From these properties they make profits. The money the Queen receives from taxation she uses for her expenses as Head of State and for repairs to the properties in her keeping. If a visiting dignitary pays a visit, it comes out of her budget and account. If she travels abroad, the same. I believe it is called civil money, or something to that effect.

I see the importance the Queen and Monarch serve in the UK. They provide a focus when things do not seem to be going oh so well. A few words from the Queen, and Brits relax a bit. She soothes the nerves. The Royals will always be. That will certainly not change. I cannot imagine the Brits ever giving her or the Monarch up.

True - even if we're not ardent Royalists, the prevailing national view is 'it's not broke; so don't fix it'. And don't forget the Duke of Edinburgh's singular contribution to stand-up comedy :)

You're spot-on about the tax money. The Queen gets around £8m on the Civil List (the only Royal to do so, other than the DoE at around £335K) which equates to about 30 pence per taxpayer per year. Given that the Crown Estate generated a surplus of £221m last year it's fair to say that the Inland Revenue (our IRS) was a net receiver, and that's before you count the (very difficult to quantify, but no doubt significant) incomings as a result of tourism.

topic is wandering a bit..

Sorry, but I don't understand. Could you explain?

sure, and Brits should call their cousins, Belgians theirs etc, I wonder who would be left there...
America is the country of immigrants and everyone that is there legally has a right to stay there as much as You


yet, We voted for him again

Well, (I think) the Civil List is just the list of official salaries of those who work for the state. Just like a president or a PM gets a salary, etc. However, there are all kinds of ancillary costs for her and her family.. millions of pounds a year just for their security details (the Irish are a surly bunch ya' know) .. servants... upkeep of those lavish dwellings, and so forth.

What the hell, here's a Sikorsky she ordered back on '09. Her old copter.. just wasn't up to snuff apparently. The Brit taxpayer probably had to pay for this too.

courant.com/business/hc-sikorsky-queen.artjul08,0,6814964.story

Jack offs in my own country worship stuff like this, not me man... I'm not fascinated by plutocrats, thus I don't think the Kennedys are that fascinating either. Just don't tell me that "her majesty" and all that glorious paraphernalia only cost 8 million pounds a year.

Exactly.

Well, every nation was at some point in time a nation of immigrants. After they had enough people, they began to regulate it, and create protectionist laws for those citizens which had a multi-generational investment in the country.

Now, you say the USA is a nation of immigrants and you seem to continue to support that idea, and that perhaps it should continue on like that. Ands you quote legal rights and so on. Well, OK. The EU put its laws on Poland, and Poland was willing to accept those laws. Lets change USA laws and make it more difficult to get citizenship, and require that an employer prove he cannot find a qualified citizen for a job in the USA before hiring a foreign citizen. Lets get rid of this ridiculous citizenship lottery thing and revoke all citizenships passed out like that for the past 10 years. Lets make it 10 years married in country before a person can apply for citizenship instead of the current 3.

When someone says anything about Poland accepting more Americans without a lot of hoopla, you would probably be against that. (As long as it is legal, you`d say, knowing it will never be easy to get citizenship in Poland for a person with no lineage and the law will never change). Funny, it seems Poland is more willing to accept Asians and Africans and Arabs of all nations. Arabs in Poland are terrible, terrible, filthy disrespectful people. They operate the restaurants and peddle drugs on the streets.

If Europe wants to be so very strict about illegal immigration, then why does everyone go mad when the USA even thinks about doing the same thing?


I didn`t vote for him. The electoral college put that jerk Bush in office. Popular vote never selects the President.

Tourism is massive - look at Royal Deeside. It would be a hellhole backwater if it wasn't for the Royal Family - yet because she's nearby, tourists spend an absolute fortune.

Just how many Americans buy the crap on Oxford Street, for instance? :)

They don't cost that much: they cost far, far less.

Add together the amount given to the state by the Crown Estate and the amount saved by not needing to pay for elections for an elected head of state and the amount is many, many times more than the amount of public money spent on the royals. And that is before we have even begun to think about the tourism effects!

No,read again,that is why my ancestor actualy did something in the American revolution. JP Jones,you not heard of him Pinchin'? Ah well,thats your lack of education,not mine.

Havent we had this conversation before PP?Where we discovered your about 3rd generation while Ive had family over there since pre 1776.......
Ah well,you keep singing the Star spangled leotard or whatever its called,and tell yourself how great you are coz granpappy washed up on elis island...........

Yep, as pointed out a bit upthread. I still maintain that the intangible goods have a role to play here too:


Specifically:

"People think there's a rigid class system here, but dukes have been known to marry chorus girls. Some have even married Americans."

(A masterpiece of silliness and epigrammatic poise. Americans please note: this is a joke at the expense of dukes. Not you lot. If Wilde or P.G. Wodehouse's Aunt Agatha had said that, nobody would be offended or surprised. But as it's him...)

Wow, your posts just proves how little you know about American culture and history. The history is very fascinating and more interesting than European history, where you were either a rich snob or a poor peasant.

They must not teach that in schools in Poland, which claim they teach everything.
All you know about America is money

sobieski is Belgian. How do you feel now? lol

Certainly, played bass in Led Zeppelin.

lols,sorry,had broom up ass earlier after some bad news....:(
But no,I think it was Harmonica in Manfred man....:)

You are joking, right?

America does have a interesting history, but it pales into insignificance if you compare it with European history.

One could argue that the USA has the most interesting history. Surely, it's unique from the rest.