this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2024
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Those guards who do funny dances are the oldest serving unit in the British army. They have always participated in active duty in addition to the ceremonies, so paying for them shouldn't be thought about any differently to the rest of the armed forces we (under) pay for.
I'm not against scaling back the monarchy, but the idea that your tiny box and broken boiler is going to be any different by doing so is misguided.
You're barking up the wrong tree there. I give zero fucks about military tradition, except to find it sinister and unnecessary. I'm well aware of the guards having other duties. Wouldn't it be better if they didn't have to do the silly dances in their silly hats and nutcracker uniforms. Then they could maybe do something worthwhile and effective with their time.
At no point did I say that ridding ourselves (not "scaling back") of these particular leeches would solve my housing situation or even the housing crisis at large. I was pointing out the hypocrisy of it. A point which you failed to address, for some reason.
If we only do things that are worthwhile and effective, the world would be an utterly dull place. You're happy to use the palace as an art gallery, when the traditional guards and uniforms are performing a similar function now.
There is a perfectly acceptable scenario where we don't have a royal family, but keep the guards. There would be no hypocrisy there.
I said I'm happy to scale back the costs because of some of the reasons you have said, but I'm not going to demand an end to the whole circus because the costs involved just aren't as significant as you may want to believe, especially when looked at as part of the annual £1.3t budget.
But they're doing those ineffective and worthless things in the course of guarding against public entrance to a privately owned building that the public pay for. Do you still refuse to see the hypocrisy and injustice there?