A great idea! Brits from the Republic of Albion would flock to our 
shores to watch the changing of the unflinching guards.

An Arizona real estate developer bought London Bridge (I'm not 
kidding. This is as weird as the royal toothpaste squeezer) and 
re-erected it, stone by stone, in the middle of a then-waterless 
desert near the site of a new reservoir. The idea was to publicize 
the house lots he was selling. When the reservoir filled up he cut a 
channel from it so that there's real water below the bridge. He 
brought in some European mute swans and paddle boats and built a 
bunch of mock-tudor structures. Very Merrie Olde England. In those 
structures you can buy cotton candy, corn dogs, hamburgers and 
postcards. The place is always jammed with tourists. Except for the 
five months of the year when the temperature is over 100 F.

Anybody know what happened to the Scottish antifeudalism law? For 
those who don't know, much of Scotland is still owned by the great 
lords, who collect taxes from their tenants. The Duchess of 
Sunderland owns close to a fourthe of the country, mostly pasturage, 
and collects a fee for each sheep. The Scottish palliament a few 
years ago passed a law requiring tenants to have first refusal of any 
land their overlords sell. The law met with legal challenges. Any further news?

Mark



At 08:14 AM 1/18/2006, you wrote:
>Charles has a butler to squeeze his toothpaste. Retiring him would
>save me the embarrassment of even writing that. And a mini-kingdom
>within a kingdom - the Duchy of Cornwall. He has his own line of foods
>which I boycott. We could have a re-education program for the
>ex-butlers etc. They could then go on to jobs with above-subsistence
>levels of pay, like MacDonalds.
>
>I'm sure we could manage with a president and a prime minister. Quite
>a few other countries do.
>
>Or maybe *you* want the feudalism. You can have it - it's going cheap.
>A couple of swords, a bit of made-up pagentry (yes, all the "pagentry"
>you may have seen the last 50 years is no older than, say, 50
>years...) Arise, Sir Mark of Earthlink. I'm sure the Republicans with
>their mystical elevation of the president would go a bundle on it.
>
>Roger
>On 1/18/06, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > But wait, what about all those tourist dollars? Unemployed coachmen,
> > butlers, bodyguards, etc? Not to speak of papparazzi, or the dreams
> > of Americans hungry for history? Surely all these things are worth a
> > bit of feudalism. And then there's the question of what to put on the
> > coinage. Probably would force the adoption of the euro to avoid bloodshed.
> >
> > Imagine Maggie Thatcher on the pound note. That's what you'd get. And
> > some bugger would want to carve her face into the white cliffs of Dover.
> >
> > Or are you proposing the restoration of a dynasty not selected for
> > religious correctness, the Stuarts, perhaps. I could get behind that,
> > I rather like the idea of large herds of cocker spaniels.
> >
> > Seriously, there was an "art" exhibit that toured US museums of the
> > Romanov crown jewels. Awful, incredibly vulgar stuff, and the only
> > museum show I've ever been to in which the informational cartouches
> > began with a recitation of how many carats of this or that stone. On
> > the way in were larger than life portraits of the Romanovs, lined up
> > like tenpins. I found myself overcome with bitterness. What a bunch
> > of thugs. And in front of all that glitter all I could think of was
> > "this is the blood of my ancestors." Must be a similar feeling for
> > you subjects. Tho your lot haven't had the power to do much evil in a
> > while, and Charles does seem a cut above most of them.
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > At 07:28 AM 1/18/2006, you wrote:
> > >and don't i know it. We're in some quasi state - citizen, subject -
> > >the oath for immigrants to the UK now includes the phrase citizen.
> > >Contradictions abound.
> > >
> > >The sooner the crown is levered from the hands of the
> > >Saxe-Coburg-Gothas and put into the British Museum the better.
> > >
> > >Roger
> > >On 1/18/06, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > > Roger But we are here still subjects- not citizens-on our knees(knees
> > > > permitting)to her majesty the queen defender of the faith and the
> > > > establishment
> > > > P EU P
> > > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and
> > > > poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roger Day
> > > > Sent: 18 January 2006 00:51
> > > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > > Subject: Re: "Environment in Crisis" - Grim Grim Grim
> > > >
> > > > on this side of the water, the european human rights convention has
> > > > just been enshrined in UK law. dire things were forecast, none of
> > > > which have come true. For the UK, for the first time, people have
> > > > rights, not by omission, but by the letter of the law. I think a
> > > > written document for such things is a good to have, ymmv.
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >--
> > >http://www.badstep.net/
> > >http://www.cb1poetry.org.uk/
> >
>
>
>--
>http://www.badstep.net/
>http://www.cb1poetry.org.uk/