"The arms that you wield now are not such as your forefathers wielded; but they are infinitely more effective, and infinitely more irresistable" ~ Cymru Fydd leaflet, 1890

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Accidental Republicans

The worlds largest silver spoon was recently spotted being carried across London by a sea king helicopter. I don't quite know where it was heading but whoever it was destined for must have done something very special to receive it. At least I'd like to think so, I hope it wasn't going to someone who was getting it solely because of an accident of birth.
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Not so long ago our village held it's annual carnival and my daughter was lucky enough to be chosen as the Fairy Queen for her school. The mothers of the various Queens, Princes and attendants decorated the float and thousands of people lined the streets to wave to the "royals" as they passed.

During the course of the day I heard various mothers say how much better the system was these days. How before it used to be a case of who you knew, where the same kids were chosen every year and that meant that more children lost out and most gave up any hope that one day they too could have their afternoon in the sun.

My daughters name was drawn from a hat, these mothers were unknowingly advocating a republican system. This year it was my daughter, next year it could be theirs. Who knows, maybe one day we'll even have a male Fairy Queen. But regardless of who is chosen it is now done fair and democratically. Of course the position of Fairy Queen doesn't come with any real powers, it's like a ceremonial figure head.

One of the mothers who was so supportive of their schools democratically elected head of state loudly derided the old fashioned "feudal-esque" system used to choose the children from the neighbouring schools. What confused me though was that during the North Korean style jubilee of 2012 she had little union rags on display in her garden. It's a funny old world.

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