As a mixed race person, once divorced and a Catholic, I think that Meghan Markle will add a bit of diversity to our Royal Family, and she seems pretty grounded (she’ll need to be with our tabloid press!).
Vince Cable has added his thoughts via Twitter;
Absolutely delighted for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Good to see some cheery news #RoyalWedding
— Vince Cable (@vincecable) November 27, 2017
But what do our readers think? Over to you, everyone…
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32 Comments
🙂 https://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-liberal-democrats-should-support-abolishing-the-monarchy-and-it-is-the-right-time-to-do-so-44761.html
I love it ! As a great admirer of this next generation of the Royal family, who do terrific work, the two princes, brave and compassionate both, Megan is going to fit in and stand out, as another dedicated and talented participant , yet one offering something rather different and unique. And an American too, as all the best British men who marry Americans , know and celebrate !
Do you have any evidence that Meghan is a Catholic? She attended a Catholic school but this does not make her a Catholic. I think Harry might be barred from marrying a Catholic. I don’t think the law has been changed since George I’s time.
It has been suggested Meghan will be baptised and confirmed in the Anglian church if she hasn’t already been done in the American Episcopalian Church – http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/meghan-markles-religion-or-no-religion.html. (Catherine Middleton was confirmed before her marriage to William http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8448776/Kate-Middleton-confirmed-in-secret-church-service.html.)
@ Michael,
I didn’t say that she was, I said that I am (it’s called putting one’s views in context…). But isn’t it absurd that the private religious beliefs of someone whose future husband isn’t likely ever to be King is something that the law should interfere with?
Royals can marry Catholics now
https://www.channel4.com/news/british-royal-family-other-religions-same-sex-marriage
@Mark Valladares “But isn’t it absurd that the private religious beliefs of someone whose future husband isn’t likely ever to be King is something that the law should interfere with?”
Is it any less absurd if that husband (or wife) is the King (or Queen)?
Harry is 5th in line to the throne. This is a non event. (yawn)
There was a time when Royal’s marrying American divorcees caused a little more angst……
Vince is happy for them & so am I, as I would be for any other couple.
On The Monarchy, many people like it, many dont so why dont we have a Monarch & an Elected President & we can all look up to either or both ?
It’s been a great and illuminating day for our betters, those great and good Highhead’yans.
First off, we have Arleen Foster, Leader of the DUP, tweeting congratulations to Prince William getting engaged to Meghan Markle,….. and then Harry the lad claims “the stars were aligned when I met Meghan”.
I’ll sleep soundly in my bed tonight knowing that UK 2017 is in good and rational hands.
PS Seriously, I really do hope they find private happiness and that it’s not a repeat of the late Mrs Murton’s famous question to Debbie Magee “Tell me, Debbie, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels ?
Prince and Princess of Wales? What connection? What reason? It’s the sort of historical power symbol that in other examples is being reconsidered or torn down when looked at with a modern eye. Hopefully they keep up their humanitarian work, and this may help modernise the royal family. Congrats to the couple. Can we talk about those less privileged or more pressing issues now though?
@ Paul Barker “why dont we have a Monarch & an Elected President & we can all look up to either or both ?”.
Will there be a paper candidate as approved by ALDC, and will they serve if elected ?
@ David Raw,
Oh come, come David, whatever one’s views on the monarchy, and I am a republican, there is something heartwarming about seeing two people in love.
I am not prepared to speculate on the impact of having a divorced, ‘mixed race’ member of the royal family. Their love for each other just confirms my long held belief that love has no barriers.
I just hope the right wing Tory press do not sniff at the mixed race position and use it for their political ends. Why all this adulation that she is American? Are we hoping to become the next American state as we go down the tubes?. Looking at how she faced him she is in love, hope their future is a success.
@ Mark Valladares
It was implied by you that she was a Catholic!
@ Neil Woollcott
I did wonder if there had been a law change. Thank you for posting the link which led me to the Succession to the Crown Act (2013) which removed the ban on royals marrying Catholics.
@ Michael,
No, but if you insist on trying to read my mind, you’ll end up pretty frustrated… and you’ll still be wrong.
Paint is drying somewhere. . . . .
@David Raw:
” Paul Barker “why dont we have a Monarch & an Elected President & we can all look up to either or both ?”.”
Will there be a paper candidate as approved by ALDC, and will they serve if elected ?
Can we have RON for both? 😉
Do people REALLY ‘need’ a ‘figurehead’, elected, inherited or otherwise?
I kind of like that Harry did a little Lovecraft reference there. Clearly his geeky fiancee is having a positive influence. Either that or he’s had prior intelligence that the Great Old Ones really are coming and we’re doomed…
Another one on the payroll. Headline: American actress to marry unemployed ex-soldier.
For a Liberal and Democratic site , this one sure does lack both sometimes! Tolerance of a lot bar of terrific or decent people despite not because of their birth !
As for referring to Prince Harry as an unemployed ex soldier, well that in itself would not be a way of denigrating him would it, we should respect the unemployed ex soldiers should we not !
He does superb work , so is not unemployed at all, his efforts for inumerable charities let alone his founding drive and continued involvement in the Invictus games for disabled athletes, worthy of any cultural ambassador or full time charity chief executive .
Megan Markle has a cv as an actress added to by significant activism for causes , women, refugees , the United Nations.
An accident of birth does not provide or preclude talent or goodness anymore than does money , fame or power.
These are talented and good people . That is a reason for me to like them anyway.
@Lorenzo Cherin
Well said, totally agree 100 %
Look!!!! Cute kittens!!!
Stop thinking about the Brexit disaster. Kittens!
Meghan Markle is not a Roman Catholic but that is no longer relevant. I think most people wish the couple well and it is a welcome relief from the hopeless mess created by our elected politicians. At least the Irish are not going to have another pointless election like the one we had forced on us this June after being told 13 times there would not be one. No wonder people no longer believe anything these politicians say. Sad really.
I don’t read the Sun/Mail/Express so I’ll miss out on all the 50 page ‘pull-outs’ and ‘pop-ups’ of them and their ancestors. I’ll also miss the endless re-runs of ‘Princess Di’ pictures and how his new wife to be is soooooooo like his mother…
My local pub has no telly so I can avoid the ‘big day’ but, apart from that, I actually wish them well…
Hereditary power that rests on claims to have been ordained by a mythical creator becomes “progressive” by ticking some diversity boxes. To me this simply does not compute.
I wish them well and stuff, but I’m a republican. I don’t think hereditary power is a good idea and I’ve never really understood that whole role model thing even when it involves things I actually like. Royals as role models, sportsmen as role models, actors as role models? To who, to what purpose? Does their existence mean there will be less homelessness or better wages for low earners or an end to injustice. No. it just means a few column inches in the press and a delusional sense that the world has improved based on nothing very much beyond the adulation of wealth and celebrity.
@ Glenn
Monarchies were once elective. The Wessex / Anglo-Saxon monarchy was elective examples are Alfred the Great, Edward the Confessor and Harold II. If James I and Charles II knew their history they would know that the Scottish crown had an elective element. In England Parliament agreed that Henry IV, Edward IV and Henry VII should be king when they were not the hereditary heir. In Britain Parliament decided that William III and Mary II should be King and Queen and that James II was not king and that George I should be the heir of Queen Anne
I’m a republican in that I don’t really see how a hereditary monarchy can be compatible with a modern democracy, so I do feel that as a party we should have a policy of ending the monarchy. But one reason the monarchy is likely to continue for some time, is that the younger royals are likeable people.
Harry and Meghan seem a nice, well suited couple, so we should all feel happy for them and wish them well. I do hope Meghan well be able to continue with her acting career, and with her work for humanitarian causes. It was sad to hear someone on BBC news saying that Meghan would now need to find a new role, “helping Harry”. Well I’m sure they will both help each other, but surely these days no young woman should be expected to give up her career on marriage or expected to have no role other than helping her husband.
Catherine Jane Crosland 29th Nov ’17 – 7:30am……………….. It was sad to hear someone on BBC news saying that Meghan would now need to find a new role, “helping Harry”. Well I’m sure they will both help each other, but surely these days no young woman should be expected to give up her career on marriage or expected to have no role other than helping her husband………
To be fair, ‘helping her husband’ is rather more than the actual words convey… She has already shown that she is committed to helping others so, after the wedding and her ‘getting to know the UK’ is over,’helping her husband’ will give her a far bigger role in continuing her charity work…hopefully, fingers crossed, etc.
Took me a couple of goes to realise that Mark was referring to himself by “As a mixed race person, once divorced and a Catholic”, rather than to Meghan Markle (who was initially misreported as a Catholic, but isn’t).
‘the ban on royals marrying Catholics.’
It wasn’t a ban on marrying Catholics. They still remained royal, but were excluded from succession to the throne.
In my parents’ time, the usual assumption was when a pair of different religious denomations married, the wife would adopt the husband’s religion. In Northern Ireland there was Roman Catholicism and three major protestant churches (and lots of others).
expats: Not many people read any newspapers even the free ones. I see huge piles of the morning ones being removed after 2 pm to be replaced by piles of largely unread evening papers. It is time to stop this waste of paper. Any chance of the money saved being used for something useful ?