An Alien in Sweden

A blog about my move from England and my new life in Sweden.
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Posts Tagged ‘royal wedding’

My thoughts on the Royal Wedding

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Wedding

Well the waiting is over and the Royal wedding is finally upon us. It’s been strange to be caught up in this media frenzy and to witness first hand how another country, the country I will soon call home has viewed it.

Now if this was the UK the media would be in overdrive now and it would no doubt be even more popular than the World Cup. I can barely remember when Prince Charles and Princess Diana got married but I can recall the whole country coming to a complete standstill. But that was then and this is now and of course times have changed.

Like the UK, Sweden seems often divided between the royalists and those who think that a royal family is an outdated system that is a burden on taxpayer’s money. My own opinion is that having a royal family is a good thing providing it benefits the country in some way. Here in the UK the Queen not only sits on the throne but also is head of the Commonwealth, albeit with minimal power.

This year has seen The Crown Princess Victoria and her soon to be husband Daniel Westling overcome a lot of adversity and issues surrounding his background and I have admired the way that they have stuck together. Then we have the younger sister Princess Madeleine whose fiancé had an alleged affair with a Norwegian student and there own wedding was cancelled.

It just goes to show that being part of a monarchy does not change who you are as a person. You will still have the ups and downs to deal with in life, still have the issues about being loyal and true to the person you love. So to Madeleine I say “Plenty more princes in the sea”

To Victoria and Daniel. Congratulations and may you have a long and happy marriage.

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Off with his head

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Often when I am walking past Buckingham Palace in London I tend to cringe a little inside. Day after day tourists arrive in their thousands wanting to see The Queen. The fact that The Queen is rarely in Buckingham Palace nor has she made a public appearance in decades it’s also the actual Royal Family itself that makes my curl up inside.

The UK has without any doubt one of the worlds most famous Royal families, dating back almost 1000 years the likes of Henry VIII, Queen Victoria and our current Queen Elizabeth II are known worldwide. Yet the current Queen has had to deal with more publicity and heartache than any other in history. Her children have married, cheated and divorced. The inquest into Diana’s death, the scandal of butlers stealing and blackmailing. No wonder her highness stays away from it all.

Yet today I read that the forthcoming wedding of Sweden’s Princess Madeleine and Jonas Bergstrom has been called off over his alleged affair with a 21 year old Norwegian student. Now this is not to be confused with the much larger wedding of her sister Crown Prince Victoria later this year. But again I question the value of countries monarchies. In the UK the wealth of the Royal Family, with the exception of Prince Charles, is paid for from what the British public earn (Charles income is from the revenue of Cornwall) but time after time it is just a pure embarrassment caused by the Royals that seem to damage any lasting reputation.

I know little of Sweden’s monarchy and its history but what I do know is that it is something the Swedes are proud of. With the younger Princess being cheated on it will no doubt cast a shadow over the main royal wedding later this year. But the question that I want to throw open to the readers here is “How much does Sweden care for its Monarchy?”

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