Do You British Really Care?

[Steve James]

Anyway, yeah, asides from being queen, shes' a pretty normal woman who actually lives in fairly normal apartments attached to the tourist attractions that are otherwise her homes.

Well, I don't know whether the current monarch has a stool groom, but I'd still say she seems like a nice enough person to me. She's no more representative of British character than ... Margaret Thatcher or Diana
[Edit] I.e., her character says little about her subjects

[qiphlow]

[LDShouler]

If the queen eats toast and marmalade accompanied by tea for breakfast, then I'm more similar to her than I expected! I do wonder however, that given her reputation for stoicism and 'keeping up appearances', how anyone can talk of the more subtle aspects of her personality with full knowledge: until the last couple of decades the Royals had successfully maintained a lot of propaganda through the media (and she is definitely a product of this era). Elizabeth II is virtually unknowable for most people- all we can go on is how she officially acts and the various soundbites from folks who have a more than a slight interest in being sycophantic towards her.
Andy S: I fear nostalgia and nationalism; I don't really believe that the queen represents a threat to democracy today, but I do fear the arrogance, self-important attitude and inequality that she represents. Britain is not so free of class divisions as we might hope (not to say that other countries don't have similar or other divisions)

[Mr_Wood]