Howefamily

The Royal Family bring in more cash to the UK through tourism than they could ever cost. Its amazing to have a Monarchy and I wish that I had appreciated it more when I lived there. Now I live in a place that has more respect for them than I have ever heard.

I am now proud and thankful for them, they are an amazing part of British history.

dunroving

Like all families, the Royals have their share of family members who do a bad job and are slightly nutty. However, I don't know any other 80+ year old who works as hard as the Queen for this country, and as said in an earlier post, the new generation of Royals are people we should be proud of as representatives of the UK. I wouldn't get rid of them.

sallysimmons

I don't personally like or care about the royals - but I've gone from hating them when I lived there, to seeing what a valuable institution they are now that I'm gone. Imagine Britain without them and you can easily see that tourism would fall dramatically.

I feel the same about the dotty old aristocrats who still live in massive castles and open them to the public to keep them going - without them, the UK would be a lot less interesting to the people who spend money coming over on holiday.

robin1234

I don't really like the young ones. Their populism looks a bit fake to me, hard to believe it's sincere. Give me crusty old eccentrics like Prince Charles and Phil the Greek any day.

Lothianlad

The United Kingdom willl never cease to be a Monarchy in spite of left wing Republican diehards in this country - it is inconceivable that this largely conservative (small c) country will be anything else......when the Queen eventually leaves things earthly and heads for pastures celestial a King will most definitely take her place - hopefully William (and Kate) but most probably Charles (and her).

The British countryside - quite unique really - indeed very lovely and amazingly varied for such a small country physically - unique in its character - both natural and "man made" in terms of its environment....the moist climate of these islands adding greatly to the beauty of its astonishingly lush, verdant landscape dotted with small towns and villages, large mansions, majestic castles so typically British in style and architecture.

Inevitably, modern life has had an enormous affect on the landscape as you all know, and further great changes are planned for the future, which are proving to be, as you would expect, extremely controversial.

I have really good friends who live in a small village in south Northamptonshire, roughly midway between Banbury and Daventry, an area of gently rolling countryside containing many small villages, many of the buildings constructed out of the type of stonework typical of the area - similar to Cotswold stone but of a darker colour. The locality also contains a variety of large stately homes of historic interest, including Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral home of the first American President, George Washington.

Not far away from Sulgrave, just over the county boundary in Warwickshire, is the large mansion of Farnborough Hall, now owned by the National Trust. It once stood right out in the middle of unspoiled open countryside, and from the south west side of the property there was a clear uninterrupted view across open meadows to Edge Hill, outlined on the sky line, and below it the site of the 1642 Battle of Edge Hill in the English Civil War.

Now the view looks over the extremely busy M40 London to West Midlands motorway with its six lanes of continuous traffic - clearly visible in the near distance from Farnborough Hall.

BUt that's not the end of it - not at all - the next village to where my friends live is similarly sized village of Chipping Warden, situated on the A361 road between Banbury and Daventry. If all plans for the proposed new HS2 (High Speed) railway lines linking London with the West Midlands, and then beyond that up to Northern England, go ahead and come to fruition, the whole area of lovely open countryside will see not only constant traffic flowing along the M40 but also frequent trains travelling at speeds of up to 225 miles per hour, slashing quite appreciably the travelling time between London and Birmingham.

The village of Chipping Warden will be virtually split into two parts, separated by the new HS2 lines, and the problems it will cause to many people living along the proposed route will be very considerable indeed - the disruption in this very lovely part of rural England will be enormous...as will be the local opposition to the whole thing anyway. Chipping Warden will be just one of very many other places not only in Northamptonshire, but also in rural Buckinghamshire and equally lovely Shapespeare country in Warwickshire.

Chipping Warden is normally a quiet (apart from the A361 through traffic) pleasant and lovely little village, complete with two pubs and an ancient church...it also has quite unique gate-type affairs at both ends of the village proclaiming the name of the village on a large display board, as seen in the following YT clip.

Chipping Warden is the starting off point for the Jurassic Way, a public right of way pathway which runs all the way down through the English countryside and endoing up on the so called Jurassic Coast close to Lyme Regis, in Dorset. It would be tragic if the HS2 lines cut right across this ancient right of way for walkers and hikers and what have you.....a real breach of the pastoral peace if ever there was one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-OKyHxdIs0

ergyngfeld

Our countryside is our greatest asset for the future. We need to preserve it. England's population is already stupidly dense and it's rising all the time - how are we going to feed all these people, especially when climate change begins to bite?

I'd love to see some more national parks created (Forest of Dean!), so we can ring-fence our beautiful (and productive) rural areas from destruction.

As for building new towns, density and community are the ways forward! A few weeks ago I drove through Basingstoke, which I have always thought was a soul-less overspill town. I ended up driving through a brand-new brownfield estate, and it was actually quite nice! Loads of flats with shops and pubs underneath them, and dense houses with communal gardens. Looked like it had good bus connections too. Very community-oriented, and it was very space-efficient.

Jkh

The revised planning guidelines will have to bed down and be tested in the courts; however they have received a guarded welcome from the likes of CPRE and the National Trust and they apply to England only in these days of devolution. That said, there is an urgent need for housing and updated infrastructure here (I live (mostly) in Cornwall where some of the villages are over 60% occupied as weekend/ 2nd/ holiday homes) - if it can be done sensitively and with care then the balance can be struck.

ergyngfeld

Man that must absolutely kill the community. It's getting to be like that in rural Herryfordshire where I grew up.

Second homes should be bloody illegal for the damage they do to communities.

J.JsOH

I agree in the sentiment against 2nd homes. There are many now on the Norfolk coast where locals cannot afford to buy property in their family villages and pubs are operated by celebrity chefs at prices exceeding what locals can afford. All jolly good for the weekend migrants that clog the little lanes with their Chelsea tractors at weekends but generally making the place less attractive or affordable for us oiks.

robin1234

Hard to know how you can prevent it in a free country, though. I guess if I wanted to buy a holiday home in Norfolk, and I could afford it, I'd think it a bit unfair if my freedom to buy any property on the market which was in my price range, was abridged in any way.

After all, it could become your primary home, and you subsequently sell your original one.