Queen Beatrix's abdication: too 'typically Dutch' for the Windsors?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/29/queen-beatrix-abdication

Queen Beatrix's abdication: too 'typically Dutch' for the Windsors?
The abdication of a monarch comes naturally to the Dutch, while the British maintain a martyrish attitude to succession

Joris Luyendijk
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 January 2013 11.54 EST

Is there something unhealthily martyrish about the British "Queen for Life" system? I can't be the only foreigner who wasn't even aware that the British queen is like the Catholic pope; only death gets you a new one. But then on Monday, Queen Beatrix of my native Netherlands announced her abdication, and now British people are asking me if the Dutch will consider this a dereliction of duty. Will this damage the monarchy?

This is a woman who has spent 33 years of her life under the most intense public gaze imaginable, sitting through endless state functions, avoiding paparazzi and braving a never ending barrage of contempt and provocation from columnists and comedians on prime time television.

This abdication coincides with Beatrix's 75th birthday and, if anything, it will enhance her popularity – as many actors and pop stars discover too late, knowing when to stop is a true sign of wisdom.

There is an anecdote that early in 1980, Queen Elizabeth received word (possibly from Queen Juliana herself) that Juliana was going to make way for her daughter Beatrix soon. Allegedly, Queen Elizabeth slammed the phone down, angrily declaring that this was "typically Dutch" and staying in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

Or perhaps the rest of her life. There was an interesting line in Queen Beatrix's abdication speech that may very well have been a subtle snub to Elizabeth's remark. In the three minutes she spoke, Queen Beatrix found the time to say that "the reason for me to step back now is not because the office is too much of a strain [it is not]. I am abdicating because I am convinced that the responsibility for our country should now move to the next generation".

Compare that to the drawn-out public castration to which Queen Elizabeth is subjecting her son Charles. You can't help being born an heir apparent, but those who love you can help make it easier for you. Queen Elizabeth is not doing that, or so it looks to a Dutch eye.

A few years ago I sat in on a dinner given by Queen Beatrix, and was able to overhear a conversation she was having with her British guest, a high-ranking diplomat, about the issue of abdication. It was striking how she talked about it entirely in terms of her eldest son William's needs. She said she had been intensely grateful to her mother for only abdicating by the time Queen Beatrix was in her early 40s, allowing her time with her three young sons. Beatrix was determined to repeat the gesture and give her son a few years of relative seclusion with his family of three daughters. And so she did.

So should Britain allow and encourage its monarch to retire? That's up to the British people, of course, but I'm quite sure that the House of Orange is more than happy with the status quo. With all its spectacular dysfunction, the British royal family makes for fantastic spectacle. Meanwhile, royals all over the world will be thinking: thank goodness for the House of Windsor, they make us look almost normal.

---

Grim Tidings From the Netherlands:
Prince Bernhard’s Grandchildren Continue
 Bilderberg Legacy

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/78986-bilderberg-regular-queen-beatrix-of-the-netherlands-royal-family-with-more-skeletons-and-cupboards-than-a-graveyard-and-a-furniture-store-see-house-of-windsor-abdicates-in-favour-of-her-son

Bilderberg Regular Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands 'Royal' Family (with more skeletons and cupboards than a graveyard and a furniture store, see House of Windsor) Abdicates in Favour of Her Son

Tuesday, 29 January 2013 11:27

Posted by David Icke

You still have a royal family that rules through sexual partners, Netherlands? Oh, I have just had it away with my friend's friend's best mate and so we now have a future monarch? The king is dead - long live the king?

How quaint and how funny ... but the British are far too intelligent to allow that - and the Spanish, Belgians, Danish, Swedish ... right?

It was nothing to do with our posting this week was it one-time Princess Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld?

We do hope not - you know how much we support rule by genetics and inherited privilege especially by Nazis like your father.

------------------------------------------------------------

'The great-grandfather from [Prince] Friso’s mother’s [Queen Beatrix] side, a German Prince named Hendrik, raped his own daughter, the mother of Queen Beatrix, as a result of which a daughter was born. The father of Friso, Claus, was a homosexual who also used children for sexual pleasure. The lawyer of the Queen and main guardian of the Crown Prince, Friso’s brother, was a sadistic pedophile against whom even testimony of child executions exists.'