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Trooping the anachronism

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    Trooping the anachronism

    Once again, the bbc devotes its air time to the fact that millions of pounds of taxpayers' money are being spent training people to march in line whilst playing the trombone. Fuck me, that'll scare the shit out of Al-Qaeda.

    Still, Victoria Wood's a dame, or something, now, so it's not all just a load of wank.

    #2
    Trooping the anachronism

    I've got the Leamington Peace Festival right outside my window.

    Right now, with the window open, these guys are filling my flat. It's great.

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      #3
      Trooping the anachronism

      Ah, pageantry. Bloody brilliant. I've got a set of drumsticks one of the snare drummers gave me when I went to see it as a wee lad. We were walking back to the car afterwards and going past some place with an iron railng and he leaned over and asked if I wanted them. Very chuffed I was.

      Pity I was preparing tarragon chicken for lunch today or I'd have caught more. All the redcoats, dense, precisely moving formations of men and horses as marching music played on made you think of Napoleonic battle lines being drawn up.

      You may now abuse me for being a militaristic cunt.

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        #4
        Trooping the anachronism

        How can we after you stuff Leeds?

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          #5
          Trooping the anachronism

          And the first time since they became Quins RL, I believe.

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            #6
            Trooping the anachronism

            The missus and I were cycling through the City when the fly past occurred, a tourist (possibly italian) asked us what was going on, I think he thought it was something serious.

            Thinking about TTC, I've always been amused by the likes of China, North Korea wheeling out their military might to show off, but we're no better at all, it's ridiculous.

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              #7
              Trooping the anachronism

              I was out on a boat in the Solent when the 21 gun salute kicked off. After the 2nd or 3rd I looked at my watch and saw it was midday and realised it must some offical birthday or something, then I remembered hearing it was Trooping the Colour this weekend. I had to explain the the skipper and other crew what was going on. Don't think Ive ever watched it all the way through.

              My opinion of it is that if the Queen wants to run an easy eye over a load of blokes in uniform on her birthday then fair enough. Not as if she can go clubbing with her mates to celebrate.

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                #8
                Trooping the anachronism

                It's all to do with organization, discipline, flair and good taste, things we are respected for all over the world. Some of my students were in London and stumbled upon the rehearsals -they were thrilled to bits to have seen them. No, really - we can put on a really good show, and as worse things go on in the world, I don't see anything wrong with it.

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                  #9
                  Trooping the anachronism

                  I hate it when the ludicrous mounted troop with their brass breastplates block my bike ride through Hyde Park. They aren't just trooping the colour. They're there every day of the year, and they aren't going to be much use defending against Russian or French or Chinese or American tanks, standing there on their horses, holding swords. They've learned nothing from the Polish experience in 1939, have they? Idiots.

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                    #10
                    Trooping the anachronism

                    It's A Knockout. Simply blend the playful, bumptiously-colourful hi-jinks of the famed '70's knockabout tournament with the staid, stiff and antiquated events at Buckingham Palace to bring in a bigger audience. It's a winner.

                    Having the Foot Guards march in solemn phalanx down the field perimeter isn't, by and large, a feast for the eye. Having the Foot Guards try and avoid large balloons filled with custard being thrown at them while contestants dressed as giant skittles run at them head on, is a sure-fire way to re-ignite interest in the event.

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                      #11
                      Trooping the anachronism

                      In themselves, organisation and discipline are value-neutral: we always need to ask: organisation and discipline to what end?

                      Look. All this pageantry is a stylised version of pre-high-explosive military tactics: that's to say, of the military tactics of imperialism. I don't regard it, and the very particular types of nostalgia it fosters, as politically neutral.

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                        #12
                        Trooping the anachronism

                        Wyatt, is that in reference to Trooping the Colour, or the horse guards' daily show for tourists? Does the latter really evoke very particular types of nostalgia in anyone?

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                          #13
                          Trooping the anachronism

                          Oh, and the argument that "the tourists love it" is a rubbish one. If they like it enough, let's put it on in the west end and charge them.

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                            #14
                            Trooping the anachronism

                            But they do love it, as anyone who has had to endure the crowds can attest.

                            And if it is politically objectionable, I don't see how charging for it would cleanse that taint.

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