Well our local monarchists have worked themselves into a royal frenzy and the hyperbole is coming thick and fast - so let me try to help them get a few things into perspective.

William and his brother Harry - thanks to their gorgeous mother Diana - are the only really normal members of the world’s most dysfunctional family.
Granny Queen is locked into yesterday with her appallingly rude and insensitive husband.
Of the couple’s four children, three are divorced, two remarried and the fourth raised eyebrows when he eventually did take a wife - not what you might call a stable family.
William and Harry’s father - Charles, an admitted adulterer - raised eyebrows when he was heard telling his then mistress Camilla that all he really wanted to be was her tampon. And Diana remarked at the time that three people in her marriage just didn’t work.
All that of course is not exclusive to the royal family - millions of lesser beings do the same and in many cases much more - however the non-royals are not held up as paragons of virtue as the monarchists regard the royals.
And the absolute rubbish propagated by the likes of David Flint, his sidekick Thomas Flynn and their apprentice Jai Martinkovits that William would make a good Governor-General beggars belief.
The last and only time we had a royal in Yarralumla was when the Duke of Gloucester was sent here to get him out of the way. He was followed until recent times by a swag of moth-eaten British peers until we got our own people in the top job.
Which isn’t a bad note to finish on; until we get out acts together there isn’t an Australian alive considered fit enough to be the country’s top citizen.
So calm down old dears - William is a great bloke but it’s too little too late; by the time he’s ready Australia will be ready for a local but the lad will be welcome and visit again whenever he likes. After all he’s a celebrity now and that’s what its all about.
- Barry Everingham comments on royalty.
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
Good story by @ashermoses on the mass gaming of a website poll about alternative medicine http://t.co/3XNE2BF5
OK, so am I the last person in Australia to see this Herald front page mockup thru the Rinehart lens? http://t.co/LSNBPkVl
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
Would you kill for a job?
Who would work in an abattoir? Most of us have done jobs we didn’t want to do because we needed…
Friday Dilemma: child cruelty or harmless fun?
Parenting. It’s the new oneupmanship. Ah, how quaint the days now seem when parents could raise…
Hipsters with hip replacements
Someone once told me that when people reach a certain age they begin dressing in the manner they did…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: Punch on: Open thread 09/02/2012
marley says:
I'm one of the older ones, so I've certainly seen a few changes in my time. When I started school I learned to write with a nib pen, dipped in an inkwell (no, I'm not kidding). My mother became a dab hand at getting inkstains out of my clothes. Flicking ink at one another in the classroom was an essential… [read more]From: I’d rather have a piece of toast than listen to crap lyrics
Erick says:
Led Zeppelin are responsible for my all-time favourite mixed metaphor: "There you sit, sit and stare, like a book on a shelf rusting." (Misty Mountain Hop) I laugh every time I hear it. Hmmm, I believe I've decided what to play on the way to work today. [read more]Gentle jabs to the ribs
No wuckin forries. These nuckin futs are tuckin fops
Well, puck me with a fitchfork. The F-word is apparently an acceptable part of Australian speech. That’s… Read more
Most commented