Or at least with post-traumatic stress disorder.

On the other hand, if the monarch were to come out and publicly say “this Parliament is a disgrace, this government is a shambles, etc” it would certainly have a powerful political effect (but again would probably also destabilize the situation).

The Queen has lots of power, as long as she never uses it. ;)

Why, the ultimate convergence of science, technology, human knowledge, and spiritual power into one omnicognizant point, known as the Bobularity, of course. Get your tickets now.

Yes, Harry can walk away any time he wants to. He can renounce his claim to the throne, pursue an independent life, and otherwise become a private citizen. (Not that he would be anonymous, of course, it would surely make him far more well-known than he already is.)

That’s what he can do. What it’s actually called if he does it is a matter of some question. When Edward abdicated to marry an American woman, it required an Act of Parliament to formalize the abdication. So perhaps, technically, it wouldn’t be an abdication on Harry’s part if the Parliament never chose to ratify his choice. They couldn’t stop him, of course (how do you make someone be King?) but the legalisms might be murkier.

Me too. What’s the world coming to?

As far as Harry’s being given no choice about being royalty, maybe one of the commonwealth types could correct me if I’m wrong, but it was my understanding that if he wanted a different life he could simply renounce his claim to the succession (is it called “abdicating” if he’s only giving up the possibility of being king some day?) and go off and become whatever he wanted to. So the fact that he doesn’t do that means that he needs to fulfill all aspects of the job: if he wants the fame, wealth, and power (even if it is unofficial, he has more power than the average Brit), he needs to deal with the dangers and inconveniences as well.

Speaking of politican’s kids in the military, there’s an interesting story out of Chicago. Mayor Daley’s eldest son went to West Point out of high school. After a year or two (I don’t remember the exact period), he left West Point, just before the point at which he would have had to commit to active service as an officer. He continued his college career elsewhere, and ended up getting an MBA at the University of Chicago.

For those of you not familiar with the U. of C., it’s a very prestigious and academically demanding school. You’ve got to be pretty smart and a hard worker to get an MBA there. At this point, he was pretty well set. He had a very good education from a very good school, and given his name there’s no way he could fail to land a very high-paying job anywhere in Chicago. Which he did.

And then, a few months after finishing his MBA, he quit. And enlisted in the Army. He’s currently with the 82nd Airborne, and could easily go to Iraq. He was quoted as saying that he had come to realize what “Duty, Honor, Country” really meant, and decided that he needed to serve his country. His mother is reputed upset that he has decided to join the military, but his father said he did not try to talk him out of it.

There seems to be a pretty strong tradition of younger sons in that family serving in wartime. His Uncle Andrew served during the Falklands conflict, and his grandfather, who later became George VI (and was also a younger brother) saw action during the Battle of Jutland in WW I. I suppose the “spare” is more expendable than is the “heir.”

It is true enough that Prince Harry did not vote for war, nor did his Mom, who has nothing to say about all this. That said, IF that family would like the monarchy to continue, their children have to go to war. Part of the deal. Hard deal and all that. Prince Harry could abdicate and become the Lord of Whatever and get out of the loop.

However it now looks as though he will be going, and apparently he wants to go, for better or worse.

But I would be hard pressed to think of anyone more useless. Unlike his older brother, he won’t even get to wait, to wait, to become a figurehead.

He’s more useless than his brother because he’s third in line instead of second? his life is worthless because of an accident of birth? wtf?

Instead, others sons and daughters, like Senator George Webb’s son, go off to fight the war and the President doesn’t want to hear about that sacrifice (if you missed that scene in Washington, read here). For a man who got a cushy job that he (a) didn’t deserve and (b) couldn’t even finish and a vice president who managed to get five deferments from going to war - maybe we should sign Mary up as well!

Exactly. The symbolism of (a) the coddled prince putting down the Jetski and picking up his rifle and getting on the APC with the other grunts vs. (b) the coddled prince watching the war on the big-screen at the bar in Montenegro is powerful. The first is a social order that many people can support. The second sickens everyone.