Full video

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hello welcome to easy english so today

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i'm on the beach and out to find out

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what the people of brighton think of the

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monarchy

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this is what brits think of the royal

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family here we go

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[Music]

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i think

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the royal family is

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they have a lot of secrets i think

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sort of the royal

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facade needs to be broken down i think

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people are really interested in finding

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out about what their life is really like

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and

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all of the things that people have

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hidden

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like in the past

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i think the royal family is a great

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institution i'm glad it's going to be

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slimmed down i think it's too big yeah

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too cumbersome yeah what is your general

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opinion of the royal family

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i think my opinion of the royal family

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have changed over the years

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i

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when i was younger i

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from a welsh background obviously i use

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kind of like always questioned about

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the the kind of the value and worth of

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the royal family

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but as i've grown older

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and certainly an environment in which we

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live in now when we talk about the

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environment

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i think that the cutting edge of it and

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i think they are leading

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well i think they're generally an

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anachronism

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but

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as i my life has progressed

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i've gone from thinking they're sort of

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the devilish side of society

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over-privileged

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over-educated but in a very narrow band

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right to thinking that actually many

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many people

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love that feeling of continuity

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in times of

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unprecedented

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catastrophic sometimes change okay so

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let's ask the question then uh what are

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your thoughts generally speaking right

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now on the royal family

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i think they do a good job i think

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this next generation will change things

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i think they're

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going to be more modern they're going to

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be i think they're going to interact

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with the public in

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a more approachable way not so aloof um

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i think it's quite exciting yeah what

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are your sort of general thoughts

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uh on the royal family as a whole as the

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firm

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i hate the word firm i think it's a

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horrible way to uh describe them i think

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they are the royal family i'm very proud

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of them i'm proud to be british

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and um i think they do an awful lot of

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good

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by just being there holding the country

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together particularly the queen

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yeah and she's done the most wonderful

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job um all these years that she's been

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on the throne which is a long time yeah

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and

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they bring huge amount of tourists into

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the country which brings an awful lot of

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revenue into the country and i think one

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of the things that people forget when

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they say oh well of course they own all

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these palaces and this and the other

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they're actually belong to the nation

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most of them

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and they employ an advanced

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amount of people

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what are your thoughts yeah very similar

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actually very similar um yeah i think i

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think charles was a has probably been a

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sort of go-between between the old

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traditional royalty that's as say stood

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aloof and was slightly remote which i

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think

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to be honest the generation probably

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before hours enjoyed because they sort

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of set them on a on a pedestal and they

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represented something quite iconic and

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different

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whereas i think as the generations have

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changed and and the world has changed

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really um

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that sort of

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that sort of different hierarchical

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structure has become

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very much softened and therefore

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the sort of the royalty has had to move

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towards the

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there we say the common man

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in a more in a more uh yeah in a more

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acceptable way really

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i mean i think the royal family through

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the years has been like

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a lot of people are really interested in

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them

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but

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i

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there's a lot of like misconceptions

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about the royal family and like

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what they

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are actually like in real life

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i think

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they're kind of glorified and their life

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is probably not as

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like sort of romanticized as what people

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think

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um it's probably quite hard to sort of

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keep themselves to themselves and

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actually do like their royal duties

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as people hope that they do

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but i think that prince william and

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are doing a great job at the moment and

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um

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he's doing this earth shot thing which i

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think is a wonderful enterprise

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and particularly is he not just leaving

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it in the uk he's taking the earth shot

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around the world and so i think the next

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one is the united states so i think

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that's a very important time

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so he's championing something but the

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other thing i think about him is that

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he's thinking about the young people and

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their futures

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he said at the time that he's concerned

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about

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his family and he was able to take the

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current concerns for his family to the

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greater ordinance audience all the

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families

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that have young children

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how nervous they are how challenged they

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are by the future so i think he's

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flagging up some real issues so come on

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william

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give us some more and the queen is

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wonderful we love queenie yeah we love

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her a bit and she served her nation

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with diligence throughout the years she

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said she'd serve and she has served wow

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there are a few wasters on the edges but

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that's life

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char charles i think has started it in a

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very

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limited way but i think he sort of

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exactly broke the mold but he certainly

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sort of

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started to put sort of steps out there

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to to to make some changes uh not always

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appreciated as i'm sure we all realize

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but in his own ways

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and and then they say william and kate

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have really picked up the mantle and

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and and gone on i'm not sure whether

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harry has probably gone a step too far

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really i think he's probably

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i don't know what you think in terms of

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you know i think he's he's

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feels free enough to say i don't want to

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do this i'm going to go

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he's not hide bound by the traditions

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that yeah a younger sibling would have

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been perhaps historically in the sense

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that wayan and andrew were behind

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charles i suppose he's broken those

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boundaries doesn't he he said well you

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know i'm knocking out a little bit yeah

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i'm not going to be part of the the

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the firm as it were

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yeah so i'm gonna you know strike do my

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own thing strike my and i don't think

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the queen has had a lot of choices

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really i think she's been bound by a

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protocol and

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this is what you've got to do and this

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is how you do it and and i yeah i just

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think this next generation will

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do it a little bit more their way

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would you say do you think we still need

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them are they still relevant do we

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benefit from having a royal family

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well

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only relevant i think as society has

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become

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more fractured

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and

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strange

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and although they are strange

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i think in an odd way

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they represent some people

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i do and i would never have you know 50

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60 years ago if i'd had an opinion 60

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years ago i wouldn't have ever thought

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i'd hear that come out of my mouth

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do you think we need a royal family

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still um

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i would say not but i think a lot of

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people really like

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idolise them and

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see them as massive celebrities yes

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don't so

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difference of opinions i guess do you

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think there's um positives and negatives

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to not having them

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yeah definitely so the positives

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to not having the royal family i think

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there's less sort of

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hierarchy in our society but i think

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the negatives of not having them a lot

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of people would feel

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like the past is kind of

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not carried into the present and they'll

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feel like

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really

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sort of nostalgic about what used to be

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really important in our society

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okay so are you kind of

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summarizing that we kind of keep them

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but that we give them less

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sort of uh we idolize them a little bit

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less or give them less power yeah

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yeah definitely i think so

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interesting the point you're making last

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a bit a minute ago about you know harry

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kind of opting out and the queen kind of

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maybe having to just take this all on

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yeah

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do we need them do you think we need the

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royal family anymore i think it's going

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to be i think that i think charles

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i think william and kate will thin

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thin the royal family down i think it's

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going to get thinner and thinner and

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thinner

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yeah in terms of sort of

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not exactly hangers on but you know the

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historically it's been a it's been a lot

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of people hasn't it you know the royal

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family has been married

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and you probably don't need all the

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duke of gloucesters and all that sort of

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lot i think i think in terms of the core

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i think they do

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you know they are still very well

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respected around the world and i think

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they do

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offer

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a balance in the community

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well

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no all of them really i think they

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because because they have shown the

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queen has

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demonstrated her father's values i mean

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she did take on her father's valued

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values and

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has not changed very much

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and i think that's kind of

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representative of her generation you

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know very much the war years

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and all that and then you've got

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her son particularly prince charles

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brought up in public school

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if he's odd well that would that would

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account for it i think

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not not having a broad enough

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range of experiences as a child

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and then the younger royals

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they you know

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prince william wasn't expected to marry

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a virgin

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was able to establish a relationship an

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adult relationship before any commitment

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was made

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and met his wife's family who were

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you know they'd work they what they call

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them trolley dollies on an airline

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you know i mean so i think the young

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royals

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might have a happier experience and i

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hope they have a happier experience

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can i ask them because um usually my

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next question to people is um

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do you think we still need them which i

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think you say yes because they say we it

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keeps jobs and they actually do bring

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huge amounts of people in a lot of

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revenue yeah but but my review then

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would be as you think they are important

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to kind of british to britain

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uh do you think they're still relevant

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or they're still current

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with

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today's climate today's society today's

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culture yes i do um i think the queen

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i mean being 95 now and not so well

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um

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has got to sort of i mean i'm sure she

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cares an awful lot which is not sort of

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quite out there at the moment you know

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they've got to be careful with her

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charles has always always been very

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conscious of being green

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and the future

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and climate change and everything else

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and all his speech is attached to that

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and uh his projects and things all and

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his if one went to highgrove which i

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haven't done but i my some of my family

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haves is wonderful

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you know he's very caring about how

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things work and keeping wildlife going

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and all that sort of thing

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and

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william being next in line

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as we know has just done these various

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global

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i can't remember what it was called but

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global something rather

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and gave out these prizes to people

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who've got initiatives into how to

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you know get power from the sea or

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whatever it was that they're doing and i

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think he's

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highly motivated i know and

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hopefully

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if he gets the chance of very will be a

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very good king

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with a modern twist

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thanks for watching this week's episode

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let us know in the comments below your

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thoughts on the british royal family and

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of your royal family if you haven't and

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we'll see you next week bye

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[Music]

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sounds like an eastern london gang yeah

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yeah