nope

No, but I'd work for William and Kate.

being a butler would be much too complicated for me!  But I might consider tending the royal gardens ... 

I wonder if I could keep my mixed-breed nag (assuming I had one) in the royal stables while I was there?

Would you want these nipping at your heels?????

LMAO!!

The Royals make me sick.

Hmmm, maybe I would for one year if just to try to convince the queen to run through the palace halls barefoot, skinny dip in an isolated lake, and come down for breakfast without combing her hair and putting on her makeup.

You're assuming she doesn't . Who knows what secrets that palace is keeping?

And no, I'm not interested in being a butler, even for her.

Mendalla

I actually had a friend work in the palace last summer a steward ushering people around while it was open for tourist season. She said it was a much better job than she was expecting. The staff was addressed by the queen at the beggining of the summer and then recieved a thank you letter at the end.

Anyway, I don't think being a butler would be my forte but I'd be willing to give it a try. I think it'd be fun to find out some of the inner workings of a place like that! The inner runnings and everything to keep it going must be astronomical!

I think it would be interesting to work at the palace. I don't think butler would suit me, I'd rather be a maid, but I think it would be nice to work at that location! Either at Buckingham Palace or Balmoral. I'd enjoy dusting the chandeliers and vacuuming the carpets! snatching a glance out the window with a little daydream now and then... I don't think it would be a stressful job. And I'd have a tidy little uniform to wear too, full benefits I bet.

I enjoyed the movie The Queen, starring Helen Mirren. Gives an insight into the queen's life.

Gosh MikeP, such vehemence!

Does anybody here think she was instrumental in Diana's death? I don't know, but think it's possible.

I highly doubt that Elizabeth herself did but I'd certainly say Diana was a victim of a screwed up, somewhat dysfunctional system that the Queen presided over, even if there wasn't a deliberate plan to get rid of her.

I'm not as vehement as Mike in my anti-monarchical views but I definitely lean republican (in the sense of eliminating the monarchy, not in the sense of the US political party of that name)

Mendalla

Bethany, I think butlers have to be male in the palace

If I could, I'd definitely give it a whirl!  Would love to sneak around palace on time off investigating and finding things.  Like Elanorgold, I'd prefer to be a maid.

Elanor: I think that to really get disgusted with the Royals you have to experience some of the impacts of the Monarchy and the whole aristocratic sytem in the U.K.

It is no fairy tale: it is a very well-oiled corporate machine that cruelly wields considerable power through land ownership and class oppression. 

It has survived by a slick combination of brute power and pervasive public relations… the only corporate that has its propaganda taught in schools as a part of the core curriculum (British history).

Elizabeth is amazing… through the occasional nicely chosen word and the maintenance of a tantalising distance from reality, she has done some extraordinary damage control… despite her arrogant buffoon of a husband and her intensely unlikeable grandchildren.

She was well rid of Princess Di who was playing a game way off-message: the U.K. tabloids went from calling Di a shopper-holic nymphomaniac to "people's princess" overnight when she was killed… alive she had already been talking openly about Charles' frog-faced mistress and the Royals' bullying and abusive treatment of her … and she got a trashing in the media.

Safely dead she was transformed into a beautifully tragic near-Royal. And Elizabeth sails through all this with just a few, quickly forgotten and forgiven little glitches (a bit slow off the mark, for example, to "mourn" the "people's princess")…

Charles, meanwhile, is widely thought a twit because… well, because he is one. Anne has been so long in hiding that few people would recognise her in the street. She's one of the better ones, despite her criminal conviction under the Dangerous Dogs Act. There was spendthrift  Sarah, selling appointments with Prince Andrew… remember him? So the succession is going to be interesting. Harry? The pot-smoking, underage drinker with a predeliction for Nazi huniforms? William? Kate? Maybe… I think it'll be a stretch.

Right now I am emeshed in a novel series of Tudor England .  The Queen (Katherine of Aragon in this case) and all the ladies in waithing.  THAT didn't seem like too bad a job, I am sure it had it's perks.

I think it would be a bit more dangerous to be staff of the royals back in the 16th century!

I was in England when Diana died. I may have forgotten some of the story, but I remember the shock, and suspicion right from the day of it. I remember how carried away people got too. And I remember the wedding too. I don't know about Harry, but I find WIlliam and Kate likeable so far. And I like Charlie, by what I know of him. Of cource I remember Sarah and Andrew, though I didn't follow the story closely. Well, you haven't convinced me yet Mike. But if the Queen did give a nod for Dianna's murder, I would write her off. But I would still want there to be royalty, even though they are human and have faults.

It's not so much THEM as individuals, Elanor: it's the institution, and the still-feudal way it works out, especially in Scotland. Canada's still living with the hideous way aboriginal peoples have been sequestered onto unsustainable reservations while their property rights were simply and unilaterally annulled by representatives of "The Crown". It is an ugly system for anyone on the receiving end. Ask a few Highland tenants about their freedoms and enjoyment of life.

More dangerous back then to be sure, Elanorgold.

I could not apply. I do domestic duties but I am in no way a professional

There's no way I could do it. I would screw something up and wouldn't last a day. I assume there'd be no such thing as "improvising" or "good enough" when you work in the Queen's house--not like my house. "Sorry Your Magesty, but we ran out of monogramed serviettes, here's a paper towel. That oughta do the trick."   I'd be "off with her head!"

If it's Bounty paper towel you might.  

I meant "it would be"...not I'd be. That came out wrong. It would be my head that would be off with!