Regular readers will recall Ruthie’s previous posts about the Principality of Sealand; basically an off shore platform seized by a plucky Brit who then declared independence.
Following a fire on the platform in June this year the Royal Family of Sealand find themselves strapped for cash for regeneration. Taking a tip from the UK Government they have decided to sell some peerages. And considerably cheaper too: Yes siree for only £19.95 (reduced from £59.95) your life can change overnight. No longer need you be Mr. or Ms. Average etc etc..
Ruthie commends their enterprising spirit. Wouldn’t it be even better to insert in the deed (in very small print of course) some clauses to the following effect:
1. Acceptance of this peerage also confers upon the signor citizenship of the Principality of Sealand in perpetuity. Citizenship may only be revoked by a vote in favour by two thirds of the current ruling Royal Family.
2. Citizens of the Principality of Sealand are subject to State offshore taxation requirements (currently 60p in the UK pound of earned income or equivalent in US or Sealand dollars).
3. All citizens are required to undertake 2 years military service.
these are bona fide titles from a sovereign principality, recognised by the Sealand Government,
OK, and also by … ?
Baron Geeklawyer sounds pretty good I may have it.
Just to let Lady Ruthie know that Lord Stevens of Sealand is glad the small print was not included in the certificate of enoblement.
Greetings my Lord. Good to see that the nobility are represented in our readership..
I have always been noble - but not always ennobled.
I have also been knobbled - but it is unlikely that I will ever win a Nobel prize for anything. As a fan of tabloids - if I was a hack, I might also be tempted to state that I could, in the vernacular of the tabloids, have been a ‘knob’ - but that would be for others to judge… i would hope for a more kind, or possibly, a more noble epithet.
It is curious that we talk of a ‘knob’ of butter… and while it may have been the privilege of the ‘nobility’ at one time, to exercise the duties of a mesne lord and do a bit of ‘noblesse oblige’ - that sort of thing just does not happen in West London these days…. at least, not to my knobledge.
The antonym of ‘noble’ is..pleasingly ‘riffraff’..which, of course, leads me on to my favourite musical.. “The Rocky Horror Show”… suitable for all members of the Labour party, apart from Lord Protector Blair (who, as it hapens, does not wish to be ‘ennobled’) …”just a step to the left:”
I’m sorry, yet again to have nobbled your website - I do hope that I have not brought it into disrepute with my thoughts on the word ‘noble’ - but it is Sunday evening… I have enjoyed a few glasses of Rioja..and because of the weather.. and the appalling situation with the England v Pakistan cricket match (which has been well and truly knobbled by the umpires) I have not been able to get out on my motorbike and excite the traffic boys from Thames Valley Police - no admission of guilt, explicit or implicit with this last statement.
a piu tarde