The Prince and Mr Shmith

The Age would not be The Age, if not some editorial hack would turn up to discredit a pleasant event. The hack is Michael Shmith, whom The Age styled as “a staff writer”, but who was until recently a senior editor of The Age, and the event was The Prince of Wales‘ and The Duchess of Cornwall‘s visit of the Australian High Commission in London to mark Australia Day and pay tribute to those who had lost their lives in the Queensland floods.

"Thank heaven we can still make Charles chuckle at our character-building ways“, remarked Michael Shmith in today's Age, only to continue “the legendary regal wit of the-prince-who-really-wants-to-be-Neddy-Seagoon-but-no-one-has-the-courage-to-tell-him-he-isn't was well on display, attracting (according to The Age correspondent) ‘roars of laughter and an ovation from the gathering’

"'If you want to develop character, go to Australia.' This remark might have thrilled a room of 500 guests who thought the Prince of Wales was funnier than Mr Bean (there are points in common, after all), but I found it quaint,“ claimed Michael Shmith.

Michael Shmith loves to point out, that he is something of a "royal expert", when it comes to royal protocol:

"... I saw, when covering the Queen’s Australia tour five years ago..."

"... I once saw the late Princess Margaret informally mingling ..."

"... I remember a reception in Perth six years ago, when the prince [Charles] spoke wistfully.“

His article contained barely 670 words, but he could fiddle in three royal encounters. What a sacrifice this republican journalist must have endured, that he remembered them so well!

Michael Shmith could be a nice man in real life – his dislike for the Australian Royal Family is his personal choice. He should be spared to write on them. Nobody would ask a journalist who hates football, to cover sport events. And someone who finds tennis boring, would never be sent to report on a tournament. The same goes for the arts, museums or religious festivals - why send someone there, when he or she only suffers while writing on the matter? Only when it comes to royal events, The Age seems to be unable to find anyone among their staff and/or free lance writers who enjoys the royal pomp and cirstumances. Is among The Age's editorial staff not a single journalist who is able or willing to write an article or a report that is not part of a smear campaign?

Poor journalism, really poor journalism.

PS. It seems, the editorial staff is poor on foreign language skills. Why did no-one point out to Mr. Shmith that the equivalent of a "pommy bastard" used by rude French people on Germans would be "boches" and not "Bosch". Monsieur, redoublez la classe!

Prince Charles marked Australia Day
26th January 2011

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall visited the Australian High Commission in London on 26h January to mark Australia Day and pay tribute to those who had lost their lives in the Queensland floods.



The event, attended by members of the Australian community, commemorated those killed in the natural disaster and recognised the efforts of the emergency services and the public who helped save lives, homes and businesses.

In a speech The Prince told the guests Australians had "shown such amazing ability to survive, endure and somehow make jokes about the horror that everybody's facing".

His Royal Highness also told the invited audience of leading Australians how in 1966 he spent around six months in their country and developed a "huge affection" for the nation.

The Prince spent two terms as an exchange student at Timbertop, a remote outpost of the Geelong Church of England Grammar School in Melbourne, Australia.

He then made them laugh when he said: "I've been through my fair share of being called a 'pommie bastard' - by God it was good for the character.

"If you want to develop character go to Australia."


The Prince went on to say how livestock farmers were showing "unbelievable courage and resilience in the face of all these disasters".

He added: "The emergency services - we know how incredible they are when these disasters occur.

"We know also, just how much people in communities are helping each other. Suddenly adversity produces extraordinary generosity of spirit and people working together in a way perhaps hadn't quite happened before."

Australia's flood crisis began with record rains in November that left huge parts of the state of Queensland under water, killing 30 people.

The natural disaster also damaged or destroyed 30,000 homes and businesses and caused at least £1.9 billion in damage to crops and lost coal exports.

The state capital and the country's third-largest city, Brisbane, was swamped for days. The flood waters are now affecting parts of Victoria.

The Duchess is greeted by Australian writer Kathy Lette at a reception held at Australia House, the Australian High Commission in London.

Hosting the evening was Australia's High Commissioner John Dauth, and among the guests was Australian writer Kathy Lette who shared a joke with The Duchess and said afterwards: "I warned her that she was in a room full of convicts - the 'creme de la crim'."

T r u e

This cartoon appeared in The Age today to ridicule the constitutional framework of Australia – but the RadicalRoyalist rather likes the idea.

More Australian stamps of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia can be found here.

The Age: This year's republican parrot talk

On Australia Day The Age put up a united front against the Constitution, the Australian flag and first of all against the Australian Monarchy. Actually, everything seems to be a repeat from previous years.

As a commentator remarked: These has-beens say the same thing every Australia Day and quite frankly it is boring. Most Australians don't care enough to change to bother talking about it. Do you just republish the same newspaper every Australia Day so you can have a day off too.

Peter Gebhardt asked for “independence from the regal pantomime in England”.

John Huxley collected quotes from a dozen former Australians of the Year, among them Harold Scruby, who founded Ausflag in 1981, who had said: “We believe the time has come to embrace a flag worthy of our sovereign, independent, mature, egalitarian nation; our own flag."

The most common, very, very common was Larissa Behrendt, professor of law at the University of Technology, Sydney, chairwoman of the Bangarra Dance Theatre and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year, who came up with this all too familiar slogan: “Becoming a republic is inevitable and it's time to rekindle the debate.” You wouldn’t believe the originality.

Worst of all is today's editorial in The Age: "The last national leader who accepted the challenge was Paul Keating, and when he left office, nearly 60 per cent of Australians supported a republic.” The Age might be the only one in Australia regretting Paul Keating has disappeared from the political arena.

In view of the recent opinion polls mentioned below The Age appears like an Australian version of The Pravda with its republican rants, that left no space for a single pro-Monarchist article on Australia Day. Don't they fear the Australians might get an overdose of the same old republican propaganda that was published on other occasions? May this empire of evil speaking collapse soon.

In 2010, 52 per cent favoured the Constitutional Monarchy for Australia rather than “a” republic. The Age on 22nd December 2010: A total of 52 per cent think the nation should remain a monarchy.

And on 28th August 2010:
Australian support for the country becoming a republic is at its lowest level since 1994.

The RadicalRoyalist’s previous responses to The Age’s republicanism on Australia Day reply to all the allegations published today and can be read here from 2007 and here from 2009.

Illegitimate!

When it comes to shallow journalism, The Age is always an exemplary model, because it never fails when you need it to demonstrate this thesis. Today’s headline President wins outright in Portugal just stated, that the incumbent Anibal Cavaco Silva “grabbed more than the 50 per cent of the vote needed to win outright”. The Socialist Manuel Alegre came second with 19.75 per cent.

Was that it? Another triumph of republican democracy? You could think so if you just read The Age.

The Portuguese media tell a complete different story. In reality the Portuguese Monarchists were jubilant, because they had called for a boycott of the presidential elections, which proved to be successful. Only 46.62 per cent of those entitled to vote bothered to go to the polls: 5,139,583 out of 9,631,222 registered voters stayed away from the polling booths. Among the 4,490,147 voters, 4.26 per cent or 191,170 cast a blank vote another 86,545 or 1.93 per cent cast an invalid vote. In the end, a mere 40.4 per cent wanted to have a say in who should be Portugal's president - 59.6 per cent could not care less about the republic's highest representative.

So, let’s examine The Age’s news item: Mr Cavaco Silva won outright? He received 2,230,240 votes, which represent only 23.16 per cent of the electorate. Compared with the last presidential election in 2006 Mr Cavaco Silva lost 526,372 vote. His main rival, the Socialist Manuel Alegre did not fare much better: He lost 294,591 votes (down from 1,126,612 to 832,021) compared to 2006.

Portuguese Monarchists were delighted about the result of this presidential election: “Portuguese say NO to the republic" (PORTUGUESES DIZEM NÃO À REPÚBLICA) was one of the headlines.

Before the elections, the Portuguese had been called to “de-republic” Portugal (NESTE DOMINGO, VAMOS DESREPUBLICANIZAR PORTUGAL) and Monarchists were shown how to vote invalid by writing in “I want a King!

So, what The Age loved to call an outright win may be the beginning of the long end of the Portuguese republic. Long live the King! Viva o Rei! Viva Portugal Real!

Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia announced his engagement

German Monarchists had anxiously waited for this news. His Imperial Highness, Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia (*10th June 1976), announced his engagement with Her Serene Highness, Princess Sophie of Isenburg (*7th March 1978), daughter of T.S.H. Prince Franz Alexander and Christine of Isenburg.

H.I.H. Prince Georg Friedrich succeeded his grandfather, H.I.H. Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, on 25th September 1994 as head of Germany's Imperial Family.

Crown Princess Mary and Prince Charles send messages to the Queensland flood victims



HRH Crown Princess Mary of Denmark gave birth to two healthy children - soon called "Little Boy" and "Little Girl" - at Rigshospitalet on 8th January 2011.

TRH Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary left the clinic on 14th January and were greeted with cheering Royalists.

Australian media people asked the Australian born Danish Crown Princess about her reaction to the floods in Queensland. After noticing her concern, Channel 10 turned "to our Royal" and broadcast HRH Prince Charles' message to the Queensland flood victims.


The Prince of Wales said the floods in Australia were "almost impossible to imagine" as he made a donation to the relief efforts.

He also paid tribute to the work of the Emergency Services and the Armed Forces in Brisbane.

The private donation is to the Queensland Premier's Flood Relief Appeal.

Speaking at his Scottish residence, Birkhall, The Prince told the BBC: "So many of us here in this country wanted to offer our deepest condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives in this appalling tragedy. We’ve all been watching with mounting dismay and concern the appalling nature of these floods.

"I realise only too well that so much is dependant on the actions of the state, the emergency services, the armed forces, the Queensland Police, who in so many ways I know have made a fantastic difference to people's lives in these sort of disasters.

"I realise only too well - we all do - that the aftermath, the clean-up, the reconstruction, all this effort is going to be vast and I'm so glad to hear that the Queensland fund has been set up to which I'm only too happy and proud to contribute something."

The donation follows one by the Queen a day before.

Iranian terror sentence against human rights lawyer

Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani (37) and Arash Rahmanipour (19) were hanged on 28th January 2010 for the capital crime of Mohareb, or "taking up arms against God," which was based on their membership in the pro-Royalist group, Anjoman-e Padeshahi-e Iran.

As The Los Angeles Times reports today Arash Rahmanipour's lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was sentenced to eleven years in prison. The L.A. Times: "She aroused the ire of the judiciary when she spoke out about the secret execution of one of her clients, who was convicted of belonging to an outlawed monarchist group and hanged before dawn Jan. 28, 2010, without Sotoudeh's knowledge".

Last Sunday, Nasrin Sotoudeh was convicted of acting against national security and failing to wear the Islamic head scarf, was sentenced to eleven years in prison and banned from practicing law or traveling for 20 years.

The human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in September and has been tortured, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and Sotoudeh's family

Amnesty International's British director, Kate Allen, called her a prisoner of conscience. Five years of Sotoudeh's sentence were for being a member of an outlawed human rights group, even though she wasn't, Allen said.

A message from The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall to The Prime Minister of Australia about the flooding in Queensland


Clive Alderton, Private Secretary for Commonwealth and Foreign Affairs to the office of The Prime Minister of Australia: "The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall have been deeply moved by news of the flooding in Queensland. The Prince of Wales has asked if you could kindly arrange for the following message to be delivered to the Prime Minister as soon as possible, please."

The message from Their Royal Highnesses:

"My wife and I have been horrified by reports of the terrible flooding in Queensland. The scale of the disaster all but defies belief and, on behalf of us both, I just wanted you to know how much our hearts go out to the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives and property have been affected. I also wanted to say how enormously impressed we have been by what is, clearly, outstanding combined work of the military, emergency services, Federal and State authorities in ensuring that people are evacuated to places of safety.

As we all mark the start of a New Year I can only pray that the worst of the flooding is over and send you every possible good wish as you work for the recovery of the many communities involved."

Another victim of Iran's Theocratic Republic:
H.I.H. Prince Alireza Pahlavi

This news from the website of His Imperial Majesty Shahanshah Reza II of Iran shocked Monarchists worldwide:

It is with immense grief that we would like to inform our compatriots of the passing of Prince Alireza Pahlavi.


Like millions of young Iranians, he too was deeply disturbed by all the ills fallen upon his beloved homeland, as well as carrying the burden of losing a father and a sister in his young life.

Although he struggled for years to overcome his sorrow, he finally succumbed, and during the night of the 4th of January 2011, in his Boston residence, took his own life, plunging his family and friends into great sorrow.

Once again, we are joined with mothers, father and relatives of so many victims of these dark times for our country.

Born in Tehran on 28th July 1966, His Imperial Highness Prince Alireza attended schools in Iran before traveling to the United States in 1979 during the Iranian revolution. He obtained a B.A. from Princeton University in 1984 and a masters degree from Columbia University in 1992 and attended Harvard University in pursuit of a Ph. D. in Ancient Iranian Studies.

In June 2001, the Prince's sister, Her Imperial Highness Princess Leila Pahlavi, also committed suicide.


Her Imperial Highness Princess Leila's tomb in Paris.

While committing suicide is a very personal decision it can be assumed that the constant exile from their homeland Iran and being under death threats from the Iranian terror regime, which has killed so many exiled Iranians, may have been too much to bear for the two members of the Imperial Family.

R.I.P.

His Imperial Majesty at a press conference announcing His brother's death.

The Queen of Australia's Message to Queensland Flood Victims

Her Majesty the Queen of Australia has sent a message to the Governor of Queensland, H.E. Penelope Wensley, expressing concern over the extensive flooding in Queensland and sending her sympathies to those affected.


The message reads: "I have been following with great concern over the last few days the news of the devastating floods in Queensland. Please extend my sincere sympathies to all the people whose communities and livelihoods have been so badly damaged in this disaster."