Bird Flu Fears Puts Tower of London's Ravens Indoors
 

Geez. First the Beefeaters can't eat any more because of Mad Cow, then Hoof & Mouth, and now this.

I think hoof&mouth had a greater impact on Buckingham Palace ;-)

well, it may seem rather drastic given that bird flu hasn't even arrived here yet, but let's not forget that, if the legend holds true and the ravens leave the Tower (by choice or in little black boxes) then the Tower and The Monarchy will fall! Yikes! I wonder if Her Maj gave the order...

I find this all so sad, I am so sick of seeing poor dead birds and swans being stuffed into bags.
I hope this never arrives in Great Britain!!

Re: Kate's post: In this case here's to bird flu hitting the Tower's ravens - i love animals and birds but such a beneficial result would be well worth their demise!

Well they obviously don't live forever so they can certainly "leave" the Tower through death. My understanding is that at least six ravens must be in residence and any less than that means the "results" kick in. last I heard there were six birds plus a seventh back-up.

Here's hoping all seven succumb - or maybe we should just bring the royals to the Tower and 'heads off' like in the old days and then let the ravens feed on the corpses. The British monarchy - what a dreary remnant of medieval days.

I'd rather have the Queen as Head of State than a President, she's more diplomatic. CHARLES on the other hand...

Anyhow there's no great feeling for a republic here, we quite like to keep our politicians in their place. We regard the Queen the way the US regards the Stars and Stripes - a symbol. But what the Canadians and the Aussies want with a foreign Head of State defeats me...

Hasn't Australia recently deposed the Queen as Head of State?

Nope.

I think they last held a national referendum on the subject about 5 years ago and it was defeated by the Australian public. Only Neil from Oz could tell you why.

Bird flu has now been found in France on a turkey farm .... I'm guessing it's only a short time before it flies across the channel and makes an appearance in the UK.

Here's link to that article >>>
http://news.yahoo.com/fc/health/bird_flu

And another story from yesterday regarding bird flu in a wild duck in France >>>
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1339197.shtml

The most commonly told version of the raven story is that Charles II was going to get rid of them as a nuisance to scientific observation.
And was told (odd how we never hear who by) that, absent the ravens, the White Tower would fall and a great disaster would befall the kingdom.

The subtle change into "and the monarchy would fall" seems to have crept in rather later.

Whether not having Big Ears as Head of State would count as a disaster must be at least debatable.

But he obviously has sound views on the Chinese dictators (essentially, scum) and how to socialise with them (don't). Perhaps he's not that bad after all.

In my opinion from afar the fact that anyone is listening a'tall to this dolt amazes me - let him go back to ripping foxes apart with dogs and whacking the polo ball and sushing in St Anton - not that some of his ideas don't have merit - the sad state of contemporary architecture in UK for one and some of his agricultural ideas but really what's his credentials - he's never worked a day in this life - how can he even begin to relate to the real world and real British life (as seen on Coronation Street i guess). Yes we can get worse thru elections - to wit W - but at least he was elected, or rather appointed by the Supreme Court, but still elected even though under murkey democratic procedures. The day Charles becomes King and Camilla Queen will male even more a mockery of the monarchy.

1. No-one listens to him
2. It's none of your business anyway.