Trine Villemann Goes After Countess Alexandra's Appange: Mazza Should Be Very Afraid and Reign It In, But You Know That Will Never Happen. Mwoah.

Trine Villemann is angry about a lot of things these days. Understandably so as she and her family have had their world turned upside down and their livelihoods threatened in the aftermath of her husband's ostensibly innocuous yellow fever jab and the subsequent ongoing legal battles thereof. She's also rightfully upset at this non-news on Alexandra, former wife of Joachim and one-time "perfect princess" for Denmark. However, she's not letting you know that Alex pays tax on her annual salary. Probably a touch more than 50%. So, that's money that goes back into government coffers.

Trine uses her Politiken column to react to the latest appearance of Alexandra, along with her second husband Martin, and her two sons Nikolai and Felix, in Billed Bladet, the court-adjacent weekly glossy with all sorts of shallow, sugary stories about the royals, celebrities and other public people. Alex appears every now and again in the press, usually little fluff pieces like this one, because there seems to be a small interest in her and her two sons, who are quite handsome and as the queen's oldest grandchildren, the first two "royals" the public will see grow from boys to men. It has always seemed very wise how Alexandra and Prince Joachim have raised these children to understand their quasi-public role, their family's special position, and that they will most likely have a lifelong relationship with the media, so better to get used to it, understand it, not be afraid of it so as to better know how it works, both in good and bad ways and for each party. Smart!

Trine argues that Alex doesn't even work for her money. True, in the legislation granting Alex an annual apanage there seems to be no link to work obligations. However, Alex has retained a handful of her former royal patronages, such as UNICEF and the Association for the Blind. Perhaps it's hush money? Maybe the state of Denmark would be topsy-turvy at the stench of the rot that could come from Alex telling the truth about her time in the seraglio, which itself could tumble over onto itself from all that ground up corruption? In that case is it money well spent? Trine mentions that Sarah, Duchess of York never got a divorce settlement from the British taxpayers. Well, the queen is richer than God and she didn't contribute much either. Maybe a lot of the pains from Sarah Ferguson on the loose could have been avoided if she'd - like Alex - had a lovely, comfortable home purchased for her, with an annual money drip keeping her in just enough cotton wool as to not embarrass the royals, or be an albatross around her former husband's neck. (If QEII's favourite son is indeed Andrew, you'd think the queen would be more interested in him having the emotional space to find a lovely new wife instead of a pathologically sick woman living under his roof because she can't fend for herself?)

Should Alex be more savvy about not letting the press into her home in Turkey? Or talking about Turkey in terms that favour it as an anti-Denmark? Yes, maybe, although these things can be blown out of proportion. The press (and Alex) could use anyone for any purpose, and mostly, that is what we are seeing here between the Billed Bladet sugar rush and Trine's sarcastic reaction to it. However, Trine makes excellent points about Alexandra being very much an ideal candidate for just about any job she would want; she has the social skills and connections, and the intelligence and an understanding of the business world that most people could only dream about.

Nikolai and Felix are still minors, and until Felix's 18th or 21st birthday, the idea that "Alex's Law" should be repealed immediately is a non-issue. Alex is vulnerable after Felix hits his majority, and the issue of her appanage could be addressed by the government at the time to be negotiated down (including all the way to nothing) with the court's cooperation. These are difficult financial times Denmark and the world are living through and governments that traditionally have money to spend on social safety nets need to make sure their budgets are balanced fairly, make sure that former royals like Alex aren't either left to free-fall, but also to structure the system so that the one-time Princess Alexandra isn't seen as on par with pensioners needing medical assistance, or immigrants wanting to create better lives for themselves, or single mothers who can't, as opposed to won't, find work and desparately need to make ends meet for themselves and their children.

Mary, let all of this be a warning to you! Getting out will not guarantee you a golden parachute. Keep sluurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrppping that money into ALERKA and shoplifting all the fashion freebies you want while you can!

Article: Politiken

Throw the Countess Off the Books

No other royal houses in Europe have sent the bill for a divorce to the taxpayers.This week's edition of Billed Bladet magazine exhibits in a brilliant way how much we are the laughing stock of our own tax kroner when it comes to the royal family.
 This court-organ has visited the Countess of Frederiksborg in her fashionable villa in the luxury Resort Oasis Sky Club in Turkey.
Over a four-page spread, the sunburned former princess and her husband, sound engineer Martin Jørgensen, spoke among other things about the landscape around the couple's large villa - it is an excellent contrast to the flat Denmark, we are told.
It costs taxpayers more than two million a year to keep the Countess Alexandra in sunshine and mountain peaks.
We have been cheated for an explanation as to why the divorce - otherwise described as 'a private matter' - suddenly became our responsibility as payable.
  If the countess arrives at the average lifespan of a Danish woman, she will have cost us more than 100 million kroner before she has finished soaking up the sun.
 The act on annuities for Princess Alexandra, signed by Crown Prince Frederik on 24 November 2004, is one of the largest royal and political scandals in recent times.

We Danes were not only ordered to pay alimony to Prince Joachim's ex-wife, we were also cheated out of an explanation as to why the divorce - otherwise described as 'a private matter' - suddenly became our responsibility as payable.

No other European royal houses have managed to lubricate the bill for a royal divorce onto their subjects.

The 170 million kroner the English princess Diana, for example, was presented with when she and Prince Charles were divorced, were taken from Charles' private assets.
The British taxpayers contributed not a single penny to Prince Andrew and Princess Anne divorces. In Spain, King Juan Carlos' eldest daughter, Infanta Elena, divorced her Duke Jamie without their financial balances have ended with the Spanish taxpayers.

It is therefore a quite extraordinary unusual arrangement , Alexandra was with her ​​when she left in 2004 Amalienborg.

It would suit our reformist prime minister, if she immediately set in motion efforts to ensure that Danish taxpayers no longer have to support a woman who, with her background, education and social circle certainly should be able to fend for themselves.

It was no less unusual in 2007 that Alexandra married sound engineer Martin Jørgensen and thus lost her position as a member of the Danish royal family.

I often hear the argument that Alexandra has million to ensure that her and Joachim's sons , Princes Nikolai and Felix, growing up in a position-related conditions.

That's what Joachim took care of already in the divorce.

For as it says in the notes to the bill that formed the basis of the law on Alexandra's millions, child benefits were agreed upon between the parties.

Furthermore, gave Joachim his ex-wife an unencumbered villa in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Copenhagen, free of charge, just to make sure that the two numbers in succession should not grow up in a two-room concrete slum on the outer Nørrebro overlooking the back patches and burnt out cars.

Yet a majority in parliament were elected in November 2004 to vote for a highly educated, working- woman with a superior network and a myriad of skills to be awarded lifelong luxury dependent on everybody's behalf. Only SF and Alliance voted against it.Perhaps it would have been easier to justify an exorbitant state performance to the countess if she toiled for it, but she does not. It is now very little that we see Alexandra at work, unless, of course, giving an interview with Billed-Bladet belongs in that category.

No, there is no reason to maintain Alexandra on the government financial sheets. The law, which grants her our tax millions until she dies, should simply be scrapped. Period.

And it would suit our reformist prime minister, if she immediately set in motion efforts to ensure that Danish taxpayers no longer have to support a woman who, with her background, education and social circle certainly should be able to fend for herself.



Photo: Thomas Borberg

Queen of Deception: Trine Villemann's Fabulous Poison Pen Recounts the Tale of "Crown Prince Franz" in an "Anonymous" Kingdom in Northern Europe: All Characters in This Story MAYBE MIGHT MAY Be Based on Actual Persons: You Decide, Dear Readers

 

 

Our friend Trine Villemann is at it again! Her novel Queen of Deception is now out as an e-book, available via Amazon through a Kindle device or Kindle app. Click on the Amazon link to purchase, or for a free sneak peek through part of Chapter 3!

(Don't have a Kindle reader, you say? No problem! If you have a smart phone or tablet or PC, you can download the free Kindle app. Takes two seconds. From there, you can purchase an e-book that will be downloaded directly - wireless! - to the Kindle app for your reading pleasure.)

The story may (MAY) seem somewhat kinda familiar to you if you've been following this blog and/or Royal Dish for a while. Something about a spineless jelly fish whose mother is queen and spins some lies to keep up appearances which might normally be harmless as it's mostly all about the theatre of royal public life but then it hits our widdle protagonist hard in the gut causing severe pain that he is unable to treat either because he won't speak up and/or some weird macho can't-show-weakness thing from his tough daddy and/or because the evil, greedy succubus who latched onto him with the queen's help like a leech on an open wound prevented him from doing so and/or the Grey Men (TM) won't listen to him so then he starts drinking carousing and cavorting in most unroyal ways as the downward spiral continues. JUICY! Imagine if such a story were real! Oh wait!

As longtime readers, many of you know Trine well, and how she does not pull punches. Our girl is sharp-tongued, direct and not an enabler to BS. Her previous books have been a hit in both Danish and English, "1015 Copenhagen K" and "The King and Queen of Greenland". Now that you have that Kindle app, go ahead and download the book that Mary wanted banned! Well done, Trine!

Additionally, Trine's husband Malcolm Brabant has his own story to tell, and it is one of the most riveting true stories you'll read. "Malcolm is a Little Unwell" tells the story of Brabsie's decent into madness following a yellow fever jab. With humour and deep insight, Malcolm paints a stunning portrait of his and his family's life in Greece, Britain and Denmark before and after this tainted inoculation and the emotional toil it took on husband and wife, and their young son. Please support Malcolm and Trine's good works and ongoing legal struggles against Big Pharma by purchasing a few great reads for the upcoming weekend. What, you've got to have something to do while Mary's choosing which of her new freebie frocks is best for her Big Aussie Evening on Sunday!

Link to Purchase E-Book: Amazon

Queen of Deception is the first novel by Danish royal author Trine Villemann. It’s a scandalous tale which focuses on the death bed regrets of the Queen of a small anonymous northern European kingdom, as well as the self destructive escapades of the country’s Crown Prince Franz.  

Queen of Deception offers a dire glimpse of life behind the Palace walls, where the cancer stricken monarch, a victim of the most horrifying cruelty, has sacrificed her own happiness in order to fulfill her royal duty. Prince Franz is determined not to follow in his mother’s footsteps. 

Sensitive and weak Franz is a reluctant heir to the throne. After a miserable childhood, living in fear of his strict and violent father, Duke Alfonso, and ignored by his cold mother, Franz fights tooth and nail to avoid his royal responsibilities. He seeks solace in alcohol, drugs and casual sex, and alarms his minders by surrounding himself with a sometimes criminal entourage. Franz falls in love with a nurse, but his desire to marry her is thwarted by the Palace and he ends up succcumbing to a highly ambitious foreign commoner called Vicki. 

In her final days, the Queen realises that the web of deception she has spun is about to undermine the very institution that she has spent her life trying to protect. 

Trine Villemann has earned a reputation as a controversial critic of Denmark’s Royal Family. Her first book, 1015 Copenhagen K, which exposed Crown Princess Mary’s in-laws as being a family of dysfunctional freeloaders, was a best seller in Denmark. Her second book, the King and Queen of Greenland, argued that Crown Prince Frederik and his Australian wife should go on an apprenticeship to Greenland so that they could prepare for the day when they would inherit the throne from Denmark’s Queen Margrethe.

 

Wonder if the e-book's sexy "nurse" character (excellent! nurturing and care-giving, just what Freddles needs) bears any resemblance to this young woman? RIGHT THIS WRONG, FRANZ!

Denial Ain't Just A River In Egypt: Frederik Has A Problem, And He Needs Help Immediately And Mary Is An Enabler Because A Strong, Sober Fred Is A Threat To Her Greedy Survival

"Pff, this is rough, man. What do I do?"

 

 

Poor dumb, sick, sad, helpless Fredikins. Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis of Madame MoreMore, Countess of For-Profit Aussie Marketing and Publicity Agreements, Succubus Extraordinaire, and of being a future king with responsibilities that go beyond making good time in the Copenhagen Marathon. What's our sad-sack to do? First, take a bashing in the press!

 

Trine is no enabler! As you well know if you were smart enough to download a copy of her husband's e-book "Malcolm is a little unwell", whereby Brabant accounts her loving, but no bullshit attitude to his decline into quasi-functional mental illness. I'd say, Trine knows of what she speaks when giving Derfie a big dose of much-needed medicine!

 

First, the article about how Derfie won 200,000 kroner - for himself, not any foundation or charity - from the Polka Verner scholarship for being, ahem, a 'modern man'. Then enjoy Trine's Politiken column laying into Freddles for the unbearable contradictions between the award and how he lives his life. Then a little more insight from court-approved Billed Bladet into how Derfie's motivation is quite stagnant and slack. Laying the groundwork for the post-Mary years?

 

Article: Politiken

 

 

 

Crown Prince Frederik is this year's recipient of the 'Polka Verner Grant'.

Polka Verner scholarship

Crown Prince Frederik is "a modern man who, with his way of living his life and his commitment to the outside world is very much to inspire others and spread the joy and excitement around it."

This is the motivation behind the award of this year's 'Polka Verner Grant' to Crown Prince Frederik.

The scholarship was established by Kirsten Lehfeldt and Seas Egelind in 2002 and is one of the greatest legacies of the musical scene.

The previous recipients of the scholarship, almost all had a much clearer linking to the music - among other Erling Erlang & Trio, Stig Moller, Otto Brandenburg, Henning Strong, MC Einar and Peter Sommer received the scholarship, and in this context is the crown prince little outside .

Crown Prince Frederik has pre-determined that he gives scholarship money on to the support of Danish music. More precisely, to whom will be published in the autumn.

The scholarship is just over 200,000. The money comes from auctions online as well as donations from the festival and its partners.

It's Kirsten Lehfeldt and Seas Egelind and people from Skanderborg Festival, which decides scholarship recipient.

 

 

 

**********

 

Trine Villemann Column: Politiken

 

Dear Frederik,

 

Excuse the casual form of address, but I read that you recently received an award because you are a 'modern man', as it says in the press release, so it's probably okay to use the informal you?

In fact, I'd like to know what qualifies a human anachronism to be called 'a modern man'? Is it because you have sent your royal offspring to public school? Or because you have a tattoo on your leg?

 

The people behind the Polka Verner Grant of 200,000 kroner, write that you have received the honourary prize because you all are a "modern man who, with his way of living his life and his involvement in the community, greatly helps to inspire others and spread joy and excitement around it."

 

I can not discern what it is about your pampered and privileged lifestyle that can inspire others, but here I am by now a lonely voice in a kingdom where very, very many people care about you, just because you do not hesitate to be who you are. You get hoots when you get married and turn black when you have to perform in front of a wider audience.

 

The more you do, the more popular you become. It takes a special talent to turn your weaknesses into strengths, but you have it.

 

Am I the only one who thinks that the Constitution's political tagging has become a ubiquitous excuse to never engage you in anything meaningful?

 

A poll in the Sunday Politiken recently revealed that more than 70 percent of Danes now believe that you are ready to be king. It is a recognition that commits, but the question is what you will use all of the tailwind to do Frederik? Should there be even more sailing races? The opposite used even more?

Or should the favorable wind be used for redirecting so you can steer toward more constructive waters?
 

It's never been easy being you. You have been the darling of many Danes just because of your difficult upbringing with a distant mother and a harsh papa .
 

That's probably why we so often forgive you when you screw up, but you are no longer a rootless and helpless teenager in search of happiness but a man caught in the middle of life's crossroads. And your downtime has unfortunately become a symbol of the royal family's current state.

 

You are of course in many ways trapped by your position. Your freedom of movement is restricted.

You should for example be apolitical, but am I the only one who thinks that the Constitution's political tagging has become a ubiquitous excuse to never engages you in anything meaningful?

Perhaps due to your inactivity that you have realized that you represent an institution that should not even exist in today's modern democracy, but democracy is not solely based on vote counts , its strength lies in the quality of the moral compass majority guided by .

Can you really like human decency guest a political regime in which their emotions and behavior is a crime? It appears you and your family for good, for we Danes are decent, a little loony good people who seem content with even the most insignificant bits and pieces from you at Amalienborg, but dare you bet your future existence to the last?

There have been so many disappointments along the way, Frederik. Not least your stubborn insistence on becoming a member of the IOC. I - and according to opinion polls just about half of the kingdom - have always believed that this membership will end in tears.

 

It looks like we may well start pulling our handkerchiefs out, for with the latest developments in Russia there is a risk that Putin's rot will spread to the foundation under the royal family, that you one day will head.

Whatever guarantees the Russian government has issued to the International Olympic Committee to the controversial law on homosexual, it will not affect the athletes and visiting guests during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, so you completely undermine the respect and the goodwill that surrounds you and the monarchy if you choose to show up in Sochi.

 

The Crown Prince of Denmark can not under any circumstances by his presence endorse a political regime that pursues gay. This is something your advisors should have told you long ago, Frederik, but you are allowed to think for yourself.

 

You have in your close circle of friends, men who love men and women who love women. Can you really like human decency and also be a guest of a political regime in which their emotions and behavior is a crime? And here we are at the core, Frederik.

 

You are crown prince, you are a member of the IOC , but you are first and foremost a human being - Now take a leap and show us all that there is hope for you and for the royal family and stay away from Sochi 2014.

 

 

**********

 

Article: Billed Bladet

 

Crown Prince Frederik Has Trouble With Motivation

 

The sports-happy prince has got trouble putting running gear on and getting out the door.

"I feel that there must be something to motivate me. It is essential that there is a kind of objective to the whole."

That is a little surprising from the Danish sports-happy Crown Prince Frederik. He is known to often carry extreme sports performance as marathon running without problems, but now he is failing to even put his running shoes on.

"In particular strength, as one of my age should exercise regularly, I find it hard to force myself to. I always thought it was awful boring, and it's harder for me to get myself into a power centre for doing weights. In the same way I have always believed that running on the treadmill was almost sacrilege. Here in Denmark one could run outside 360 days a year. But now I would like to admit that I was a little cold more", says crown prince to Extra Bladet.

Now Frederik has accepted the treadmill. He cultivates strength - and runs on the treadmill - at a fitness center in Copenhagen.

 

 

Trine Villemann: Amalienborg Is Afraid of Facebook: Danish Royals On the Losing End of Social Media: Big PR Fail From Mary and the Gray Men

"Just getting back from a top brass party with friends, pricey frocks and gravy boats, eek! Got an audience in the morning, so I better get some shut eye. Hugs and kisses, M."

 

 

Tell 'em, Trine! Our good friend Trine Villemann (of 1015 Copenhagen K  - now available on Kindle - and wife of Malcolm Brabant, author of the fantastic e-book Malcolm Is a Little Unwell) is on fire with her column at Politiken. Here she rails against the royals' choice to not use social media to buttress its popularity and meaningfulness to the Danish people.

Poor Daisy. She understands so well the importance of ceremony and performance - all the theatrical aspects of a monarchy! Big hats, big galas, loads of diamonds, lots of waving from balconies, summer cruises to the outer reaches of the kingdom, silly titles for the landed gentry, lots of blue elephant ribbons, carriages, staff photographers, grand portraiture, positive relationships with uncritical, sugary friends in the media. But lost in all of that glamour is the real world and how we are all communicating with each other, and forging our own brands and connecting on several levels through several web programmes. Daisy's missing a big one here. The Norwegian royal house has a wonderful FB feed that includes the whole family down to Milly Kakao the dog, and Mette-Marit controls her own information on her Twitter account. They are great examples of combining professionalism with social outreach.

The Danish royal house continues to allow itself to be anachronistic by allowing cobwebs to grow around it. And yet poor Fred had a Facebook account, albeit under a pseudonym. One of the great ironies of "young, dynamic, modern" Mary Donaldson is that she of all people should be urging the court to use social media carefully and judiciously, but as time goes on, she herself appears in the court-Photoshopped photographs as older than her years and more and more out of touch, as with her recent, ridiculous interview with Australian Women's Weekly. In other words, the longer the Danish royals go without engaging in social media, the more out of touch they are with the very people they supposedly represent. Added insult to the fact that their future queen doesn't even like them and focuses her gaze exclusively on Australia and bigger media markets than little Denmark. Get on FB and kick Mary out of the family, Dais!

Column: Politiken

Amalienborg Fears Facebook

About 3 million Danes are on Facebook, and for a time Crown Prince Frederik was one of them.
He was hiding under the name of Jens Peter Hansen and had far fewer than 100 friends, but His Royal Highness disappeared less than 48 hours after the undersigned - Facebook - had spread the message that we were able to add our next king as a friend.

The crown prince should never enjoy any of that.Representatives of many of the top ranks have since accused me of unsportsmanlike behaviour because I revealed the crown prince's secret profile.
I maintain, however, that it was His Royal Highness  who turned out to be a lousy athlete at the prompt to pull out of the community in which he for once really had the chance to get in touch with some of the souls one day he will rule over.

But such is the style of the residents at Amalienborg. One does not communicate. They disclose themselves - through the court's website.

It is a strategy that has long since been allowed to die off among many of our European neighbours.
The Dutch, English, Swedish and Norwegian royal families are accustomed to social media.
 
In Norway, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit have put themselves out there and with such success that the royal couple's profiles on both Facebook and Twitter have been expanded to include King Harald and Queen Sonja.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit also has her own personal Twitter account, where she busily brings together people, ideas and organisations.Swedish Carl Gustaf, who this year celebrates 40 years on the throne, also lurked and got the advantages of speaking directly to his people via social media.

The Swedish people have polls showing declining enthusiasm for their king, after a book in 2010 revealed him as a womaniser who partied at Stockholm nightclubs with shady elements that certainly do not appear in the Swedish nobility calendar.

The castle has responded by carpet bombing the roughly 105,000 that follow the royal family's Facebook page with updates and photos of an apparently busy and dutiful majesty who troops up to both the library openings and scout gatherings.

It is of course impossible to determine whether the Swedish court's targeted efforts have been weeded out the number of Republicans, but it shows at least that Margrethe's cousin on the other side of the Sound and - not least - his advisers, understood that they had a problem and that social media was one of the tools that could be used to solve it.

I have asked the court's communications director Lene Balleby why it has taken this approach, and got the following response:

"That the Danish royal family are not on Facebook and Twitter at the moment is a conscious choice. We naturally follow the evolution of social media, but have so far given priority to focus on the dissemination of the royal family's duties via the new website, and in the spring we launched an app."
 
Some royal experts believe that it is the right way to be a royal family here in 2013. Historian Sørensen argues that one of the reasons for the Danish monarchy's popularity is that it has managed to keep alive the story of the royal adventure by staying away from social media.It is a fallacy about the size of Prince Consort's French vineyards, and apart from Hovbakke and Her Majesty the Queen is shown no longer someone who believes that the Royals are demigods.

A royal house does not stand or fall, of course, depending whether you are on Facebook and Twitter, but it is tremendously regressive of them to select from when a single update can reach at least a hundred times as many people as the royal couple's meetings on one of the Royal Yacht Dannebrog's annual summer cruises.

It is not about that distance that creates respect for tradition - on the contrary. The tradition is in danger of losing respect because it managed in a way that is less and less impact on its foundation: the Danes.

We have a queen who will not have cell phones within her doors, and a crown prince who is almost sewn to his smartphone.

Somewhere in this field of tension, it should be possible to create a conversation with those of us who still have confidence in the Constitutional Act, the form of government in Denmark that is 'limited monarchy'.

And in today's Denmark, we talk to each other - for better or worse - through social media.Amalienborg's problem, of course, is that the conversations in this universe can not be controlled, which is the real reason why the Danish royal family these past few years has turned a blind eye to today's biggest and most important communication tool.

It is not so much that the royal family feels too genteel toward social media. It's more that they simply fear it. Amalienborg is afraid of Facebook and the voice of the people, for imagine if it were critical?

We have a monarchy that works with its own preservation in a century in which modern man eventually find it difficult to understand the meaning that a single family fed for so many privileges without having to give much back, but should a royal family not be able to also endure the less positive comments on the social media?

In my eyes it is a worrying weakness in the Danish democracy that our head of state has opted out of the dialogue with her people and hides behind her website's one-way communication.

It is a monarchy-like behaviour that neither clothes the monarch or the modern democracy in what she is supposed to represent.

Go Girl: Trine Dishes It To Daisy: You're Out Sick More Than You Work: Rule or Abdicate, Sister!

 

Hot on the heels of the publication of her husband Malcolm Brabant's fantastic new ebook, "Malcolm Is A Little Unwell", Trine Villemann uses her platform as an op-ed contributor to Politiken to shine the spotlight on the fact that Queen Margrethe has an unhelpful approach to being a queen (sticking on until kicking it), in light of the fact that Beatrix and Albert in the Benelux are stepping down at reasonable ages to allow for the work of the Head of State to continue in the hands of capable people.

Oh, yeah! That's why Daisy doesn't step down - Derfie would become king in name only, and MoreMore would become queen and regent. What kind of "medication" is the Derf Man on? Jiminy. You Danes thought Christian IV was bad, wait til the Treasury is sucked dry with a pipe that goes all the way down to an ALERKA account in Oz because your king is off in Miami "losing his wedding ring" while "sailing". Gud Bevare Danmark!

Article: Politiken

Parliament Should Send Margrethe on Sick Leave

A few months ago, Holland's 75-year-old Queen Beatrix threw in the towel in recognition of the fact that the forces are no longer struck.

In a few days it will be Belgium's 79-year-old King Albert's turn to do the same.

While our own 73-year-old Margrethe sits so convulsively on the throne, that one could be forgiven for thinking that rigor mortis has already begun.

Nothing can wrest Denmark's Queen Margrethe from her belief that she has been assigned a mission from God, and that it can no earthly creature could take from her.

But you could try.

The Truth About Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is namely that she is too sick to go to work.

Amalienborg nowadays falls over themselves to hide that the queen is so pained by arthritis that it is now impossible for her to carry out her official duties.

The Queen's aides, for example, are usually nothing more than an expensive, prehistoric relics, but recently the proud officers in the well pressed uniforms got something useful to do.

The duty adjutant discreetly holds a folding chair when Queen inaugurates exhibitions, award prizes, rocks cords above and so on, so that the Queen can instantly sit down when the pain becomes too severe.

It is a measure that has been introduced after on several occasions it was realised that the queen's consumption of painkillers had reached a point where it was difficult for the monarch to stay awake during the many long talks a head of state is involuntarily committed to tolerate.

Now Amalienborg has turned down the medicine and up to a folding chair in the hope that there is a balance between the two measures that makes the Queen perform her duties without falling asleep and without being cobbled together by pain.

Nothing that I have described is new to the journalists who follow the queen. You just choose not to write about it for fear of getting at Amalienborg an unofficial list of media people whose requests one takes a really long time to answer.

But even court approved Billed-Bladet has realised that the queen's failing health can no longer be glossed over. Recently, they even brought you a photo of the Queen's adjutant, who stood ready behind the ruler with the folding chair behind his back.

And the concern for what the Queen's actual powers are extend far into both the circle of friends and staff. Believe me, it's not just magazines that have noticed that it is difficult for the queen to follow suit. Usually, the Queen's health problems are fairly closed off to my sources, but I have spoken to both staff at the court and longstanding friends who all confirm that the arthritis has made the Queen incapacitated.

It is obviously bad for the Queen, to have arthritis so mercilessly ravaging her body. And it is a shame for her that we in Denmark do not have a tradition of sending our monarchs off to retire when they reach their sell-by date, but it is also a shame for us Danes that we are burdened with a head of state who refuse to see the facts.

What other business in Denmark - private or public - can get away with having a leader who eventually can not stand or walk without taking very strong medication? And as several times for health reasons has canceled the important state visit that is said to benefit exports because our illustrious head is to smile and bow?

The Queen has previously stated that she would not dream of turning her back on her fate, but that she would abdicate if her mental faculties failed.

My question is how much pain medication a queen can take before than the very same mental faculties are no longer intact. Understand a heavily pain soothed the queen, for example, always the laws presented her signature?And who decides that? Queen herself? Her doctors? The Prime Minister?Whether the Queen likes it or not, it's time at least she take some sick leave.

In Norway, sick King Harald with great success in 2005 when he underwent extensive heart surgery. In a few months, Crown Prince Haakon was the King's regent, while Harald came to recuperate after a bypass surgery with its attendant complications.

Here in Denmark, we can also send her majesty on sick leave without the big state legal drama.

Constitution Section 9 states namely solid that "provisions relating to the exercising in the case of the king's minority, illness or absence established by law".And no matter how much Amalienborg tries to embellish reality, there is no doubt that the Queen is sick.

Therefore, a majority in parliament by law can send Margrethe on sick leave by depriving her Majesty half of the legislature and such transfer it to Crown Prince Frederik.

The queen can of course refuse to sign this law, but we are in a serious democratic crisis.

Parliamentary sick leave for our head of state can naturally be limited in time, such as any sick leave for any other Dane also has it, but the law should also contain a clause that if it is not deemed medically and constitutionally proper that the queen returns to her work, then she must abdicate.

For the benefit of themselves. And for the benefit of Denmark.

I know it's blasphemous talk to mention the word 'abdication' at Amalienborg, but for us taxpayers who annually put in the neighbourhood of a half billion kroner to maintain the institution of the monarchy, it is surely not too much to ask to get a head of this institution who is physically and mentally able to perform her obligations.

And the kingdom's vocal republican minority does not hoist the flag. A poll recently showed that support for the Danish royal family is the highest in 10 years.

The popularity is with the guarantee of nothing less than Margrethe crawling into bed and letting our photogenic crown prince couple take over - at least for a while. On the contrary.

Those of us who still cherish a rather unhappy dream about the Danish monarchy will one day wake up from our Sleeping Beauty-sleep with a royal family that is always strongest with young, enterprising people in the residence of the royal chambers.

If our elected officials really want to help the royals - and most politicians always do - they need to send Margrethe home to bed.