Balmorality

[poliphilo]

I was wanting to watch Sherlock, but I got the time wrong- and missed the beginning by half an hour- so I watched a documentary about Balmoral instead. It's interesting how the Royal family- from Victoria and Albert down to the present lot- have been complicit in the invention of a fantasy version of Scotland. And I liked the suggestion that the decay of the Union may be linked as cause or effect or possibly both to the declining power of the monarchy. I agree with Philip Ziegler that Balmoral is an ugly, charmless place- and have sympathy for all those prime ministers and international statespersons who have been forced to endure the rain, the midges,  the walkies with the corgis, Prince Philip's barbecues and the Highland Games at Braemar. On second thoughts it serves them right. The name of the place has lent itself to the happy coinage "Balmorality" which aptly sums up all the qualities that make the Windsors (considered as a clan rather than as individuals) so utterly ghastly.