Flint moves closer to the edge; senior correspondent Barry Everingham sees a pattern emerging.
Last weekend in Vienna, Austria, the funeral took place of Otto Hapsburg; the son of the last emperor of Austria-Hungary.
In another day and age he would have been known as the crown prince of Austria, but the government of that country has very wisely banned the use of old imperial titles, going so far as to forbid the use of “von”, which signifies a noble line.
The funeral itself was a glittering affair.
There were bands, banners, moth-eaten royalty – in spite of heavy criticism from many Viennese of the mayhem the procession caused. There was a macabre sidebar to it – according to tradition Otto’s heart was removed and buried separately.
Needless to say all this sent David Flint into a flat spin — he really went overboard.
His personal website contained a full description of the event, right down to clips from the TV coverage.
What caught my eye, however, was the Indonesian-born monarchist’s absolute and utter stupidity in reporting the following, and I quote him verbatim.
“Among the mourners were Prince Michael of Kent and Marie Christine, Princess Michael of Kent, representing the royal family of 16 commonwealth nations”.
Now, for sheer crap that takes the cake, even for Flint.
First, Michael was struck from the Line of Succession to the English throne for marrying the appalling Marie Christine, who had been married before, in an Anglican service and was divorced, her former husband still living.
Like Flint, she was a migrant and held Australian citizenship, something she failed to mention to Michael until long after she snared him — that’s a story for another day.
Ignoring she had first married in an Anglican service, she outraged Michael’s first cousin, Elizabeth II, by insisting her second marriage to Michael would be in a Roman Catholic ceremony, before the then Pope hit that one on the head.
Second, the Kent’s were more than likely present because of their distant relationship to the Hapsburgs — certainly not representing Flint’s insane claim of 16 commonwealth nations.
While ever Flint is in total control of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, his mission becomes increasingly confused and unhinged and will eventually help to bring this nation to its senses and cut loose from the out-dated and old-fashioned notion that we have our own royal family, which we certainly do not.
