I personally don’t think that what a politician’s family member does should have any bearing on how the politician is viewed but I’m sure it would have been a nightmare.
Think Liz T had an eventful first week - just think if Penny had been chosen.
Wow. Bullet dodged. Poor Penny. No wonder she looked absent throughout the process.
Yes - it probably explains a lot - I seem to recall that people were commenting that she looked distant and emotional a lot in the early stages.
But if it cost her just five votes that went to Liz then it’s quite amazing how history could have been different.
It just shows the stunning ineptitude of Sunak. Anyone one quarter competent, one per cent competent, would have known this, lent votes to get her into the final, and leaked it to the Con electorate.
I’m getting the feeling that Liz Truss is a very lucky general - which hopefully will be good for the country.
She was up against Sunak who whilst bright wasn’t politically savvy.
She might well have lucked out in penultimate round where Penny voters switched worried about that story.
The country has taken its eye off the huge CoL/Energy crisis which would have dominated her first weeks for a bit giving her time to nail her solutions and arguments.
She’s going to be majorly in the history books now where as if she had bumbled along and lost the next election she would have just been another short term undistinguished PM.
She has an opportunity to massively boost her standing with the public if she plays the next ten days well and becomes a cypher for the grief but resilience of the “Great British Public”.
All she needs now is for JRM to join a cult and quit politics so she can get rid without his supporters getting angry with her.
I personally don’t think that what a politician’s family member does should have any bearing on how the politician is viewed but I’m sure it would have been a nightmare.
Think Liz T had an eventful first week - just think if Penny had been chosen.
I just don't think that's as big a story, had Mordaunt been PM now, as you think.
Firstly, it's a very sad story for her and other family members, but basically nobody is going to be blaming her for her brother's proclivities - certainly not the right-wing press, nor even the (smaller) left-leaning press.
Secondly, as it happens, the story would have been completely forgotten almost immediately because the timing coincided with vastly bigger news.
I know it’s going to be a controversial opinion, but reading that article about his offences they appear to be a clear case of entrapment. This guy has had a decent middle-class career totally ruined for posting things in a chat room, not to a child but to a police officer. There was no harm to any children as a result of his behaviour.
You are assuming this was the only time he had done such a thing. And he intended his message to go to a child. So he is a risk.
I recall a case, some years back, about a ship captain (?) who thought he was transporting cocaine. Despite the cargo actually being weed, he was prosecuted and convicted with the higher penalties.
Looks like the King wants mourning to continue for 7 days after the funeral !!!!! Sebastian Payne @SebastianEPayne
New from Buckingham Palace:
- Kings Charles III has instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after Elizabeth II's funeral - date to be confirmed.
- Flags at all royal residences will remain at half mast until 8am the day after mourning
I think 'royal mourning' is for the royal family, the household, assorted hangers-on. Not the likes of us.
I will certainly be mourning for ten days, royal or not
I’m going to be like the Thais after Bumibhol, and wear black for a WHOLE YEAR
To be fair he was their version of The Queen. I imagine when the present Thai king dies, surrounded by his hookers in Bavaria, Thais will maybe wear a grey-ish tee shirt for an afternoon, then move on
Surprised you have remained calm about the wokeness of letting a man takeover from the Queen, and then changing her pronouns.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
You’ll be pleased to hear that the F1 hasn’t been cancelled this weekend. They are at Monza, Italy, and Sky has full coverage of the meeting. F2 practice has just finished, and F1 practice is in 45 minutes’ time.
Good to hear. Let’s hope other sports have a similarly sensible approach.
On topic, I think he'll shut up, carefully saying "My Government believes..." and "My Government will...". Otherwise he'll get monstered by the Tory media and republicans alike. However, he'll compensate by being notably environmental in less contriversial areas. For example, the Palace presumably has a fleet of cars. It would be easy for him to announce that they will all be replaced by electric cars in the next few years. How is the Palace heated? What about puting in heat pumps?
A wind farm in one of his estates would be fun too.
It's been quite a time since I was there, but having seen some of the staff quarters and back rooms I'd say Buck House could be as difficult to renovate as the House of Commons - apart from having less complex decoration and less control-freaky occupants .
BP is about 77k sqm of floorspace (just under 8 Hectares and about 1/3 smaller than the Palace of Westminster). They are just doing a £400m renovation project on it running until 2027, for which sustainability is an element.
But being Duke of Cornwall, and having Highgrove and so on, I think King Charles knows all about the problems, and is quite likely to have been driving whatever they are doing for decades anyway.
King Charles was early on greenery as we know, and has always experimented with his own property / resources. He has had solar panels on Clarence House since 2010, and I think Buck House will get them now. Plus BH has had a CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plant for nearly 30 years. Brief article here from 2016, when they were doing things like trialling LED lighting: https://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/solar-buckingham-palace-em5781/
Heat pumps are not very suitable for inefficient buildings, which is Buck House in spades until heavily renovated. Like a lot of us they will need to rely on emissions-free power.
Factoid: the first Royal Electric car was bought in 1901.
It was renovated a year or two back for a few billion. Unlike the prima donnas in Parliament Her Majesty grasped the need to move the operation out to enable it.
AFAICS the published number is £500m, most of which was done in advance of the Platinum Jubilee, and it is due to finish in 2027. I have not checked in huge detail, though.
On topic, I think he'll shut up, carefully saying "My Government believes..." and "My Government will...". Otherwise he'll get monstered by the Tory media and republicans alike. However, he'll compensate by being notably environmental in less contriversial areas. For example, the Palace presumably has a fleet of cars. It would be easy for him to announce that they will all be replaced by electric cars in the next few years. How is the Palace heated? What about puting in heat pumps?
A wind farm in one of his estates would be fun too.
It's been quite a time since I was there, but having seen some of the staff quarters and back rooms I'd say Buck House could be as difficult to renovate as the House of Commons - apart from having less complex decoration and less control-freaky occupants .
BP is about 77k sqm of floorspace (just under 8 Hectares and about 1/3 smaller than the Palace of Westminster). They are just doing a £400m renovation project on it running until 2027, for which sustainability is an element.
But being Duke of Cornwall, and having Highgrove and so on, I think King Charles knows all about the problems, and is quite likely to have been driving whatever they are doing for decades anyway.
King Charles was early on greenery as we know, and has always experimented with his own property / resources. He has had solar panels on Clarence House since 2010, and I think Buck House will get them now. Plus BH has had a CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plant for nearly 30 years. Brief article here from 2016, when they were doing things like trialling LED lighting: https://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/solar-buckingham-palace-em5781/
Heat pumps are not very suitable for inefficient buildings, which is Buck House in spades until heavily renovated. Like a lot of us they will need to rely on emissions-free power.
Factoid: the first Royal Electric car was bought in 1901.
It was renovated a year or two back for a few billion. Unlike the prima donnas in Parliament Her Majesty grasped the need to move the operation out to enable it.
AFAICS the published number is £500m, most of which was done in advance of the Platinum Jubilee, and it is due to finish in 2027. I have not checked in huge detail, though.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Its ironic that strikes are now even being cancelled! So trains will now run and post delivered but the Last Night of the Proms has effectively gone on strike. As long as things carry on respectfully yet not to "me me me" grief /virtue signalling ( yes thats probably you premier league football) then I think things shoudl go on especially racing
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Policing is a good reason why some stuff is being cancelled. Due to the death of the Queen a lot of extra police have been called into working on that, modern sport requires a lot of policing, and people who may have been scheduled to work policing that might now be unavailable.
At such short notice it is probably cleaner and easier to clean the slate of events for today at least until it gets figured out what can and can't go ahead.
They have stopped the Test match due to lack of coppers? Really?
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
Is anyone in your organisation questioning this stuff?
Labour gain in Cannock Chase. Another Midlands council by-election success.
Last night's by-election results: Hartlepool, Foggy Furze: Lab gain from Ind Lancaster, Warton: Grn gain from C Hednesford N: Lab gain from C W Sussex, Felpham: Ind (Wild) gain from C Arun, Barnham: Grn gain from C
Hednesford North is a Labour bastion, and the incumbent was a fool. The surprise is not that they’ve taken it back but that they ever lost it.
Turnout in Hednesford was 14%, labour won the ward in May with nearly twice the votes. Similarly, Hartlepool was won by them in May 22. Barnham was relatively close Con vs Green in 2019 so not a massive shock but they'll be disappointed, Warton and Felpham were both utter shockers for the Tories, Felpham is rock solid blue, or was. Turnout was unsurprisingly pitiful yesterday though throughout
Parts of America are under this strange illusion that they share the monarchy, in negative and positive ways. I guess they could claim that with Meghan they have a vested interest, but that was true of Wallis Simpson too
This tendency to co-opt the British monarchy seems to have increased since the advent of social media, not the opposite
I've done some of my family history and as a result I'm in occasional correspondence with a fifth or thereabouts cousin in Ohio. She emailed me last night to "express condolences, and to say that she was sad, as I'm very many Americans". To be honest I was surprised; she seems more affected by the whole thing then I am!
The new monarch is likely to put one of his own officials onto the senior staff at No10 or the Cabinet Office if he hasn't already done so.
I was thinking this morning, how the political media and commentariat keep to the lie that the monarch acts only on ministerial advice where withholding of their "consent" to government bills is concerned.
What is the point in the government drafting and writing a bill and then advising the monarch to block its introduction to parliament unless certain clauses are amended or removed? Think that's ludicrous? Well that's what we're supposed to believe has happened many times.
How many Parliamentary Bills have been changed through this procedure, at the behest of the Palace?
I personally don’t think that what a politician’s family member does should have any bearing on how the politician is viewed but I’m sure it would have been a nightmare.
Think Liz T had an eventful first week - just think if Penny had been chosen.
I just don't think that's as big a story, had Mordaunt been PM now, as you think.
Firstly, it's a very sad story for her and other family members, but basically nobody is going to be blaming her for her brother's proclivities - certainly not the right-wing press, nor even the (smaller) left-leaning press.
Secondly, as it happens, the story would have been completely forgotten almost immediately because the timing coincided with vastly bigger news.
I know it’s going to be a controversial opinion, but reading that article about his offences they appear to be a clear case of entrapment. This guy has had a decent middle-class career totally ruined for posting things in a chat room, not to a child but to a police officer. There was no harm to any children as a result of his behaviour.
What's "middle class career" got to do with it? If he was on the dole then, fuck it, bang him up?
Chris Morris's piece about middle-class heroin use comes to mind.
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
Is anyone in your organisation questioning this stuff?
Mayn't it refer to practical issues? Like child care or changes of exam times, as in Cookie's case (on which commiserations)?
Parts of America are under this strange illusion that they share the monarchy, in negative and positive ways. I guess they could claim that with Meghan they have a vested interest, but that was true of Wallis Simpson too
This tendency to co-opt the British monarchy seems to have increased since the advent of social media, not the opposite
I've done some of my family history and as a result I'm in occasional correspondence with a fifth or thereabouts cousin in Ohio. She emailed me last night to "express condolences, and to say that she was sad, as I'm very many Americans". To be honest I was surprised; she seems more affected by the whole thing then I am!
It is quite touching in a way though that a lot of americans and other foreigners care so much - They may do less in future when (inevitably ) a less iconic figure is the Monarch
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
Is anyone in your organisation questioning this stuff?
I don't know, really. I guess it comes from HR. They're never ones to lose an opportunity to empathise. I remember they sent out a very similar email when George Floyd was killed.
(And yes he really did put it himself on TikTok it seems, blue ticked)
It has all the warmth and emotion of: Oh dear. How sad. Nevermind.
That is just fecking weird. Unless someone has cut it down and removed a lot more from before or after? If not then what an atrocious tin ear.
Yeah I first saw that late last night in someone else's video (a reaction video to that) and thought its clearly been cut down/editted, but then saw that one which seems to be the original and it seems to be from him. Assuming blue ticks work on TikTok like they do on Twitter, its got a blue tick as being sent by Nigel Farage.
Looks like the King wants mourning to continue for 7 days after the funeral !!!!! Sebastian Payne @SebastianEPayne
New from Buckingham Palace:
- Kings Charles III has instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after Elizabeth II's funeral - date to be confirmed.
- Flags at all royal residences will remain at half mast until 8am the day after mourning
I think 'royal mourning' is for the royal family, the household, assorted hangers-on. Not the likes of us.
I will certainly be mourning for ten days, royal or not
I’m going to be like the Thais after Bumibhol, and wear black for a WHOLE YEAR
To be fair he was their version of The Queen. I imagine when the present Thai king dies, surrounded by his hookers in Bavaria, Thais will maybe wear a grey-ish tee shirt for an afternoon, then move on
Surprised you have remained calm about the wokeness of letting a man takeover from the Queen, and then changing her pronouns.
One silver lining in the accession of King Charles III is that the people of The Channel Islands can finally unshackle themselves from the awful woke imposition for 70 years of self identifying nonsense in their Loyal Toast which will finally correct the gender from”The Queen, our Duke” to “The King, our Duke”.
Dukes of Normandy can finally stop spinning in their graves.
Can I just say, I know we were all alarmed by the extraordinarily frightening and saddening news yesterday, the dark dark news which flashed around the world like a wolf-howl at light speed, but it turns out I’m fine. My day of suffering on a Portuguese cliff with just warm white wine for company has left me feeling remarkably perky. No signs of the promised dehydration. I slept like a medieval effigy in a forgotten church and now I’m on my hotel terrace nibbling raspberries and figs
So I don’t see why there is this continued, pervasive sense of gloom on PB - and elsewhere. It’s a ridiculous overreaction. I’m OK, and off for a stroll to the Isle of Peaches
I don't have a sense of gloom.
I feel like I did when my 94 year old mother died. Content in a funny kind of way. A life well lived. A good death. A kind release. RIP.
Normally when very old people die I feel like that. And for the Queen herself, inasmuch as I feel anything about her, that's how I feel. I was pretty pro-Liz Windsor. How I admired her pleasant aloofness, her remoteness, her absolute refusal to emote, her suppression of her own ego, her dedication. The world is poorer for the loss of her, and for the loss of that approach. But a 96 year old lady dying is just the way the world works. But normally when very old people die they've long since passed on any important jobs they were doing to someone else perfectly competent to take on the role. I'm slightly worried about what a hole she's leaving and what will fill it.
Thing is, there's no shock here, so the effect on people will likely be more of a slowburn. Me, I do feel something, but it's kind of pleasant and it's not at all intense. I like big moments (when they don't involve violence & bloodshed) and I'll enjoy sinking into this one, on and off, for a few days. Starting today, we're off to sit in a little churchyard in Hampstead to listen to them bells at noon. But only for half an hour, then it'll be up and off and business as usual. Balance maintained. Moderation in all things.
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
Is anyone in your organisation questioning this stuff?
I am not sure it need challenging - as people will react quite differently to this - it also depends on the organisation - government departments and charities of which the Queen was a patron will need to ensure staff do not make faux pas especially
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
Is anyone in your organisation questioning this stuff?
I am not one for public emoting for strangers but a company offering to support staff who are is really not something to be worked up about. It might be as simple as they may want to watch the funeral and need time off. Not something that would bother me either way, but if it was them arranging time off for a world cup final or similar it would be very much welcomed. Everyone is different and if people want some support or time off a good employer should offer it where they can.
Looks like the King wants mourning to continue for 7 days after the funeral !!!!! Sebastian Payne @SebastianEPayne
New from Buckingham Palace:
- Kings Charles III has instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after Elizabeth II's funeral - date to be confirmed.
- Flags at all royal residences will remain at half mast until 8am the day after mourning
I think 'royal mourning' is for the royal family, the household, assorted hangers-on. Not the likes of us.
I will certainly be mourning for ten days, royal or not
I’m going to be like the Thais after Bumibhol, and wear black for a WHOLE YEAR
To be fair he was their version of The Queen. I imagine when the present Thai king dies, surrounded by his hookers in Bavaria, Thais will maybe wear a grey-ish tee shirt for an afternoon, then move on
The difference between father and son is quite amazing! There was, if I remember correctly, some suggestion that the crown should've passed to the eldest daughter, a woman generally held in very high estimation.
Truss isn't opposed to renewables at such, just not putting solar panels all over farmers' fields. Charles may personally be not keen on fracking but as the new King he has made clear it is different from being Prince of Wales and he will make his personal views less public.
Even if ideologically Charles if he could vote would probably be less conservative and pro Brexit than his mother would probably have been. Indeed politically Charles would probably be a very wet Remainer Tory or LD or even Starmer Labour (Labour and the LDs also opposed to fracking of course)
In the past Charles has been opposed to onshore wind, but that may not be relevant any more as it was back in 2012 or so. He has also been lambasted for receiving revenue from the Crown Estate under the current '15% of receipts' settlement to fund the Civil List, which has licensed wind farms.
Wasn't the opposition to the wind farms in particular down to the construction of massive roads through areas of pristine countryside? - something which is a real concern.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
You are a bit odd on this. People are making their own decisions - the organisers are people and make a choice about the events they organise.
I'd advise them to keep open that which is not affected by reallocation of police resources etc, but it is not an enforceable lockdown, not a big deal.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Policing is a good reason why some stuff is being cancelled. Due to the death of the Queen a lot of extra police have been called into working on that, modern sport requires a lot of policing, and people who may have been scheduled to work policing that might now be unavailable.
At such short notice it is probably cleaner and easier to clean the slate of events for today at least until it gets figured out what can and can't go ahead.
Where is the Queen's body today and how does it require enough policemen such as to cancel events ffs.
Carnival went ahead at the same time as a full premiership programme plus racing, darts, badminton, interpretive dance competitions, etc - just how many people aside from the Royal Company of Archers (Scotland) and King's Company, 1GGG (England) does it take to watch over her.
Parts of America are under this strange illusion that they share the monarchy, in negative and positive ways. I guess they could claim that with Meghan they have a vested interest, but that was true of Wallis Simpson too
This tendency to co-opt the British monarchy seems to have increased since the advent of social media, not the opposite
It matters not at all, if you believe that soft power is of no importance. Which would be a change of view on your part.
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
I intend to stoically soldier on. Feels more in keeping with her temperament. But we tend to expect overwrought now.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
You’ll be pleased to hear that the F1 hasn’t been cancelled this weekend. They are at Monza, Italy, and Sky has full coverage of the meeting. F2 practice has just finished, and F1 practice is in 45 minutes’ time.
The NFL is holding a minutes since at the start of its games...
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
It's when you see emails like that that you think (well, I think, anyway) that you could cheerfully sack about 90% of all HR departments without any loss at all.
The new monarch is likely to put one of his own officials onto the senior staff at No10 or the Cabinet Office if he hasn't already done so.
I was thinking this morning, how the political media and commentariat keep to the lie that the monarch acts only on ministerial advice where withholding of their "consent" to government bills is concerned.
What is the point in the government drafting and writing a bill and then advising the monarch to block its introduction to parliament unless certain clauses are amended or removed? Think that's ludicrous? Well that's what we're supposed to believe has happened many times.
How many Parliamentary Bills have been changed through this procedure, at the behest of the Palace?
The late monarch and her eldest son vetted at least 1000 bills. Certainly some were altered as a result. They've refused to reveal how many.
Can I just say, I know we were all alarmed by the extraordinarily frightening and saddening news yesterday, the dark dark news which flashed around the world like a wolf-howl at light speed, but it turns out I’m fine. My day of suffering on a Portuguese cliff with just warm white wine for company has left me feeling remarkably perky. No signs of the promised dehydration. I slept like a medieval effigy in a forgotten church and now I’m on my hotel terrace nibbling raspberries and figs
So I don’t see why there is this continued, pervasive sense of gloom on PB - and elsewhere. It’s a ridiculous overreaction. I’m OK, and off for a stroll to the Isle of Peaches
I don't have a sense of gloom.
I feel like I did when my 94 year old mother died. Content in a funny kind of way. A life well lived. A good death. A kind release. RIP.
Normally when very old people die I feel like that. And for the Queen herself, inasmuch as I feel anything about her, that's how I feel. I was pretty pro-Liz Windsor. How I admired her pleasant aloofness, her remoteness, her absolute refusal to emote, her suppression of her own ego, her dedication. The world is poorer for the loss of her, and for the loss of that approach. But a 96 year old lady dying is just the way the world works. But normally when very old people die they've long since passed on any important jobs they were doing to someone else perfectly competent to take on the role. I'm slightly worried about what a hole she's leaving and what will fill it.
Thing is, there's no shock here, so the effect on people will likely be more of a slowburn. Me, I do feel something, but it's kind of pleasant and it's not at all intense. I like big moments (when they don't involve violence & bloodshed) and I'll enjoy sinking into this one, on and off, for a few days. Starting today, we're off to sit in a little churchyard in Hampstead to listen to them bells at noon. But only for half an hour, then it'll be up and off and business as usual. Balance maintained. Moderation in all things.
I bet, similar to me, you can think of a few other famous people you have not met who generated a stronger response? For me: Peter Cook, Douglas Adams, Keith Flint, Spike Milligan and Jeremy Hardy come to mind.
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
Is anyone in your organisation questioning this stuff?
I am not one for public emoting for strangers but a company offering to support staff who are is really not something to be worked up about. It might be as simple as they may want to watch the funeral and need time off. Not something that would bother me either way, but if it was them arranging time off for a world cup final or similar it would be very much welcomed. Everyone is different and if people want some support or time off a good employer should offer it where they can.
Yes, fair enough - I'm not really 'worked up' about it (where one stands on the spectrum of puzzled-vexed-irritated-annoyed-hysterical is hard to tell on an internet forum). I just can't imagine anyone reporting that they're too upset by the queen's death to do any work. But people react differently.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
You’ll be pleased to hear that the F1 hasn’t been cancelled this weekend. They are at Monza, Italy, and Sky has full coverage of the meeting. F2 practice has just finished, and F1 practice is in 45 minutes’ time.
The NFL is holding a minutes since at the start of its games...
They did for the season opener last night but I hadn't heard they are doing it for the main slate on Sunday.
Looks like the King wants mourning to continue for 7 days after the funeral !!!!! Sebastian Payne @SebastianEPayne
New from Buckingham Palace:
- Kings Charles III has instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after Elizabeth II's funeral - date to be confirmed.
- Flags at all royal residences will remain at half mast until 8am the day after mourning
I think 'royal mourning' is for the royal family, the household, assorted hangers-on. Not the likes of us.
I will certainly be mourning for ten days, royal or not
I’m going to be like the Thais after Bumibhol, and wear black for a WHOLE YEAR
To be fair he was their version of The Queen. I imagine when the present Thai king dies, surrounded by his hookers in Bavaria, Thais will maybe wear a grey-ish tee shirt for an afternoon, then move on
Surprised you have remained calm about the wokeness of letting a man takeover from the Queen, and then changing her pronouns.
One silver lining in the accession of King Charles III is that the people of The Channel Islands can finally unshackle themselves from the awful woke imposition for 70 years of self identifying nonsense in their Loyal Toast which will finally correct the gender from”The Queen, our Duke” to “The King, our Duke”.
Dukes of Normandy can finally stop spinning in their graves.
The Queen was also, I believe, the Duke of Lancaster!
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
You are a bit odd on this. People are making their own decisions - the organisers are people and make a choice about the events they organise.
I'd advise them to keep open that which is not affected by reallocation of police resources etc, but it is not an enforceable lockdown, not a big deal.
We’ll see. Why has the cricket been cancelled today? Did the ticket holders refuse to attend or the players refuse to play? (If so fair enough)
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
TBF, we've just had a day of posters emoting all over the comments section, so you can half see their point.
Imagine, for example, if Anabobazina and Casino shared a workplace.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Are you really still banging on about this after embarrassing yourself last night on the subject?
Can you outline what events and services you deem should be cancelled on the behalf of other people? Just so you don’t “embarrass yourself” in the very near future
I used to mumble my way through God Save The Queen but nope, God Save The King ain't happening.
Me too. I'm a lot wishy-washier than you on the republican-royalist spectrum, but I can barely bring myself to utter the words 'the king'. The Queen was always part of the landscape. Anachronistic, but unthreatening because she had always been there. I don't mind an anachronism. But 'The King' sounds weirdly medieval and Gormenghastly.
Seems a small thing to be bothered about to me. We'll get used to it after a while and in time reflect how odd 'the queen' sounds.
It will take some time to get used to the idea of KC rather than QC again. I wonder how many updated their websites.
I once dealt with a lawyer in Switzerland who had the charming misapprehension that "QC" was a postnominal bestowed on all qualified British lawyers, whether solicitors, barristers or advocates, like "MD" for US doctors I guess, and addressed his correspondence accordingly. I quite enjoyed the upgrade and never corrected him.
An oddity of the US is that they stick Esquire after the name as an honorific for either sex. Jane Smith, Esquire. Very odd.
I personally don’t think that what a politician’s family member does should have any bearing on how the politician is viewed but I’m sure it would have been a nightmare.
Think Liz T had an eventful first week - just think if Penny had been chosen.
I just don't think that's as big a story, had Mordaunt been PM now, as you think.
Firstly, it's a very sad story for her and other family members, but basically nobody is going to be blaming her for her brother's proclivities - certainly not the right-wing press, nor even the (smaller) left-leaning press.
Secondly, as it happens, the story would have been completely forgotten almost immediately because the timing coincided with vastly bigger news.
I know it’s going to be a controversial opinion, but reading that article about his offences they appear to be a clear case of entrapment. This guy has had a decent middle-class career totally ruined for posting things in a chat room, not to a child but to a police officer. There was no harm to any children as a result of his behaviour.
The only comment I would make is that there are other similar cases which are similar, where people get quite significant prison sentences - there was a case locally where someone got sent to prison for about 8 years for a similar situation of entrapment.
Not entrapment because the police officer is initially entirely passive.
Unfortunate wording ...
He thought he was talking to a child. He had the mens rea for the offence. I have absolutely no problem with people with that intent being locked up for extended periods of time.
The story does explain why Mordaunt looked so downcast and distracted during the hustings. And hence her defeat when she seemed set for victory
Also it sadly means its better she lost. What a nightmare for all if she was now PM
Isn’t her Wokeness partly due to her unusual family? You can see how it might have played out
It is very unfortunate for her but probably a lucky escape for us. She seemed to me to put the vacuum into vacuous, as delusional and deluded as Boris but without the intellect or the judgment. Truss is a long way from ideal as PM but she is a significant cut above Penny.
If nothing else, Mordaunt was a wrong 'un because she promoted herself to Captain at the MoD after 27 days of reserve service. A move which did not greatly endear her to those that put in 20+ years of hard work and sacrifice to get their three rings.
Parts of America are under this strange illusion that they share the monarchy, in negative and positive ways. I guess they could claim that with Meghan they have a vested interest, but that was true of Wallis Simpson too
This tendency to co-opt the British monarchy seems to have increased since the advent of social media, not the opposite
I've done some of my family history and as a result I'm in occasional correspondence with a fifth or thereabouts cousin in Ohio. She emailed me last night to "express condolences, and to say that she was sad, as I'm very many Americans". To be honest I was surprised; she seems more affected by the whole thing then I am!
I was contacted by an American acquaintance offering condolences within minutes of the announcement. The Anglophile portion of America cares a lot about the Royal family.
The new monarch is likely to put one of his own officials onto the senior staff at No10 or the Cabinet Office if he hasn't already done so.
I was thinking this morning, how the political media and commentariat keep to the lie that the monarch acts only on ministerial advice where withholding of their "consent" to government bills is concerned.
What is the point in the government drafting and writing a bill and then advising the monarch to block its introduction to parliament unless certain clauses are amended or removed? Think that's ludicrous? Well that's what we're supposed to believe has happened many times.
How many Parliamentary Bills have been changed through this procedure, at the behest of the Palace?
That question might well include the Scottish Parliament. I also assume the Welsh and NI Assemblies too.
I personally don’t think that what a politician’s family member does should have any bearing on how the politician is viewed but I’m sure it would have been a nightmare.
Think Liz T had an eventful first week - just think if Penny had been chosen.
I just don't think that's as big a story, had Mordaunt been PM now, as you think.
Firstly, it's a very sad story for her and other family members, but basically nobody is going to be blaming her for her brother's proclivities - certainly not the right-wing press, nor even the (smaller) left-leaning press.
Secondly, as it happens, the story would have been completely forgotten almost immediately because the timing coincided with vastly bigger news.
I know it’s going to be a controversial opinion, but reading that article about his offences they appear to be a clear case of entrapment. This guy has had a decent middle-class career totally ruined for posting things in a chat room, not to a child but to a police officer. There was no harm to any children as a result of his behaviour.
What's "middle class career" got to do with it? If he was on the dole then, fuck it, bang him up?
The guy is middle aged and the name of the chat group he joined. A 42 year old joining a U.K. teens chat group. He sent what he thought was a 14 year old pics of his dick. He’s a menace and the face he is middle,class should be irrelevant.
PB Tories are desperate for Truss to have a bounce
Sounds like you could be worried she may well get a bounce, and indeed why should any conservative not hope to see an improvement in their standing, just as you want to see the same for labour
It is simply politics
with the Queen's death destroying the energy cap news - it's perfectly plausible that Truss and the Tories won't see the benefit in the polls from that cap....
Or that the Queen's death has prevented Labour from going on the attack about the lack of windfall tax. So only the good news ("your bills are coming down") got through.
My bills will sadly remain extremely high as I stupidly fixed a rate of 13p per KwH a few months ago, not realising I had the choice of falling back on the variable tariff.
Can't you pay a penalty and leave that fixed rate deal?
Wait and see!! You might be alright regardless.
From moneysavingexpert:
"Since the announcement, I have heard the discount that is being applied to the price-capped tariffs is likely to be applied to all tariffs, including fixes (the new 'price guarantee' will effectively work as a per pound discount off the unit rates of the pre-planned 1 October price cap rate). If this is correct, many fixes that currently look costlier than the price guarantee will end up cheaper. Earlier, the information I was told by the Government was that "all can get out of a fixed tariff without exit penalties". This may have changed, so that it is left up to firms. I will confirm when I know, but be careful acting on any of this before it is cast iron."
IMO penalty free switches would perhaps be better than the discount applying. I have see a couple of complaints about the discount applying to long-term fixes at a fraction of the current price.
Buried in all the other news, and admittedly I only found out because I'm an Ipswich fan, is the sad update that Marcus Stewart, our best striker of the post-Bobby Robson era, has MND. With Doddie Weir and Rob Burrow also receiving the same diagnosis has there been an uptick in the prevalence of this cruel disease or is it just that it's getting more publicised?
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
You are a bit odd on this. People are making their own decisions - the organisers are people and make a choice about the events they organise.
I'd advise them to keep open that which is not affected by reallocation of police resources etc, but it is not an enforceable lockdown, not a big deal.
We’ll see. Why has the cricket been cancelled today? Did the ticket holders refuse to attend or the players refuse to play? (If so fair enough)
It's none of my business why really. I'd be put out if I had a ticket and wanted to go but I'd get over it.
Players and public arent having a choice about whether it goes ahead taken away, they never had a choice. Stuffed shirts make these calls.
I personally don’t think that what a politician’s family member does should have any bearing on how the politician is viewed but I’m sure it would have been a nightmare.
Think Liz T had an eventful first week - just think if Penny had been chosen.
Wow. Bullet dodged. Poor Penny. No wonder she looked absent throughout the process.
Yes - it probably explains a lot - I seem to recall that people were commenting that she looked distant and emotional a lot in the early stages.
But if it cost her just five votes that went to Liz then it’s quite amazing how history could have been different.
It just shows the stunning ineptitude of Sunak. Anyone one quarter competent, one per cent competent, would have known this, lent votes to get her into the final, and leaked it to the Con electorate.
I’m getting the feeling that Liz Truss is a very lucky general - which hopefully will be good for the country.
She was up against Sunak who whilst bright wasn’t politically savvy.
She might well have lucked out in penultimate round where Penny voters switched worried about that story.
The country has taken its eye off the huge CoL/Energy crisis which would have dominated her first weeks for a bit giving her time to nail her solutions and arguments.
She’s going to be majorly in the history books now where as if she had bumbled along and lost the next election she would have just been another short term undistinguished PM.
She has an opportunity to massively boost her standing with the public if she plays the next ten days well and becomes a cypher for the grief but resilience of the “Great British Public”.
All she needs now is for JRM to join a cult and quit politics so she can get rid without his supporters getting angry with her.
I don't think Truss will be a cipher for grief. Too robotic and lacking in the human touch. I thought her speech yesterday was poor really. She needs better speechwriters. Perhaps she could ask Boris. His statement was actually pretty good.
If she'd have made Boris's speech, she would have been acused of over-sentimentality and trying to capitalise on grief (in much the same way that Blair was over Diana), though, wouldn't she?
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Because the ECB decided that they didn't want to play, either as a sign of respect, or in part due to fear about how it might look to the public.
This really isn't a big deal. Organisations are making their own decisions and you seem really upset by the decisions being made. Keep calm and carry on (or not, as the case may be).
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
TBF, we've just had a day of posters emoting all over the comments section, so you can half see their point.
Imagine, for example, if Anabobazina and Casino shared a workplace.
It would be fine. He’s entitled to be heartbroken and if he wanted a day off I’d be happy for him to have one, just as long as he didn’t insist I had to take the day off too (which I very much doubt he would).
Looks like the King wants mourning to continue for 7 days after the funeral !!!!! Sebastian Payne @SebastianEPayne
New from Buckingham Palace:
- Kings Charles III has instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after Elizabeth II's funeral - date to be confirmed.
- Flags at all royal residences will remain at half mast until 8am the day after mourning
I think 'royal mourning' is for the royal family, the household, assorted hangers-on. Not the likes of us.
I will certainly be mourning for ten days, royal or not
I’m going to be like the Thais after Bumibhol, and wear black for a WHOLE YEAR
To be fair he was their version of The Queen. I imagine when the present Thai king dies, surrounded by his hookers in Bavaria, Thais will maybe wear a grey-ish tee shirt for an afternoon, then move on
Surprised you have remained calm about the wokeness of letting a man takeover from the Queen, and then changing her pronouns.
One silver lining in the accession of King Charles III is that the people of The Channel Islands can finally unshackle themselves from the awful woke imposition for 70 years of self identifying nonsense in their Loyal Toast which will finally correct the gender from”The Queen, our Duke” to “The King, our Duke”.
Dukes of Normandy can finally stop spinning in their graves.
The Queen was also, I believe, the Duke of Lancaster!
Labour “gain”? How does that work on the numbers and changes given?
The Tories won it in 2021 (first time they'd won this ward since 2008), thats the councillor who resigned, but its one of your 3 years out of 4 wards and labour won in May 22, changes since then
Looks like the King wants mourning to continue for 7 days after the funeral !!!!! Sebastian Payne @SebastianEPayne
New from Buckingham Palace:
- Kings Charles III has instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after Elizabeth II's funeral - date to be confirmed.
- Flags at all royal residences will remain at half mast until 8am the day after mourning
I think 'royal mourning' is for the royal family, the household, assorted hangers-on. Not the likes of us.
I will certainly be mourning for ten days, royal or not
I’m going to be like the Thais after Bumibhol, and wear black for a WHOLE YEAR
To be fair he was their version of The Queen. I imagine when the present Thai king dies, surrounded by his hookers in Bavaria, Thais will maybe wear a grey-ish tee shirt for an afternoon, then move on
Surprised you have remained calm about the wokeness of letting a man takeover from the Queen, and then changing her pronouns.
One silver lining in the accession of King Charles III is that the people of The Channel Islands can finally unshackle themselves from the awful woke imposition for 70 years of self identifying nonsense in their Loyal Toast which will finally correct the gender from”The Queen, our Duke” to “The King, our Duke”.
Dukes of Normandy can finally stop spinning in their graves.
The Queen was also, I believe, the Duke of Lancaster!
Correct, and we used to toast her as such when in the County.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Because the ECB decided that they didn't want to play, either as a sign of respect, or in part due to fear about how it might look to the public.
This really isn't a big deal. Organisations are making their own decisions and you seem really upset by the decisions being made. Keep calm and carry on (or not, as the case may be).
"Let people make their own decisions ... so long as it's what I want!"
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Policing is a good reason why some stuff is being cancelled. Due to the death of the Queen a lot of extra police have been called into working on that, modern sport requires a lot of policing, and people who may have been scheduled to work policing that might now be unavailable.
At such short notice it is probably cleaner and easier to clean the slate of events for today at least until it gets figured out what can and can't go ahead.
Where is the Queen's body today and how does it require enough policemen such as to cancel events ffs.
Carnival went ahead at the same time as a full premiership programme plus racing, darts, badminton, interpretive dance competitions, etc - just how many people aside from the Royal Company of Archers (Scotland) and King's Company, 1GGG (England) does it take to watch over her.
Perhaps being forgotten is the point that the Royal events will need a lot of weekend/holiday/overtime/late working: e.g. standing at a level crossing for a couple of hours at 3 am in the morning, with the associated briefing and travel, could equate to a whole day's normal shift in pay and/or time off in lieu. And people do need to rest and eat and sleep. That has to come out of existing budgets for time and/or salary.
Parts of America are under this strange illusion that they share the monarchy, in negative and positive ways. I guess they could claim that with Meghan they have a vested interest, but that was true of Wallis Simpson too
This tendency to co-opt the British monarchy seems to have increased since the advent of social media, not the opposite
I've done some of my family history and as a result I'm in occasional correspondence with a fifth or thereabouts cousin in Ohio. She emailed me last night to "express condolences, and to say that she was sad, as I'm very many Americans". To be honest I was surprised; she seems more affected by the whole thing then I am!
I think it may have come as more of a shock/surprise to people outside the U.K. While we’ve been exposed to stories about an increasingly frail and quite possibly ill very old lady, their knowledge of her decline may have been much less, hence greater surprise when the inevitable came to pass.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Because the ECB decided that they didn't want to play, either as a sign of respect, or in part due to fear about how it might look to the public.
This really isn't a big deal. Organisations are making their own decisions and you seem really upset by the decisions being made. Keep calm and carry on (or not, as the case may be).
Did the players refuse to play or the ticket holders refuse to attend? If so, fair enough, but I haven’t seen any evidence of that (so far).
Parts of America are under this strange illusion that they share the monarchy, in negative and positive ways. I guess they could claim that with Meghan they have a vested interest, but that was true of Wallis Simpson too
This tendency to co-opt the British monarchy seems to have increased since the advent of social media, not the opposite
It was remarkable how White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referred to "the queen" and "the royal family" without saying of which country, but then again the BBC has sometimes referred to "the president" similarly without mentioning a country.
The British monarchy is the most valuable brand in the world.
As support for this statement, I offer how Google, Apple, and Microsoft all greyed out their front pages while showing their respect for the dead monarch.
Can we imagine royal.gov.uk doing the same if one of those firms went bankrupt, or if a CEO of one of them died?
Looks like the King wants mourning to continue for 7 days after the funeral !!!!! Sebastian Payne @SebastianEPayne
New from Buckingham Palace:
- Kings Charles III has instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after Elizabeth II's funeral - date to be confirmed.
- Flags at all royal residences will remain at half mast until 8am the day after mourning
I think 'royal mourning' is for the royal family, the household, assorted hangers-on. Not the likes of us.
I will certainly be mourning for ten days, royal or not
I’m going to be like the Thais after Bumibhol, and wear black for a WHOLE YEAR
To be fair he was their version of The Queen. I imagine when the present Thai king dies, surrounded by his hookers in Bavaria, Thais will maybe wear a grey-ish tee shirt for an afternoon, then move on
The difference between father and son is quite amazing! There was, if I remember correctly, some suggestion that the crown should've passed to the eldest daughter, a woman generally held in very high estimation.
The Thai Crown Princess! I’ve met her, believe it or not - I had to learn to bow REALLY low - as you do with Siamese royalty. But I bowed so low I fell over. She graciously pretended she had not noticed
She definitely has a calm and classy presence. Big fan of Billie Jean King as well
By all accounts the latest Thai king has no class at all in any circumstances
I personally don’t think that what a politician’s family member does should have any bearing on how the politician is viewed but I’m sure it would have been a nightmare.
Think Liz T had an eventful first week - just think if Penny had been chosen.
I just don't think that's as big a story, had Mordaunt been PM now, as you think.
Firstly, it's a very sad story for her and other family members, but basically nobody is going to be blaming her for her brother's proclivities - certainly not the right-wing press, nor even the (smaller) left-leaning press.
Secondly, as it happens, the story would have been completely forgotten almost immediately because the timing coincided with vastly bigger news.
I know it’s going to be a controversial opinion, but reading that article about his offences they appear to be a clear case of entrapment. This guy has had a decent middle-class career totally ruined for posting things in a chat room, not to a child but to a police officer. There was no harm to any children as a result of his behaviour.
What's "middle class career" got to do with it? If he was on the dole then, fuck it, bang him up?
The guy is middle aged and the name of the chat group he joined. A 42 year old joining a U.K. teens chat group. He sent what he thought was a 14 year old pics of his dick. He’s a menace and the face he is middle,class should be irrelevant.
One of the odder things I've read on here for sure. If you don't want your 'middle class' life ruining, maybe don't hang around in chatrooms for school children and send kids pictures of your dick.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Because the ECB decided that they didn't want to play, either as a sign of respect, or in part due to fear about how it might look to the public.
This really isn't a big deal. Organisations are making their own decisions and you seem really upset by the decisions being made. Keep calm and carry on (or not, as the case may be).
Did the players refuse to play or the ticket holders refuse to attend? If so, fair enough, but I haven’t seen any evidence of that (so far).
Would it be very wrong to whisper quietly: "Please can we have sky sports news back?"
I used to mumble my way through God Save The Queen but nope, God Save The King ain't happening.
Me too. I'm a lot wishy-washier than you on the republican-royalist spectrum, but I can barely bring myself to utter the words 'the king'. The Queen was always part of the landscape. Anachronistic, but unthreatening because she had always been there. I don't mind an anachronism. But 'The King' sounds weirdly medieval and Gormenghastly.
Seems a small thing to be bothered about to me. We'll get used to it after a while and in time reflect how odd 'the queen' sounds.
It will take some time to get used to the idea of KC rather than QC again. I wonder how many updated their websites.
I once dealt with a lawyer in Switzerland who had the charming misapprehension that "QC" was a postnominal bestowed on all qualified British lawyers, whether solicitors, barristers or advocates, like "MD" for US doctors I guess, and addressed his correspondence accordingly. I quite enjoyed the upgrade and never corrected him.
An oddity of the US is that they stick Esquire after the name as an honorific for either sex. Jane Smith, Esquire. Very odd.
That should have said an honorific for lawyers of either sex.
The new monarch is likely to put one of his own officials onto the senior staff at No10 or the Cabinet Office if he hasn't already done so.
I was thinking this morning, how the political media and commentariat keep to the lie that the monarch acts only on ministerial advice where withholding of their "consent" to government bills is concerned.
What is the point in the government drafting and writing a bill and then advising the monarch to block its introduction to parliament unless certain clauses are amended or removed? Think that's ludicrous? Well that's what we're supposed to believe has happened many times.
How many Parliamentary Bills have been changed through this procedure, at the behest of the Palace?
The late monarch and her eldest son vetted at least 1000 bills. Certainly some were altered as a result. They've refused to reveal how many.
As a (moderate) republican myself, I have to say this is absolute crap.
The procedural mechanism isn't there. The final Act goes to the PM, who rubber stamps it, always unamended.
Any amendments brought to a bill whilst going through Parliament are explained and, if of any importance at all, debated and voted upon by MPs.
It is true we do not know if the Queen ever privately raised a specific concern about proposed legislation with a PM, and what their reaction was. Of course we don't - they are private audiences. Nor, of course, do we know how often the PM's husband, wife, mistress, dentist, gardener, or drug dealer has raised an issue in a private audience nor the reaction. But I don't think any of her PMs have ever given the slightest hint that the Queen stepped beyond interested conversation in political developments or sought to place any pressure on them to change course.
There are some decent reasons to depart from current constitutional arrangements regarding the head of state, but silly, baseless conspiracy theories tend to weaken the case.
Parts of America are under this strange illusion that they share the monarchy, in negative and positive ways. I guess they could claim that with Meghan they have a vested interest, but that was true of Wallis Simpson too
This tendency to co-opt the British monarchy seems to have increased since the advent of social media, not the opposite
It was remarkable how White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referred to "the queen" and "the royal family" without saying of which country, but then again the BBC has sometimes referred to "the president" similarly without mentioning a country.
The British monarchy is the most valuable brand in the world.
As support for this statement, I offer how Google, Apple, and Microsoft all greyed out their front pages while showing their respect for Emperor Franz-Joseph the dead monarch.
Can we imagine royal.gov.uk doing the same if one of those firms went bankrupt, or if a CEO of one of them died?
Is the Royal Family the most valuable brand or is it HM Queen Elizabeth II?
I guess that is what we will find out in the coming years…
Labour “gain”? How does that work on the numbers and changes given?
The Tories won it in 2021 (first time they'd won this ward since 2008), thats the councillor who resigned, but its one of your 3 years out of 4 wards and labour won in May 22, changes since then
Got you. Honestly, half the time if you don’t have the back story these changes given are meaningless. But then I guess that’s generally true in local elections when votes can move because of something to do with a footpath.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Policing is a good reason why some stuff is being cancelled. Due to the death of the Queen a lot of extra police have been called into working on that, modern sport requires a lot of policing, and people who may have been scheduled to work policing that might now be unavailable.
At such short notice it is probably cleaner and easier to clean the slate of events for today at least until it gets figured out what can and can't go ahead.
Where is the Queen's body today and how does it require enough policemen such as to cancel events ffs.
Carnival went ahead at the same time as a full premiership programme plus racing, darts, badminton, interpretive dance competitions, etc - just how many people aside from the Royal Company of Archers (Scotland) and King's Company, 1GGG (England) does it take to watch over her.
Perhaps being forgotten is the point that the Royal events will need a lot of weekend/holiday/overtime/late working: e.g. standing at a level crossing for a couple of hours at 3 am in the morning, with the associated briefing and travel, could equate to a whole day's normal shift in pay and/or time off in lieu. And people do need to rest and eat and sleep. That has to come out of existing budgets for time and/or salary.
So all sports, events, what have you cancelled because the police need to man the level crossings between Aberdeen and KGX (73 between Doncaster and KGX, I think google tells me).
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
I intend to stoically soldier on. Feels more in keeping with her temperament. But we tend to expect overwrought now.
I’m the same. Soldiering on
I was in no mood for breakfast - due to my grief - but I sat down and did my best
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Because the ECB decided that they didn't want to play, either as a sign of respect, or in part due to fear about how it might look to the public.
This really isn't a big deal. Organisations are making their own decisions and you seem really upset by the decisions being made. Keep calm and carry on (or not, as the case may be).
“ part due to fear about how it might look to the public”
Is there any evidence that the public oppose the staging of such events? Should we also close shops and pubs and schools and workplaces because of a fear of how it would look if the Dog & Duck remains open?
Parts of America are under this strange illusion that they share the monarchy, in negative and positive ways. I guess they could claim that with Meghan they have a vested interest, but that was true of Wallis Simpson too
This tendency to co-opt the British monarchy seems to have increased since the advent of social media, not the opposite
It was remarkable how White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referred to "the queen" and "the royal family" without saying of which country, but then again the BBC has sometimes referred to "the president" similarly without mentioning a country.
The British monarchy is the most valuable brand in the world.
As support for this statement, I offer how Google, Apple, and Microsoft all greyed out their front pages while showing their respect for Emperor Franz-Joseph the dead monarch.
Can we imagine royal.gov.uk doing the same if one of those firms went bankrupt, or if a CEO of one of them died?
Is the Royal Family the most valuable brand or is it HM Queen Elizabeth II?
I guess that is what we will find out in the coming years…
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
You’ll be pleased to hear that the F1 hasn’t been cancelled this weekend. They are at Monza, Italy, and Sky has full coverage of the meeting. F2 practice has just finished, and F1 practice is in 45 minutes’ time.
Rumours Leclerc is aiming to finish third, as a tribute to the new king.
I personally don’t think that what a politician’s family member does should have any bearing on how the politician is viewed but I’m sure it would have been a nightmare.
Think Liz T had an eventful first week - just think if Penny had been chosen.
Wow. Bullet dodged. Poor Penny. No wonder she looked absent throughout the process.
Yes - it probably explains a lot - I seem to recall that people were commenting that she looked distant and emotional a lot in the early stages.
But if it cost her just five votes that went to Liz then it’s quite amazing how history could have been different.
It just shows the stunning ineptitude of Sunak. Anyone one quarter competent, one per cent competent, would have known this, lent votes to get her into the final, and leaked it to the Con electorate.
I’m getting the feeling that Liz Truss is a very lucky general - which hopefully will be good for the country.
She was up against Sunak who whilst bright wasn’t politically savvy.
She might well have lucked out in penultimate round where Penny voters switched worried about that story.
The country has taken its eye off the huge CoL/Energy crisis which would have dominated her first weeks for a bit giving her time to nail her solutions and arguments.
She’s going to be majorly in the history books now where as if she had bumbled along and lost the next election she would have just been another short term undistinguished PM.
She has an opportunity to massively boost her standing with the public if she plays the next ten days well and becomes a cypher for the grief but resilience of the “Great British Public”.
All she needs now is for JRM to join a cult and quit politics so she can get rid without his supporters getting angry with her.
I don't think Truss will be a cipher for grief. Too robotic and lacking in the human touch. I thought her speech yesterday was poor really. She needs better speechwriters. Perhaps she could ask Boris. His statement was actually pretty good.
If she'd have made Boris's speech, she would have been acused of over-sentimentality and trying to capitalise on grief (in much the same way that Blair was over Diana), though, wouldn't she?
Quite. She is not auditioning to play herself in The Crown, just doing an adequate job. Blair's half-choking with grief act - Jesus...
Another plus, is Elton John has probably not been asked to do another rewrite for the funeral
Looks like the King wants mourning to continue for 7 days after the funeral !!!!! Sebastian Payne @SebastianEPayne
New from Buckingham Palace:
- Kings Charles III has instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after Elizabeth II's funeral - date to be confirmed.
- Flags at all royal residences will remain at half mast until 8am the day after mourning
I think 'royal mourning' is for the royal family, the household, assorted hangers-on. Not the likes of us.
I will certainly be mourning for ten days, royal or not
I’m going to be like the Thais after Bumibhol, and wear black for a WHOLE YEAR
To be fair he was their version of The Queen. I imagine when the present Thai king dies, surrounded by his hookers in Bavaria, Thais will maybe wear a grey-ish tee shirt for an afternoon, then move on
Surprised you have remained calm about the wokeness of letting a man takeover from the Queen, and then changing her pronouns.
One silver lining in the accession of King Charles III is that the people of The Channel Islands can finally unshackle themselves from the awful woke imposition for 70 years of self identifying nonsense in their Loyal Toast which will finally correct the gender from”The Queen, our Duke” to “The King, our Duke”.
Dukes of Normandy can finally stop spinning in their graves.
The Queen was also, I believe, the Duke of Lancaster!
Hasn't that imposition been for 970 years not 70?
Was Queen Elizabeth I not Duke of Normandy?
I don’t know whether technically she was the Duke of Normandy but the monarch is considered to be that in the Channel Islands.
It’s a quirk of them being part of the Duchy of Normandy before 1066 so when William the C became King of England they became part of the whole kingdom.
When King John lost Normandy he offered the Channel Islands their arms length independence and special rights to stay as part of the English crown rather than revert to Normandy which ultimately put them in the position of being able to become tax havens.
So ultimately the king who lost his riches in the Wash set up places for others to wash their riches.
Labour “gain”? How does that work on the numbers and changes given?
Look at the numbers again. It definitely does work.
Sometimes, these oddities are due to multi-member wards (the vacancy being for the second or third placed councillor). But in this case it simply works on its face.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Policing is a good reason why some stuff is being cancelled. Due to the death of the Queen a lot of extra police have been called into working on that, modern sport requires a lot of policing, and people who may have been scheduled to work policing that might now be unavailable.
At such short notice it is probably cleaner and easier to clean the slate of events for today at least until it gets figured out what can and can't go ahead.
Where is the Queen's body today and how does it require enough policemen such as to cancel events ffs.
Carnival went ahead at the same time as a full premiership programme plus racing, darts, badminton, interpretive dance competitions, etc - just how many people aside from the Royal Company of Archers (Scotland) and King's Company, 1GGG (England) does it take to watch over her.
Perhaps being forgotten is the point that the Royal events will need a lot of weekend/holiday/overtime/late working: e.g. standing at a level crossing for a couple of hours at 3 am in the morning, with the associated briefing and travel, could equate to a whole day's normal shift in pay and/or time off in lieu. And people do need to rest and eat and sleep. That has to come out of existing budgets for time and/or salary.
So all sports, events, what have you cancelled because the police need to man the level crossings between Aberdeen and KGX (73 between Doncaster and KGX, I think google tells me).
We are in trouble, if so.
There is some platinum guff being put out on PB today. But the level crossings excuse is a classic of the genre.
Can I just say, I know we were all alarmed by the extraordinarily frightening and saddening news yesterday, the dark dark news which flashed around the world like a wolf-howl at light speed, but it turns out I’m fine. My day of suffering on a Portuguese cliff with just warm white wine for company has left me feeling remarkably perky. No signs of the promised dehydration. I slept like a medieval effigy in a forgotten church and now I’m on my hotel terrace nibbling raspberries and figs
So I don’t see why there is this continued, pervasive sense of gloom on PB - and elsewhere. It’s a ridiculous overreaction. I’m OK, and off for a stroll to the Isle of Peaches
No pervasive sense of gloom.
We are delighted that you are back in the world of the living.
Labour “gain”? How does that work on the numbers and changes given?
The Tories won it in 2021 (first time they'd won this ward since 2008), thats the councillor who resigned, but its one of your 3 years out of 4 wards and labour won in May 22, changes since then
Got you. Honestly, half the time if you don’t have the back story these changes given are meaningless. But then I guess that’s generally true in local elections when votes can move because of something to do with a footpath.
The TL:DR for last nights 5 is insanely low turnout, great night for the Greens, poor night for the Tories, catastrophic loss in Sussex, and more bad news for them in the NW/Morecambe, Labour superficially good night but both 'gains' were wards won in May 22 and Cannock is a traditionally solid Labour ward anyway
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
You are a bit odd on this. People are making their own decisions - the organisers are people and make a choice about the events they organise.
I'd advise them to keep open that which is not affected by reallocation of police resources etc, but it is not an enforceable lockdown, not a big deal.
We’ll see. Why has the cricket been cancelled today? Did the ticket holders refuse to attend or the players refuse to play? (If so fair enough)
Because the ECB and CSA decided so. You have a problem with them making their own decision, if it's one you don't like?
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Are you really still banging on about this after embarrassing yourself last night on the subject?
Can you outline what events and services you deem should be cancelled on the behalf of other people? Just so you don’t “embarrass yourself” in the very near future
I would make a decision on the merits for any event I was responsible for, and not on any other event.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Policing is a good reason why some stuff is being cancelled. Due to the death of the Queen a lot of extra police have been called into working on that, modern sport requires a lot of policing, and people who may have been scheduled to work policing that might now be unavailable.
At such short notice it is probably cleaner and easier to clean the slate of events for today at least until it gets figured out what can and can't go ahead.
Where is the Queen's body today and how does it require enough policemen such as to cancel events ffs.
Carnival went ahead at the same time as a full premiership programme plus racing, darts, badminton, interpretive dance competitions, etc - just how many people aside from the Royal Company of Archers (Scotland) and King's Company, 1GGG (England) does it take to watch over her.
Perhaps being forgotten is the point that the Royal events will need a lot of weekend/holiday/overtime/late working: e.g. standing at a level crossing for a couple of hours at 3 am in the morning, with the associated briefing and travel, could equate to a whole day's normal shift in pay and/or time off in lieu. And people do need to rest and eat and sleep. That has to come out of existing budgets for time and/or salary.
So all sports, events, what have you cancelled because the police need to man the level crossings between Aberdeen and KGX (73 between Doncaster and KGX, I think google tells me).
We are in trouble, if so.
There's lots more than that going on. There'll be big crowds in London today I'm sure, which could mean a lot of extra Police need to be on the streets, but it gets far more complicated than that.
At next to no notice we're now possibly going to have the Presidents and Prime Ministers and dignitaries from all around the world travelling to the UK for what will be one of the greatest gatherings of leaders etc the world will have seen in many years, if not ever.
It took years to plan COP26, but this has to be organised in days.
There is no time today to organise which events its possible to still put on, and which it isn't, so cancelling them all and then sorting it out is smoother and that's always been known would be the plan.
Very peculiar email from work on the subject: - "speak to your line manager if it [the death of the queen] is impacting you particularly to ensure we can put in the right steps for you."
I'm fairly sure there are no members of the royal family work at our place.
This is exactly what I was lamenting earlier passing with the queen - the inability to just get on with things without emoting all over the place.
It's when you see emails like that that you think (well, I think, anyway) that you could cheerfully sack about 90% of all HR departments without any loss at all.
To be fair to them, there is a well-known psychological effect that, when confronted with the death of a public figure, a person can be quite badly affected for "no apparent reason" - usually because they have a mental health issue related to personal grief that is perhaps supressed under normal circumstances.
I do hope we aren’t going to start randomly cancelling stuff. We have spent the best of two and a half years shutting stuff down willy nilly.
Let people make their own decisions. Why is the cricket cancelled today?
Policing is a good reason why some stuff is being cancelled. Due to the death of the Queen a lot of extra police have been called into working on that, modern sport requires a lot of policing, and people who may have been scheduled to work policing that might now be unavailable.
At such short notice it is probably cleaner and easier to clean the slate of events for today at least until it gets figured out what can and can't go ahead.
Where is the Queen's body today and how does it require enough policemen such as to cancel events ffs.
Carnival went ahead at the same time as a full premiership programme plus racing, darts, badminton, interpretive dance competitions, etc - just how many people aside from the Royal Company of Archers (Scotland) and King's Company, 1GGG (England) does it take to watch over her.
Perhaps being forgotten is the point that the Royal events will need a lot of weekend/holiday/overtime/late working: e.g. standing at a level crossing for a couple of hours at 3 am in the morning, with the associated briefing and travel, could equate to a whole day's normal shift in pay and/or time off in lieu. And people do need to rest and eat and sleep. That has to come out of existing budgets for time and/or salary.
So all sports, events, what have you cancelled because the police need to man the level crossings between Aberdeen and KGX (73 between Doncaster and KGX, I think google tells me).
We are in trouble, if so.
There is some platinum guff being put out on PB today. But the level crossings excuse is a classic of the genre.
Ever had to do a time budget for an out of hours event?
Add the events in Edinburgh, and London, and Windsor. And VIP protection.
And add the 'respect' element. I'm not at all surprised it is happening.
Comments
https://twitter.com/AlexSalmond/status/1567940752180756486?s=20&t=BO_P6NFMRqnHfBreg2TXBA
What does he do these days? International motivational speaker or somesuch?
Sceptical TBH.
Turnout was unsurprisingly pitiful yesterday though throughout
To be honest I was surprised; she seems more affected by the whole thing then I am!
Nothing to do with the Queen’s death, just that Prince Andrew has arrived at Balmoral.
#TooSoon?
LAB: 38.1% (+4.8)
CCI: 30.0% (+2.6)
CON: 27.3% (-12.0)
IND: 4.6% (+4.6)
CCI: Chase Community Independents
Votes cast: 761
Labour GAIN from Conservative.
I remember they sent out a very similar email when George Floyd was killed.
Very tin ear.
Dukes of Normandy can finally stop spinning in their graves.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2132878/Royals-1m-wind-farm-hypocrisy-45-wind-turbines-described-Charles-horrendous-blot-built-Crown-land.html
I'd advise them to keep open that which is not affected by reallocation of police resources etc, but it is not an enforceable lockdown, not a big deal.
https://duchyofcornwall.org/london.html
Carnival went ahead at the same time as a full premiership programme plus racing, darts, badminton, interpretive dance competitions, etc - just how many people aside from the Royal Company of Archers (Scotland) and King's Company, 1GGG (England) does it take to watch over her.
Which would be a change of view on your part.
But people react differently.
Also, I do think Alex needs to clarify exactly what the Queen "poured" over his census records. Did she spill her Dubonnet or something??
Imagine, for example, if Anabobazina and Casino shared a workplace.
But it's a fairly minor wrinkle.
Players and public arent having a choice about whether it goes ahead taken away, they never had a choice. Stuffed shirts make these calls.
This really isn't a big deal. Organisations are making their own decisions and you seem really upset by the decisions being made. Keep calm and carry on (or not, as the case may be).
https://twitter.com/jonwensley/status/1568161871357698054
Was Queen Elizabeth I not Duke of Normandy?
I used to work not far from there too.
The British monarchy is the most valuable brand in the world.
As support for this statement, I offer how Google, Apple, and Microsoft all greyed out their front pages while showing their respect for the dead monarch.
Can we imagine royal.gov.uk doing the same if one of those firms went bankrupt, or if a CEO of one of them died?
not - I had to learn to bow REALLY low - as you do with Siamese royalty. But I bowed so low I fell over. She graciously pretended she had not noticed
She definitely has a calm and classy presence. Big fan of Billie Jean King as well
By all accounts the latest Thai king has no class at all in any circumstances
The procedural mechanism isn't there. The final Act goes to the PM, who rubber stamps it, always unamended.
Any amendments brought to a bill whilst going through Parliament are explained and, if of any importance at all, debated and voted upon by MPs.
It is true we do not know if the Queen ever privately raised a specific concern about proposed legislation with a PM, and what their reaction was. Of course we don't - they are private audiences. Nor, of course, do we know how often the PM's husband, wife, mistress, dentist, gardener, or drug dealer has raised an issue in a private audience nor the reaction. But I don't think any of her PMs have ever given the slightest hint that the Queen stepped beyond interested conversation in political developments or sought to place any pressure on them to change course.
There are some decent reasons to depart from current constitutional arrangements regarding the head of state, but silly, baseless conspiracy theories tend to weaken the case.
I guess that is what we will find out in the coming years…
We are in trouble, if so.
I was in no mood for breakfast - due to my grief - but I sat down and did my best
Is there any evidence that the public oppose the staging of such events? Should we also close shops and pubs and schools and workplaces because of a fear of how it would look if the Dog & Duck remains open?
Another plus, is Elton John has probably not been asked to do another rewrite for the funeral
It’s a quirk of them being part of the Duchy of Normandy before 1066 so when William the C became King of England they became part of the whole kingdom.
When King John lost Normandy he offered the Channel Islands their arms length independence and special rights to stay as part of the English crown rather than revert to Normandy which ultimately put them in the position of being able to become tax havens.
So ultimately the king who lost his riches in the Wash set up places for others to wash their riches.
Sometimes, these oddities are due to multi-member wards (the vacancy being for the second or third placed councillor). But in this case it simply works on its face.
There is some platinum guff being put out on PB today. But the level crossings excuse is a classic of the genre.
We are delighted that you are back in the world of the living.
Such a shame they lost 4-1 in Naples
https://twitter.com/lukeyboy_cfc/status/1567945037710823424?s=46&t=kGclufm19tzurJVhpXB8EA
At next to no notice we're now possibly going to have the Presidents and Prime Ministers and dignitaries from all around the world travelling to the UK for what will be one of the greatest gatherings of leaders etc the world will have seen in many years, if not ever.
It took years to plan COP26, but this has to be organised in days.
There is no time today to organise which events its possible to still put on, and which it isn't, so cancelling them all and then sorting it out is smoother and that's always been known would be the plan.
Add the events in Edinburgh, and London, and Windsor. And VIP protection.
And add the 'respect' element. I'm not at all surprised it is happening.