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Buckingham Palace has announced that Queen Elizabeth II has died.
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Queen Elizabeth II has Died - Buckingham Palace Announcement
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Nadia Comaneci, simple perfection.
-- '76 Olympics
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Thursday September 08 2022, @09:46PM (9 children)
Regardless of any opinions on Monarchies in general, this was a woman who devoted her entire life to public service. Sad to see her go, particularly when she was only a few years away from being able to write a letter to herself congratulating her on 100 years.
Here in Australia, Elizabeth's personal popularity has held back any movement on becoming a Republic for decades now. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the next few years. On one hand, Charles is not well liked at all, but on the other we have a recent cautionary tale from the US about what happens when the Presidential system goes wrong.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Megan and Harry navigate this stage. If they're not careful, they'll put a lot of people offside with their 'cake and eat it' show (simultaneously wanting to no longer be part of the royals, yet keeping their royal title and only ever talking about their royal lives).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by coolgopher on Friday September 09 2022, @12:35AM (5 children)
Indeed. She was one of the few remaining public figures I had respect (and in her case, great admiration) for. Her dedication to duty and her word was a rock of stability in a generally volatile world. She was the monarch we needed, but didn't deserve.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snospar on Friday September 09 2022, @09:04AM (4 children)
I whole heartedly agree with this, as an enduring symbol of stability she will be sorely missed. Contrast her life of service to the string of clowns she has had to deal with recently from Cameron to May, then Johnson. Perhaps the thought of having to meet with Truss was just too much for her (and who could blame her).
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(Score: 2, Disagree) by PiMuNu on Friday September 09 2022, @12:19PM (3 children)
Mix in Brown. Blair was probably okay though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2022, @07:01AM (2 children)
Not according to Rupert [vanityfair.com].. I still want to see a paternity test on Grace.. "Godfather", my foot! [hollywoodreporter.com]
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday September 10 2022, @06:31PM (1 child)
Do people actually get paid real spending money to write that sort of stuff?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 10 2022, @07:37PM
Why? What's not to believe? What makes it so implausible? Powerful men like to bang pretty girls, it's part and parcel to their power. What makes him so different?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2022, @07:05AM
Interestingly, her position as Queen of England was distinct from her position as Queen of Australia. She just happened to have (at least) two jobs.
We could choose someone else to be King or Queen of Australia. I vote for a local, how about Cathy Freeman.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Friday September 09 2022, @08:38PM (1 child)
I don't know how the law works in Australia, but here in the UK there's a thing called Queen's (now King's) Consent where the Monarch has to sign all laws passed by Parliament to make them official, and can apparently ask for changes to be made in private [theguardian.com].
By convention, the Monarch is "above politics" and must be seen to be so (completely impartial).
From the linked article:
The Monarch meets with the democratically-elected Prime Minister (head of the government) once a week on official business.
It's a mysterious system going back hundreds of years.
As I mentioned in my previous post to this story, I'm a Republican, but it seems that we have been very lucky to have had a Queen who reigned for over 70 years who had a keen desire to promote peace and good international relations. She was a friend of Nelson Mandela amongst others.
Apparently she saw the funny side of her situation: [theguardian.com]
Anyway, I think it's a bit silly that someone can be Head of State by accident of birth, but this late Head of State was in office my entire life and this is a big change. We have a King now! He's very different. He paid a very nice tribute to his mother today. Remember he has now lost both of his parents, and he's a human being just like us. He genuinely admired his mother and wants to try to follow her example.
Who knows what will happen next?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Saturday September 10 2022, @01:45AM
Officially, it's similar here in Oz, except that they are signed by the Governor General on the Crown's behalf. Same in the state governments except it's the various state Governors General.
We made some changes after what Kerr did in 1975 though, so now it's really just a formality. Any GG who refused to sign a law would stay in office about 3 minutes.
He's in his seventies. Anyone who got to be that old without losing them has to expect that to change pretty damn soon.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.