ForumGarden

News outlets are growing frenzied in the UK since footage of yesterday's kissing of hands was released. Queen Elizabeth is reported to be "frail", "comfortable", under constant medical supervision and surrounded by her gathered family members.

One can only hope it is a storm in a media teacup.

15:51
Plane carrying Royal Household members lands in Aberdeen

The plane carrying seven members of the Royal Family has landed at Aberdeen airport.

It's not known who exactly is on the flight from RAF Northolt.

Aberdeen airport is about an hour's drive from Balmoral.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-62834633

Oh no that doesn't sound good at all does it.

Betty Boop wrote: Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:00 am Oh no that doesn't sound good at all does it.

It worsens:

The news interrupted a Commons debate, where the PM's plan to limit energy bills was being discussed.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle intervened to say that the "thoughts and prayers" of MPs were with the Queen's family.

Minutes before both Ms Truss and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had been informed of the news and had left the chamber.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62833839




16:42

Crowds begin to gather outside Buckingham Palace

I shall be understandably annoyed if thousands of tributes are left along the Palace railings.

Guess I will never forget where I was on this day...

This, if I may say so, is in spectacularly poor taste:

2h ago
14.59
BBC One suspends regular programming

BBC One has suspended regular programming after the announcement about the change to the Queen’s health.

The broadcaster is airing a BBC News Special, which will be followed by the planned BBC News at Six.

Presenter Huw Edwards is wearing a dark suit, white shirt and black tie, in accordace with the BBC’s dress code for when a member of the royal family dies.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/liv ... 237ace5037

I find it hard to believe that phrasing reached the public Guardian breaking news web page.

She's passed away

Well, damn.
I have a memory of my mother watching the coronation on TV. I was all of 3 years old, I just have that visual bit.
She has always been "The Queen of England" my entire conscious life.

My sympathies to you all.

If I heard right, President Biden ordered all US embassies worldwide to fly the Stars and Stripes at half mast for the entire period from now until the funeral - that's ten days or so. That must surely be unprecedented.

Here, I went and checked...

President Biden on Thursday ordered that the American flag be flown at half-staff at the White House, federal buildings and embassies around the world until sunset on the day of interment for Queen Elizabeth.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/09/08 ... -elizabeth

I'm not sure the UK itself has gone that far, we're still discussing whether to cancel tomorrow's professional football league fixtures.

Internet memes have a lot to answer for - when told of the Queen's death my lad said it couldn't be true, she's an immortal lizard. Fake news runs a distant second to memes. Time to block Indescribable's YouTube channel perhaps.

When Harold Macmillan was asked what was the greatest challenge for a statesman, he replied: 'Events, dear boy, events'. If you'd asked the new Prime Minister two days back what her first month in office would involve she'd have been wildly astray.

Seems lots of things have been cancelled, much to my brother's disgust.

Meanwhile, here in Venice, no one seems to have noticed.

The "official" take on Half Staff procedure
https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/cel ... fstaff.pdf

For the last few years, it seems that the flags have been at half-staff more that at full.

LarsMac wrote: Fri Sep 09, 2022 9:05 am The "official" take on Half Staff procedure
https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/cel ... fstaff.pdf

For the last few years, it seems that the flags have been at half-staff more that at full.

Her Late Majesty qualified as a foreign dignitary, somewhere toward the end of the instructions.

President Putin said "For many decades Elizabeth II rightfully enjoyed her subjects’ love and respect as well as authority on the world stage" but that he will not personally attend the funeral.

I found an obscure poem by Noel Coward, named "1901". I am in awe of Noel Coward for his range, skill, precocity and energy. The poem is clearly still in copyright but, given the circumstance, ought to be seen. If 96 lines is too much, skip to the end - the final eleven lines will do perfectly well on their own.

It was first published in, I think, 1922, when Coward was 23. It might stand wobbling comparison with T.S.Eliot's Prufrock which was published in 1915 and has to be an influence.


Noel Coward, "1901"

When Queen Victoria died
The whole of England mourned
Not for a so recently breathing woman
A wife and a mother and a widow,
Not for a staunch upholder of Christendom
A stickler for etiquette
A vigilant of moral values
But for a symbol.
A symbol of security and prosperity
Of 'My Country Right or Wrong'
Of 'God is good and Bad is bad'
And 'What was good enough for your father
Ought to be good enough for you'
And 'If you don't eat your tapioca pudding
You will be locked in your bedroom
And given nothing but bread and water
Over and over again until you come to your senses
And are weak and pale and famished and say
Breathlessly, hopelessly and with hate in your heart
"Please Papa I would now like some tapioca pudding very much indeed".'
A symbol too of proper elegance
Not the flaunting, bejewelled kind
That became so popular
But a truly proper elegance,
An elegance of the spirit,
Of withdrawal from unpleasant subjects
Such as Sex and Poverty and Pit Ponies
And Little Children working in the Mines
And Rude Words and Divorce and Socialism
And numberless other inadmissible horrors.

When Queen Victoria died
They brought her little body from the Isle of Wight
Closed up in a black coffin, finished and done for,
With no longer any feelings and regrets and Memories of Albert
And no more blood pumping through the feeble veins
And no more heart beating away
As it had beaten for so many tiring years.
The coffin was placed upon a gun-carriage
And drawn along sadly and slowly by English sailors.

But long before this the people had mourned
And walked about the streets and the Parks and Kensington Gardens
Silently, solemnly and dressed in black.
Now, with the news already a few days old
The immediate shock has faded.
The business of the funeral was less poignant than the first realisation of death,
This was a pageant, right and fitting, but adjustments were already beginning to be made.
This was something we were all used to,
This slow solemnity
This measured progress to the grave.
If it hadn't been for the gun-carriage
And the crowds and all the flags at half mast
And all the shops being closed
It might just as well have been Aunt Cordelia
Who died a few months earlier in Torquay
And had to be brought up to London by Great Western
In a rather large coffin
And driven slowly, oh so slowly
To the family burial ground at Esher
With all the relatives driving behind
Wearing black black black and peering furtively out of the carriage windows
To note for a moment that life was going on as usual.
For Aunt Cordelia was no symbol really
And her small death was of little account.
She was, after all, very old indeed
Although not quite so old as Queen Victoria.
But on the other hand she didn't have so much prestige
Except of course in her own personal mind
And that was snuffed out at the same moment as everything else.
Also, unlike Queen Victoria, she had few mourners
Just the family and Mrs Stokes who had been fond of her
And Miss Esme Banks who had looked after her in Torquay
And two remote cousins
Who couldn't rightly be classed as family
Because they were so very far removed
And only came to the cemetery because it was a sign of respect,
Respect, what is more, without hope
For there was little or no likelihood of their being mentioned in the will
But there they were all the same
Both tall and bent, in black toques with veils,
And both crying.

When Queen Victoria died
And was buried and the gun-carriage was dragged empty away again
The shops reopened and so did the theatres
Although business was none too good.
But still it improved after a while
And everyone began to make plans for the Coronation
And it looked as if nothing much had happened
And perhaps nothing much had really
Except that an era, an epoch, an attitude of mind, was ended.
There would be other eras and epochs and attitudes of mind.
But never quite the same.

Betty Boop wrote: Fri Sep 09, 2022 8:47 am Seems lots of things have been cancelled, much to my brother's disgust.

Meanwhile, here in Venice, no one seems to have noticed.

They noticed in Treviso

https://forumgarden.com/forums/ext/dmzx ... c28a57.jpg

It's even a very big deal to us over here in America. My poor wife cried. She loved the Queen.

France 24 and Aljazeera are covering today, although I have moved back to the BBC to watch.
Didn't think I would, but, here I am.
I need someone to bring me coffee and pass the tissues, maybe.

I listened for a quarter of an hour on Radio 4, from when the coffin was carried down the aisle. I turned it off rather than hear the present Prime Minister garble a gospel passage from a pulpit. She's in desperate need of a week's remedial tuition in public speaking.

I cringed all the way through that! It was awful and you wouldn't want her reading a bed time story to anyone.

Charles Wesley's Love Divine I thought was stunning.