RIP Queen Elizabeth II

[SimonDoom]

As an American, I'm not as deeply affected by her passing as I am sure some of my British and Commonwealth colleagues are, but I think it's worth observing the passing of one of the longest-reigning monarchs of all time today. 70 years. She reigned over an extraordinarily interesting time, and as far as I know she did so with dignity and grace. I cannot imagine living in the fishbowl that the British royalty do. There were 15 different prime ministers during her reign. Winston Churchill was prime minister when she became queen, and Liz Truss was prime minister when she passed. What a change. Amazing.

 

[TadOverdon]

God bless and keep her.

 

[RachelWalsh]

I think people of many different countries have very different views on the English queen, and English aristocracy in general.

 

[RachelWalsh]

As an American, I'm not as deeply affected by her passing as I am sure some of my British and Commonwealth colleagues are, but I think it's worth observing the passing of one of the longest-reigning monarchs of all time today. 70 years. She reigned over an extraordinarily interesting time, and as far as I know she did so with dignity and grace. I cannot imagine living in the fishbowl that the British royalty do. There were 15 different prime ministers during her reign. Winston Churchill was prime minister when she became queen, and Liz Truss was prime minister when she passed. What a change. Amazing.

Didn't you the Americans have some wars so she wouldn't be queen of America?

 

[Emotional]

Totally don't get it.

The royalty owns so much of England, and for what?

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

As an American, I'm not as deeply affected by her passing as I am sure some of my British and Commonwealth colleagues are, but I think it's worth observing the passing of one of the longest-reigning monarchs of all time today. 70 years. She reigned over an extraordinarily interesting time, and as far as I know she did so with dignity and grace. I cannot imagine living in the fishbowl that the British royalty do. There were 15 different prime ministers during her reign. Winston Churchill was prime minister when she became queen, and Liz Truss was prime minister when she passed. What a change. Amazing.

To emphasise that longevity further: Churchill was born in 1874, Truss over a century later in 1975.

 

[Rustyoznail]

No matter what you think about the monarchy (and we have a lot of debate about that over here) and inherited privilege, she enthusiastically took on a job she really wasn't supposed to do for 70 years.

May she rest in peace with her husband.

 

[LdyHoneybee]

Didn't you the Americans have some wars so she wouldn't be queen of America?

That was “I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love” George III, yes, not Her Magesty. My sincere and heartfelt condolences to all those who are mourning her passing.

 

[Emotional]

Job?

What kind of job is it to be queen?

Wave wave

 

[Rustyoznail]

Job?

What kind of job is it to be queen?

Wave wave

And be nice to idiot politicians of all persuasions.

 

[RachelWalsh]

That was “I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love” George III, yes, not Her Magesty. My sincere and heartfelt condolences to all those who are mourning her passing.

I wonder what John Lyndon is saying. Lol

 

[shakna]

As an Australian, I feel extremely uneasy at her passing. Our system worked so well, because she was a decent queen, and never interfered in the affairs of the nation.
The new king, has often expressed his desire to become a political force.

Sidenote: Her first British Prime Minister was Winston Churchill. Damn, she was in power a long time.

 

[other2other1]

As an Australian, I feel extremely uneasy at her passing. Our system worked so well, because she was a decent queen, and never interfered in the affairs of the nation.
The new king, has often expressed his desire to become a political force.

Sidenote: Her first British Prime Minister was Winston Churchill. Damn, she was in power a long time.

She held the crown for 70 years, and I think she did it with style. Not a bad innings at all...

 

[ElectricBlue]

I wonder what John Lyndon is saying. Lol

What do you mean? His gig only lasted a couple of years, hers lasted seventy. Still, the lyrics for the next song are easy, only one word to change.

I remember as a kid watching her motorcade go down the hill outside our house. My dad, who was an old lefty from way back, was the only one in the street who didn't repaint the front fence - because he'd painted it the year before. He might have given it a wash, though.

On another Royal Visit, my brother and a bunch of his mates climbed a fence and spent the afternoon talking to Princess Anne. Security was a little different, then.

I'm wondering how the coin artist will do Charles' ears...

 

[RachelWalsh]

What do you mean? His gig only lasted a couple of years, hers lasted seventy. Still, the lyrics for the next song are easy, only one word to change.

I remember as a kid watching her motorcade go down the hill outside our house. My dad, who was an old lefty from way back, was the only one in the street who didn't repaint the front fence - because he'd painted it the year before. He might have given it a wash, though.

On another Royal Visit, my brother and a bunch of his mates climbed a fence and spent the afternoon talking to Princess Anne. Security was a little different, then.

I'm wondering how the coin artist will do Charles' ears...

Ummmm. John Lyndon still has a gig, and probably less dislike

 

[LilyWaters]

No matter what you think about the monarchy (and we have a lot of debate about that over here) and inherited privilege, she enthusiastically took on a job she really wasn't supposed to do for 70 years.

May she rest in peace with her husband.

Technically, she wasn't supposed to do it at all. By lineage, it should have been Edward's children to take the throne, but then he abdicated, and George became king.

Regardless of what I think of the role of the monarchy, I am amazed at the responsibility she had to take on as a young woman. It would have been a shock to suddenly become heir apparent, and yet another shock when her father died so young. She must have thought she had YEARS before she would have to take the throne.

It was a shock to realize today, although I don't sing it often (I used to have to sing it every single day at school) I won't ever sing "God Save the Queen" again in my lifetime. It's likely the next generation won't either.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I was talking to a friend a week or so ago about his daughter and how she's nearly finished her Queens Scout award. We half jokingly wondered if she would be one of the first King Scouts...

 

[XerXesXu]

I think she's so respected because she never strayed outside her duties and obligations as a constitutional monarch. Although, still, in the UK, it's punishable by life imprisonment to advocate the abolition of the monarchy,
Treason Felony Act 1848
I can say we could've taken a leaf out of North Korea's book, and declared her Monarch in Perpetuity. I imagine, after a decent period passes, the former Dominions will look at her successors and wish to review the anomalous position of a foreign monarch in their constitutions.

 

[CyranoJ]

The institution of the monarchy is definitely going to miss Elizabeth II. She was astonishingly skilled at image management, kept Buckingham Palace seemingly above the fray of everyday politics and society to an incredible degree, and created the general impression of being a benign and harmless figure in a way that soothed the fears even of many people who were opposed to the monarchy on principle as an institution. As such, her reign was a masterclass in obfuscating the real extent of the Crown's influence and the special privileges enjoyed by the Windsors.

Consider the example of Queen's Consent, where the Queen was consulted about all manner of legislation: not the formality of Royal Assent on a bill passed in Parliament, but an active process of consultation where she (and Prince Charles) could actually lobby for changes to legislation. More than a thousand laws, at least, were subjected to that process over the course of her reign. Even experts on UK law were unaware of the breadth of that power and the sheer variety of legislation it touched until literally last fucking year. That's the mark of an incredibly disciplined Buckingham Palace... not to mention a Queen who was much savvier and more ruthless than the kindly matron she'd created in the public imagination.

It was also possible to see the point where age began to tell and the Queen's hand relaxed on the tiller... because that incredibly disciplined operation quickly came apart. Consider the repeated embarrassing spectacles of panic and petty vindictiveness that came out of the Palace when Oprah sat down to interview the former Duchess of Sussex in 2021, or again this summer. In the earlier case, they even reached the low point of Prince William faking up an online poll declaring him the "world's sexiest bald man" in a bid for attention. The Royal Family was many things under Elizabeth II... but it was never pathetic or obvious in anything approaching that degree. With that competency gone, I suspect the Royals are in for a much rougher ride than the tranquil atmosphere of private privilege of the past seventy years has led them to expect. It seems to me like they had Elizabeth II most directly to thank for that.

All of which is to say: respect to an OG. I may have complicated feelings about what she and her House stood for and the value of the role she was tasked to inhabit, but there is no doubt she was damned good at it.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

She will be missed.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

I wish that people cared as much about people all over the world who are still suffering in the aftermath of British colonialism as they care about an old rich woman dying.

 

[XerXesXu]

I wish that people cared as much about people all over the world who are still suffering in the aftermath of British colonialism as they care about an old rich woman dying.

 

[Handley_Page]

Totally don't get it.

The royalty owns so much of England, and for what?

No! She did not "own" so much of England.
The Queen (God rest her soul) actually paid her taxes, the same as the rest of us.
Let us all hope that the King manages to do as good a job as his Mum did.
God Save the King!

 

[oggbashan]

As an Australian, I feel extremely uneasy at her passing. Our system worked so well, because she was a decent queen, and never interfered in the affairs of the nation.
The new king, has often expressed his desire to become a political force.

Sidenote: Her first British Prime Minister was Winston Churchill. Damn, she was in power a long time.

The new King Charles III had already indicated that when he became King he could NOT continue his roles on architecture, conservation and other issues. His role as an apolitical constitutional monarch would prevent that.

 

[soulhouse]

I wish that people cared as much about people all over the world who are still suffering in the aftermath of British colonialism as they care about an old rich woman dying.

Queen Elizabeth wasn’t responsible for the British Empire. Crowned during its final years, she devoted a large part of her life, as symbolic head of the Commonwealth, the institution that draws together the empire’s former dependencies, to trying to help the independent nations that emerged, and was largely popular amongst its diverse peoples. I once spent a couple of hours on my way back from Heathrow into London in the company of a Ghanaian taxi driver, who claimed that most households in Ghana have a portrait of the Queen on their wall and that she is deeply loved and admired there for her personal role in ensuring an end to dictatorship and the re-emergence of democracy. Dismissing her as "an old rich woman" ignores all that. How much have you actually done beyond "caring"? One can care for her passing and still care more for those around the world still suffering the after-effects of British colonialism.