Queen Elizabeth II, Longest Reigning Monarch of England/UK, Dies

Baffle

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No, but one of your oldest and most steadfast allies did. It’s a very basic - to say nothing of cheap and easy - price of diplomatic protocol. Nothing more and nothing less. If the French President or New Zealand Prime Minister died, the exact same procedure would occur.
I think that's part of what I find so strange about it. There's an expectation that people around the world will be affected by this (global consequences I heard someone call it), but if the king of Spain died tomorrow (does Spain have a king?) no one in the UK would give a shit. It would probably make the news, but it would barely register.
 
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Gordon_4

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I think that's part of what I find so strange about it. There's an expectation that people around the world will be affected by this (global consequences I heard someone call it), but if the king of Spain died tomorrow (does Spain have a king?) no one in the UK would give a shit. It would probably make the news, but it would barely register.
Spain does indeed have a king, Felipe the VI, son of former King Juan Carlos the I. If Felipe died there wouldn't be much fuss because he only ascended the Spanish throne in 2014. However I suspect that when his father dies, it will register greatly in Europe due to Juan Carlos being the man that dismantled Franco's regime upon his death and helped Spain become a constitutional monarchy and democracy and either ratified a new constitution or dusted off a pre-Franocist era one. He was no saint of course, there was plenty of controversy around his family - known in monarchies as Tuesday - and he did some very ill-considered things like going Elephant hunting during a period of economic recession which I swear is like three or four cardinal sins in one fell swoop. Plus he's living in self imposed exile due to some business dealings he had with Saudi Arabia.
 

Thaluikhain

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Oh no, does this mean all those portraits of the queen that are hung in small Country Women's Association community halls will be changed to portraits of Charles?
Yep, and they have to repaint "ER" as "CR" in lots of places as well. And mints have to update their coin making machines, and lots of stupid little things.
 

Baffle

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Spain does indeed have a king, Felipe the VI, son of former King Juan Carlos the I. If Felipe died there wouldn't be much fuss because he only ascended the Spanish throne in 2014. However I suspect that when his father dies, it will register greatly in Europe due to Juan Carlos being the man that dismantled Franco's regime upon his death and helped Spain become a constitutional monarchy and democracy and either ratified a new constitution or dusted off a pre-Franocist era one. He was no saint of course, there was plenty of controversy around his family - known in monarchies as Tuesday - and he did some very ill-considered things like going Elephant hunting during a period of economic recession which I swear is like three or four cardinal sins in one fell swoop. Plus he's living in self imposed exile due to some business dealings he had with Saudi Arabia.
So ... you reckon there's going to be a little picture of Paddington Bear guiding Juan Carlos to heaven or ...?

(I knew none of what you said, which is a pretty good highlight of British exceptionalism (and personal ignorance) since I spent 16 years in the UK education system.)
 

Gordon_4

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So ... you reckon there's going to be a little picture of Paddington Bear guiding Juan Carlos to heaven or ...?

(I knew none of what you said, which is a pretty good highlight of British exceptionalism (and personal ignorance) since I spent 16 years in the UK education system.)
Don't feel bad, I went and looked it all up since I wasn't sure if they did or didn't either. But the British royals made efforts to put themselves about although not always in positive ways. Compare for example the work Princess Diana funded/advertised/spearheaded regarding land mines in Africa to say, Charles being recorded saying some of the worst fuckin' dirty talk I've ever heard during a tryst with Camilla. Or Princess Margaret who's reputation was enough to make compromising photographs of her a rumoured bit of pillage from the Baker Street Bank robbery. Or indeed the late Queen Elizabeth herself being escorted by Daniel Craig in character as James Bond to the 2012 Olympics.
 
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Baffle

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Man, the Chief Executive of the Mint must be looking forward to that.
Worse, they must already know Charles is only going to be on the throne for like ten years or something, then they've got to do it all again. Just put an internet meme on the coins or something, it'll be around for longer.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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Do you think they're gonna bother with the month long enforced mourning for when Charles bites it?

Like, if he dies next year, I can't see them having the energy to bother. Depending on how this (estimated) 6 billion dollar funereal is gonna go while people don't have money for food or heat, doing it *again* might (should) abolish the whole thing
 

Eacaraxe

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Im sure the Queen was also responsible for a load of shady shit over her lifetime, most recently the coverup of Prince Andrew's noncery.
Well I mean shit, it's not like the day George VI died and she became queen, she was visiting Kenya where the British had a million and a half people in concentration camps or anything.

EDIT: unrelated news, I have it from some at my former place of work Queen's Platinum Jubilee merchandise is selling like hotcakes right now, so if you want a commemorative or two, now's the time before it's all gone.
 
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Thaluikhain

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Like, if he dies next year, I can't see them having the energy to bother. Depending on how this (estimated) 6 billion dollar funereal is gonna go while people don't have money for food or heat, doing it *again* might (should) abolish the whole thing
If paying for a nice, distracting funeral costs the government less than fixing the problem, I could see them trying for it.
 

Gordon_4

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Do you think they're gonna bother with the month long enforced mourning for when Charles bites it?

Like, if he dies next year, I can't see them having the energy to bother. Depending on how this (estimated) 6 billion dollar funereal is gonna go while people don't have money for food or heat, doing it *again* might (should) abolish the whole thing
I gotta question that figure. $6billion sounds like a typo.
 

Seanchaidh

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"Levelling up" has become a political/ media buzz-term in the UK to refer to improvement.

It's not related to "levels" in a gaming sense. It's related to the spatial sense of the word, as in "raising the level".
still sounds silly

I gotta question that figure. $6billion sounds like a typo.
might be factoring in the economic disruption?
 

Baffle

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still sounds silly



might be factoring in the economic disruption?
Yeah, I assume it covers the cost to businesses of the bank holiday, which isn't a real cost I think as much of the work will ultimately still get done. I just checked and a bank holiday apparently costs £2.3 billion in 'lost productivity'. Can't help but feel us self-employedies should be getting a tax break.

Even then it's a ludicrous sum. "But think of the tourism benefits!" someone will say, the only argument we ever hear when we highlight what a pointless waste having a royal family is, "think of the exceptional one-time-only tourism benefits of the queen's funeral."
 

Thaluikhain

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Even then it's a ludicrous sum. "But think of the tourism benefits!" someone will say, the only argument we ever hear when we highlight what a pointless waste having a royal family is, "think of the exceptional one-time-only tourism benefits of the queen's funeral."
A dead royal is a tourism boom? Sounds like the premise of an episode of South Park.
 
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Eacaraxe

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A dead royal is a tourism boom? Sounds like the premise of an episode of South Park.
Why not? England specifically had those weird-ass corpse museums and was collectively in love with photo shoots of the dead during Victoria's reign.
 

Silvanus

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still sounds silly
Oh, it's very silly indeed.

Not least because the most widely recognised use of the term here in the UK has been the Johnson government's announcement of a "levelling up fund", which was (supposedly) intended to focus on underdeveloped, left-behind areas of the country, and bring them up to the same "level" as elsewhere.

....except, of course, it turned out the algorithm that allocated the funds ended up awarding them mostly to already-affluent areas in the south of England, and mostly to ones with Tory MPs.