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.
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.
So ... you reckon there's going to be a little picture of Paddington Bear guiding Juan Carlos to heaven or ...?
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.
He's Peruvian so can probably speak Spanish at least?
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.
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.
If paying for a nice, distracting funeral costs the government less than fixing the problem, I could see them trying for it.
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.
A dead royal is a tourism boom? Sounds like the premise of an episode of South Park.
Leaving her majesty lying in state for a few years to increase the return on investment (ROI).
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.
Oh, it's very silly indeed.
