Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does this mean?
In the pre internet days, when communication went through various manual means like telephone exchanges, there were codewords known by various people to announce royal deaths without it leaking. The death of the Queen for example has to be announced to all commonwealth country leaders at the exact same time, which means coordination, which means following certain plans, but limiting the information to make sure it's…
Prince Philip has died
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Re: Prince Philip has died
#272Nicely poetic approach to put the website in a sort of mourning state. Curious what changes need to be made.
Re: Prince Philip has died
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
Extremely famous people frequently "author" books, usually with ghostwriters. Charles' book is credit to him "with" two other people (Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly who, I suspect, did most of the heavy lifting. Charles has for years been sympathetic to all sorts of woo, such as "alternative" medicine; his book was met with broad criticism for its cherry-picking of scientific findings to support his environmental agenda…
I don't think there is such a thing as 'alternative medicine'. There is medicine, and there is not-medicine. Just like there is treatment and there is not-treatment. Calling things 'alternative' puts them on the same level, which they are not.
Re: Prince Philip has died
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's obviously not a social fiction, regardless of what you may think about monarchy in general. They have power because they inherited it from someone that conquered it. Just like people may inherit companies and fortunes.
Not at all in the case of Elizabeth II. She holds the throne because parliament gave it to her ancestor, George I, to avoid a Catholic inheriting the throne.
Besides, to a modern democrat, what could be more legitimate that receiving something from parliament?
Re: Prince Philip has died
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have never heard about this, do you have a link that elaborates? I love weird succession lines.
If Charles abdicates, his children receive the baton. But Harry's, and William's succession is under question with both being known not to have that much enthusiasm with the royal business. If they too decline, line goes to their children below the age of majority, and the icky question of regency appears. The regency in question notionally gives quite a lot of power, as the crown itself. If regency goes to the execu…
Re: Prince Philip has died
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately people are very quick to assign "generational guilt" these days. It's as if we've gone backwards, and are no longer capable of being individuals. "Oh, you're white/black/related to x/decended from y, did you know your ancestors did *that*?"
Excuse me? Generational inheritance is the basis of the entire monarchy. It's how they justify their position and privileges. Invoke generational privileges when it suits them and cry about generational guilt when it does not??
For me there's little point making people feel shame for what country they happened to be born in - we do not get to choose. However it's important that we do not forget what caused these awful atrocities and make sure that we never let them happen again.
Personally I feel that we do not learn enough about these atrocities at school in the UK, and would be happy if we focused on them more but I wouldn't want people to feel too guilty about things that could not control.
Re: Prince Philip has died
#277If he does get re-incarnated, let's hope he doesn't get his wish to 'return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation.'
Re: Prince Philip has died
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
By no means am I defending colonialism, least of all the British Empire in India. I’m an Indian, FWIW. I see two main obstacles to this apology. 1. Teaching kids history. Currently British kids learn all about Henry VIII’s wives ... and then it’s straight to the World Wars. It’s hard to tell a nation of 70 million people to reckon with their past when they know nothing about it. 2. Philip himself was quite old. He gr…
We did Celts (Bronze and Iron age), some on ancient Greece, Romans, Vikings, Tudors (briefly, we didn't do Henry VIIIs wives, more about Shakespear), Spanish Armada, colonialism, slave trade, and then loads on WW1 and WW2. I do agree that more should be taught about the details of colonialism but the idea that British history started with Henry VIII and skipped to WW1 is nonsense.
I can say that I did Ancient Greece, Romans, Tudors, touched a little on the Spanish Armada before skipping straight to WW2.
Neither of the two schools I attended touched on Colonialism in any recognisable degree, and Slavery was more "We stopped slavery, good job england", when in reality it wasn't done from a place of morality, and instead was driven by mass slave revolts, a decline in plantations culminated by an era of overproduction by slavery, which was leading to economic decline.
Re: Prince Philip has died
#27999 years of tax subsidies, he surely had a good life without many regrets. It's beyond my comprehension why humans still keep these hereditary regimes, constitutional or absolutist, alive
Re: Prince Philip has died
#280Let us remember some of his grace: “If you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed.” (to British students in China, during the 1986 state visit) “I declare this thing open, whatever it is.” (on a visit to Canada in 1969) “I hope he breaks his bloody neck.” (when a photographer covering a royal visit to India fell out of a tree) “Do you still throw spears at each other?” (in Australia in 2002, talking to a su…