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Prince Philip has died

royal.uk

461–470 of 553 posts

Re: Prince Philip has died

#461
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Narrowly missed getting a telegram from his wife

You get the tele-message (not a telegram) from the Queen when you turn 100. But it seems you have to apply for it. https://youtu.be/7Quyte7zN70?list=PLkX9Ba6AAK_2g3Y9Y8MdLbbcT...

For people in the states, you can get appropriate cards from the White House for important occasions.

I sent Bill Clinton an invitation to my high school graduation party, and got a letter back from the White House telling me to work hard in college.

But mailing a birth announcement to the White House is a much better idea. They send a card back to the child welcoming them to the world. You can file it away and then give it to your kid when they are an adult and tell them this is the first letter they ever got.

Re: Prince Philip has died

#462
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like the better way to do it tbh. The PM gets the benefit of her experience without having the media use her words to beat him with if he choses a different direction.

Or a better way for a very wealthy person with far more power and influence than the average person to, in secret, lobby the leader of the government. Frankly I would rather have this lobbying out in the open where it can be held accountable.

She’s not just a very wealthy person, she’s our monarch. You can obviously argue the system could be different/better but it’s not, and there is no appetite here to change it. That being the case I think her keeping her political views between the PM and herself is the better way to do it.

Re: Prince Philip has died

#463
post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they can't. See Harry & Meghan for what happens when you leave.

>See Harry & Meghan for what happens when you leave. You stay rich, wealthy and influential and parlay your newfound celebrity into millions of dollars' worth of streaming media and book deals? Oh no wait, sorry, they're just wealthy now but no longer obscenely wealthy. The horror.

Yeah, I'm pretty confused by the disconnect here. Harry and Megan was who I had in mind as a great example of how easy it is to leave. You just say "bye" and you get on Oprah, get exec positions at startups, get media deals... where is the downside?

Re: Prince Philip has died

#464
post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why?

Let's just say it tells us an awful lot more about you than it does about him.

Am sorry if this touched a nerve because not everyone sees the British royal family as perhaps you do, I suppose I cannot reward service and loyalty to a cause alone, specially when the cause was colonization and oppression of many many other people.

Re: Prince Philip has died

#465
post #36

It wasn't that long ago he recovered from an infection [1]. And I remember reading he is only a few more months from 100 years old!. Spending his life serving the country. Rest In Peace [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56172496

> Spending his life serving the country. Rest in Peace. The man was almost 100 years old, almost 30 when India and many other countries got independence from British after a long multi-decade struggle, with many many innocent dead. Frankly I see him as a wealthy old man from a very influential family who should have done better. Am I wrong that this was my first though after seeing this comment? Am I supposed to feel…

You can think anything you want.

The man had a very difficult upbringing, risked his life fighting Nazis and then did his family duty for the rest of his life. He was witty and funny until the end.

Gandhi was a pedophile who slept with young boys and girls almost his entire life, and who refused 'foreign medicine' (antibiotics) on the basis of principle for his dying wife, but took 'foreign medicine' (quinine) to save his own later. At the same time, leading a major liberation movement. History is complicated.

Re: Prince Philip has died

#466

Sixty five years as the husband of the head of state of a G7, nuclear armed nation, that brought the world Thatcherite individualism and the first cracks in the EU. Philip, like it or not, wielded influence and power beyond his constitutional station. One doesn’t have to like him, but one should respect him.

Wow, why should I respect that this unelected aristocrat "wielded great influence beyond his station"?

Frankly, because Philip — and especially with Elizabeth — was important.

On the day of my death I would hope that, no matter how much people disagreed with me or what I represented, the fact that I was important to someone is shown some respect.

Re: Prince Philip has died

#467
post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the halting theorem says there is nothing to be done about it!

The UK civil service agrees.

The UK civil service is actually fairly good, isn't it, or is it just the Internet facing side of it that gets great reviews?

Re: Prince Philip has died

#468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. The royal family aren't just our rulers, they're our prisoners. Can you imagine being a high-ranking member of the British royal family? Your life isn't your own - you can't pursue the career of your choosing, you have an enormous amount of obligations and you have all the usual downsides of fame, and this is all by accident of birth, not something that you chose. The job might have its perks but I'm still glad…

Meghan Markle talked about this: "In the car ride over, however, the importance of the meeting sunk in as Harry asked Meghan, "Do you know how to curtsy?" She told Oprah: "I thought genuinely that that was what happens outside. I thought that was part of the fanfare. I didn't think that's what happens inside. I said, 'But it's your grandmother.' He goes, 'It's the queen.' That was really the first moment that the pen…

It's unbelievable that a woman would marry into a 1000 year old family institution an head of state without taking a moment to grasp what that meant. It's so shockingly naive I can hardly believe it.

A 'curtsy' for your grandmother, the Queen, is a obviously a bit formal but it's not remotely irreproachable. It's literally just a form of greeting.

Japanese culture has a zillion of elements of common formality - literally entire modes of language - that are an every day occurrence.

Re: Prince Philip has died

#470
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having any strong feelings about the birth, life or death of the royals is an extremely mild sentiment that is shared by millions in the UK and billions across the globe. If you find it shocking, offensive or vindictive then I don't think the internet is the place for you.

It's the urge to blurt it out to be controversial that is what I find childish.

Actually it's you being emotional and childish.

Calm down, dear.

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