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Queen Elizabeth II has died

bbc.com

461–470 of 1001 posts

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#461
The Wikipedia article on the British Monarchy is (as expected) informative:

> The monarch and their immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial, diplomatic and representational duties. As the monarchy is constitutional, the monarch is limited to functions such as bestowing honours and appointing the prime minister, which are performed in a non-partisan manner. The monarch is also Head of the British Armed Forces. Though the ultimate executive authority over the government is still formally by and through the royal prerogative, these powers may only be used according to laws enacted in Parliament and, in practice, within the constraints of convention and precedent. The Government of the United Kingdom is known as His (Her) Majesty's Government.

I wasn't aware that the monarch appointed the prime minister, but here you have the last one the Queen made:

> Liz Truss has became Britain’s next prime minister after meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, who asked her to form a new government.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/6/uks-johnson-bows-out...

The Wikipedia article later notes that prime minister appointment appears to fall into the ceremonial category:

> The sovereign has the power to appoint the prime minister. In accordance with unwritten constitutional conventions, the monarch appoints the individual who commands the support of the House of Commons, usually the leader of the party or coalition that has a majority in that House. The prime minister takes office by attending the monarch in a private audience, and after "kissing hands" that appointment is immediately effective without any other formality or instrument.[15] The sovereign also has the power to dismiss the prime minister, but the last time this power was exercised was in 1834, when William IV dismissed Lord Melbourne; since then, prime ministers have only left office upon their resignation, which they are expected to offer to the monarch upon losing their majority in the House of Commons.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#462

What is the criteria for when a Black Stripe is added to the top of HN in the case of a notable death? Are the criteria set or is it arbitrary?

It's usually reserved for "Important people in tech" plus or minus whoever dang and the people who actually own Y Combinator care about.

HN is NOT an unbiased, unaffiliated, open forum. They make no effort to hide that fact, but so many people here put it on a pedestal instead of understanding that it's just orange reddit with good moderation.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#465

I really feel that Charles should at least consider passing on the Crown to his son William. William and Kate are immensely popular. It would be a good thing for Great Britain, British people as well as for the Royal Family. Charles and Camilla are the opposite in terms of respect and popularity to William and Kate, as far as I understand. If Charles does that, he would write himself into the annals of British histor…

Not to mention the actual cost. I believe it is in the tens of billions when a monarch dies (changes of money, ceremonies, etc). Dude is in his 70s. Save your country a bit of money unless you want to foot the bill for maybe 10 years of being King.

> I believe it is in the tens of billions when a monarch dies (changes of money, ceremonies, etc).

That doesn't sound right by an order of magnitude. The main "cost" would be the extra bank holiday, but that is difficult to quantify.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#466

I realise she has just died and it's unbecoming to do anything but laud the person, but this is just moral obsequiousness. She claims fealty by right of blood, reigned as the crown of an extraordinarily cruel empire, and frequently interceded in the democratic government of Britain to protect her private interests.

I'm sure an account named Emma_Goldman comes by these sentiments honestly, but please don't take HN threads into generic ideological flamewar. We want curious conversation here, not tedious talking-point battle.

You mostly do a pretty good job of avoiding that, for which we're grateful, but on the other hand, (a) we have had to warn you about this before, and (b) this subthread is a classic generic flamewar tangent—just what we want to avoid on HN.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32769470.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#467
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently, when I was little, I got excited one Christmas when the Queen’s speech was on tv, because I thought it was my Grandmother… I used to take comfort in the idea that all things pass in time, now not so much. Probably because I realised that includes everyone I love, and myself! I’ve no great love for the monarchy, but this is certainly the end of an era in British public life and likely in UK international r…

What is the sentiment like in the UK about Charles vs William? Heard lots of people calling for him to just hand it over to William straight away.

I left the UK a year or so back and have been pretty anti-monarchist for as long as I can remember, so am probably not the best person to ask about the public mood on succession!

I think there are probably a lot of people like me who, while anti monarchy in general, were not particularly anti-Elizabeth. However now that she’s passed I would quite like the whole thing to be further de-emphasised, de-legitimised and removed from any remaining levers of power, however ceremonial or theoretical, and any remaining state subsidy, palaces and lands to be taken into public ownership etc etc.

How many are of these opinions I am unsure.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#470
Not a Brit, but my respect for the queen has always been tremendous, representing the British monarchy and being a public figure for all my life and seemingly forever, such that her death seems unreal, reminding us that she was a human being and nice old lady after all. I was even hesitant to turn on the news. RIP.
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