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Queen Elizabeth II has died

bbc.com

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Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#291

Post by ath0 »

racktash wrote: post #115

This is probably the only death of a public figure that has really hit me hard. The Queen was a constant all of my life, all of my parents' lives and, indeed, a good deal of my grandparents' lives. The comfort she could bring to many is not to be underestimated in my view. When Covid-19 was kicking off in the UK, and our lives were changing in ways we couldn't predict, I remember being immensely comforted by her spee…

Her speech early in the Covid-19 era was one for the ages[1]: Short, personal, reflective of history yet with a clear call-to-action for her country. I'm not British and also found it exceptional.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-britain-q...

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#292

Post by umeshunni »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #77
paxys wrote: post #41

> In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and the Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow." Hearing "The King" in this context will take a long time getting used to.

Yes. Interestingly, though, she was only the 3rd Queen in British history (Edit: Oops, ok, 6th actually. Edit 2: ok the point is that there have been many more kings than queens!). But since her reign was so long there are few people alive who can remember a king on the throne.

Interestingly, for 134 of the last 200 years (i.e. 2/3), the UK was ruled by a Queen.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#293

Post by kfrzcode »

andrepd wrote: post #206

Not that this is quite the right time, but is there any list of the Queen's achievements that isn't simply "she lived for very long" and "she witnessed some important events"? I fail to see why this is impressive.

Go here, scroll to the section entitled "References" and read some stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#294

Post by frereubu »

saberience wrote: post #71

It's weird, I've never considered myself a "royalist" but this news has affected me quite strongly. I just burst into tears unexpectedly on hearing this news and I don't quite understand why I feel so very sad. I guess I have grown up and lived my whole life (as a Brit) seeing and hearing the Queen, singing "God save the Queen" etc, and this news made me suddenly feel very old, very nostalgic, with the sense that all…

I'm very much the same, and have an enormous amount of respect for her. There's a part of me that wonders whether this feeling of continuity - from the start of her reign which was only a few years after the independence of India until now - has kept the country in a kind of a weird stasis though. It'll be interesting to see whether the UK's view of itself shifts significantly over the next few years.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#295

Post by radford-neal »

SonicScrub wrote: post #191
Hongwei wrote: post #36

RIP. As a Canadian I've always liked that we technically had the Queen as our head of state. I wonder how attitudes will change now that her 70 year reign.

I have an idea that's only half insane. Bear with me. Let's assume we want to get rid of the monarch as Canada's head-of-state. Canada will not be able to feasibly do so because it opens up too many difficult questions about re-structuring our government. Ergo, we will probably just coast on the status-quo. But we could use the desire for everything to stay the same to our advantage by declaring the Queen Elizabeth I…

The Governor General does, and must, have real power. The King-Bing affair was controversial, but the Governor General's action was arguably justified, and negative opinions of it do not set a precedent that the Governor General can never do anything. The Governor general arguably should have taken a more active role in some recent times - when Paul Martin and Stephen Harper were trying to dodge (successfully, it turned out) votes of non-confidence, which have to be allowed in a democracy. Certainly, if the Prime Minister blatantly violates constitutional convention, such as by refusing to resign after losing the confidence of the House, it is necessary for the Governor General to dismiss them.

Since the Governor General must have real power, it follows that the Monarch must have real power regarding the appointment of the Governor General - rejecting the Prime Minister's request to dismiss or appoint a Governor General when this is clearly an attempt to fill the position with someone who will allow the Prime Minister to act non-democratically.

A dead person will not be able to fulfill this role.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#296

Post by jyscao »

andrepd wrote: post #206

Not that this is quite the right time, but is there any list of the Queen's achievements that isn't simply "she lived for very long" and "she witnessed some important events"? I fail to see why this is impressive.

Someone else linked this in the comments: https://www.businessinsider.com/queen-england-terrified-saud...

> She remains the only female member of the royal family to join the military, and is the only living head of state to serve in WWII.

Personally speaking, I definitely respect her for that.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#297

Post by SirLJ »

henriquemaia wrote: post #222

To everyone who feels sad by these news, my condolences. I respect your pain. However, I have to confess that to whenever I hear that someone aged 90+ (80+, even) died, I don't really feel sad. Actually, I feel an urge to praise this person's achievements, as I'm aware we are all mortals, and death is unavoidable. I prefer to rejoice in how much this person has witnessed throughout her life, how she had enough health…

90+ - Hell of a ride:

Dying in your thirties or forties? “Tragic.” Fifties? “Such a shame.” Sixties? “Too soon.” Seventies? “A good run.” Eighties? “A life well lived.” Nineties? “Hell of a ride.”

https://youtu.be/OgoBjEr8lsI

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#298

Post by Nursie »

voisin wrote: post #266
Nursie wrote: 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…

> I can’t see the commonwealth nations welcoming King Charles as their new head of state. Well this is precisely what is about to happen. There may be some hand wringing articles in major newspapers about whether the Royal head of state is still relevant, appropriate, blah blah blah, but there is approximately zero chance that anything will change in reaction to this news.

Immediately? Perhaps not, but I think we’ll see a bunch of countries breaking away from having the British monarch as their head of state in the next few years.

I’m pretty sure that (for instance) Australia was just hanging on until we could be sure she was gone, the current government have already planned a referendum on it in a few years if they get a second term.

(I say ‘we’, I am a relatively recent British migrant, and not a citizen yet)

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#300

Post by tuoret »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #198

I was born in the UK, in 1963. Because of my step-father's love of first-wave UK punk, the first thing I did on hearing this news was to play the Sex Pistol's "God Save the Queen". It is remarkable how much the Queen's standing has improved during the time since that song (1977). My (UK) family are (as far as I know) staunch republicans, but the last couple of decades have seen all of us soften our disgust with the m…

I put on the song as soon as I heard the news and it took Spotify something like 15 seconds to load it. There's a very stressed server out there right now.
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