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Queen Elizabeth II has died

bbc.com

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Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#821

Post by triceratops »

sacrosancty wrote: post #765
triceratops wrote: post #388

"Her reign spanned 15 prime ministers starting with Winston Churchill, born in 1874, and including Ms Truss, born 101 years later in 1975." Unbelievable the history she was a witness to.

Just like every other 96 year old though, right?

How many other 96 year olds have interacted weekly with all those prime ministers? And also met all the other significant figures in that time?

Churchill faced down (figuratively) Hitler and Mussolini, which makes him a heroic and legendary figure. (He was also a racist monster). Until yesterday, she was a living person who had actually talked to him at length, regularly when he was alive. That's amazing to think about.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#822

Post by As_You_Wish »

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…

Dude, I'm American and even more anti-monarchy. Hell, I'm anti-president, anti-congress, everything.

But I feel the exactly same as you do, and it's not even my damn country to boot.

But, we all know why, or at least it seems to me...a lifetime of dedicated service, consistent and steady service to UK and the world both. Calm, cool. Loyal to country, husband, the whole shooting match.

There's a LOT to admire about the woman that has nothing to do with monarchy. But, almost everyone likes tradition. The 60 second minute and 60 minute hour have been around since Sumerian epoch 5,000 years ago. Tradition. We still use the name of the months from Rome 2,000 years ago. When a head of government has been around for 70 years, the person is not a monarch, that person an institution.

So I had a lump in my throat, and felt some tears well up. Especially as I read that there was a double-rainbow as it was announced. I am not superstitious in the least, and still not about that, but still...

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#823

Post by kesava »

simonswords82 wrote: post #48

Winston Churchill (1951–55) Anthony Eden (1955–57) Harold Macmillan (1957–63) Alec Douglas-Home (1963–64) Harold Wilson (1964–70) Edward Heath (1970–74) Harold Wilson (1974–76) James Callaghan (1976–79) Margaret Thatcher (1979–90) John Major (1990–97) Tony Blair (1997–07) Gordon Brown (2007–10) David Cameron (2010–16) Theresa May (2016–19) Boris Johnson (2019–22) Liz Truss (2022 (two days ago) - current) Quite the re…

From independent India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru to current PM Narendra Modi - she met with a lot of them too.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#825

Post by bhk »

dang wrote: post #762
2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #716

I gotta admit that it is a bit weird to see british royalty being so heavily privileged that they even get special moderation treatment here on HN to protect them (?) from any negativity, or rather stop negativity about them. I'm not keen on the idea of using this submission to flame the Queen, I obviously agree with the general rule of avoiding flamebait, what I mean is that other HN submissions on the deaths of peo…

It wasn't really special moderation treatment, though I understand why it looks like that way now. It was because, when the thread was getting going, it flooded with crap comments (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32769222 , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32769043 ). I decided to come down hard on those to try to ward off a shitshow. It would have been the same in any thread that was filling up that wa…

If there were a way to block comments by recently-created/low-karma accounts in these situations, perhaps that would be better than burying the entire topic.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#826

Post by tacostakohashi »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #384

Not to mention that she was the last monarch to have any memory of WWII and served as an ambulance mechanic. Now that generation that remembered the horrors of fascism has mostly passed and we find ourselves in a period that seems to have many echos of the 1930s with a new rise of authoritarianism and fascism around the world.

> served as an ambulance mechanic.

Ahh yes, that photo of Elizabeth changing an ambulance tire, one of the great public relations triumphs of the 20th century. So humble! She's just like one of us...

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#828

Post by alewi481 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #782
avidphantasm wrote: post #675

As an American watching with dismay over the past five years or so, I can see some virtue in having a non-partisan head of state (realizing that that does not mean the Royal Family is beyond ideology). Not sure how that would work in our republic, but I feel like it would help with national unity during divisive political times.

>Not sure how that would work in our republic here in Germany we have what is probably the most common setup in republics, a chancellor and a president as the ceremonial head of state.

Out of curiosity, how visible is the President of Germany in the media and everyday life? Are the doings of the President talked about and reported on? As an outsider from the United States, I'm aware that you have one, but they get almost no exposure here in the media. People here with a passing familiarity with international current events could probably tell you who the Chancellor of Germany is, but far fewer could name the President.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#829

Post by dromedariusCase »

As a long time lurker and infrequent poster, I am positively revolted by moderation's handling of this topic. Under the guise of "disallowing flamebait" HN's moderation team has systematically driven out anyone expressing negative opinions of an individual. At the start of this topic, there was a diversity of viewpoints[0] but now there is only trite, non-intellectually gratifying comments praising the queen or expressing their despair at her death (which is a weird sentiment for someone most have never met).

As a second-generation immigrant from an Asian country, I have to admit that I was ecstatic at hearing the news. For someone who's family was poor to the point of drinking rotting bone stew and foraging grass partly due to the queen refusing to decolonize until Britian lacked the military might to do so, the only reaction anyone in my close circle could have is positive. This is juxtaposed with the prevailing sentiment here where it's socially unacceptable to celebrate her death. I wonder if all the moralist harping about how one should never celebrate a person's death felt about Stalin, or how they would react to the death of Carmen Ortiz or Vladimir Putin.

I really enjoy my time lurking here in this small corner of the internet and I hope that the moderators here step it up and either 1. ban politically divisive topics or 2. moderate away both trite positive and negative comments.

[0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32769317

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#830

Post by someperson »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #384

Not to mention that she was the last monarch to have any memory of WWII and served as an ambulance mechanic. Now that generation that remembered the horrors of fascism has mostly passed and we find ourselves in a period that seems to have many echos of the 1930s with a new rise of authoritarianism and fascism around the world.

> the last monarch to have any memory of WWII

Saudi Arabia's King Salman was born in 1935

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