Them, or the Kardashians, I don’t really see much difference, really.
It’s the governmental / official nature of it that really sickens me (“Public” versus “public”). It makes me complicit in this sick theatre.
I can opt-out of the Kardashians, but the Royals are on my money / passport / documents / etc…
Would it be too much to ask some people in this thread to take their thoughts on the Monarchy to the pit? This is a death announcement.
There is a human story here that goes well beyond royal pageantry. Elizabeth married him despite objections from her parents and pushback by the Palace establishment. As the coverage on CBC put it, "At Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, Prince Philip swore allegiance to her, vowing that he would be his wife’s “liege man of life and limb.”
And he was, unfailingly. Elizabeth called Philip her “strength and stay”. To quote the CBC again, “A week short of his 91st birthday, the longest-serving consort in British history stood for more than three hours in the cold, waving and smiling, supporting his wife of 64 years — just as he had sworn he would at her coronation.”
They were married for an extraordinary 74 years. She has known him for 81, since she was 13.
Thank you.
I guess I’ll bow out.
This is a breaking news thread. Political attacks should be taken elsewhere.
RickJay
Moderator
He served his adopted country well. He had a curious scientific mind. He was an innovator and brought the monarchy more in touch with modern times. He’ll be missed and I wish the best for the Queen.
i feel sad for the queen. that is a big chuck of support gone for her. i was really hopeful that he would make it to 100.
i’m sure harry will get to london as soon as he can. it will depend on how far along meghan is in her pregnancy, and what her condition is, on whether she can fly. i do hope harry will take archie with him.
this is a chance for them all to meet and heal the rift. i hope they take it.
The center of attention shouldn’t be whether a peripheral new member of the royal family attends or does not attend. The attention should be on a lady who has lost her life long companion, the wife of her grandson not so much.
Per my understanding, while they had a very happy marriage, in recent years the couple lived apart, on completely different estates in different parts of the country. (I believe they may have been brought together by the covid lockdown - which is the context in which I read the above - but I don’t know how long that lasted.) So I would think it’s not comparable to the typical loss of a long term marriage partner, where each forms a major part of the other’s life and daily routine.
I’m not the best judge of this (being generally very unemotional, especially when it comes to people I don’t know personally), but I really don’t get the sadness. As others have said, he enjoyed an extraordinary and long life. Of course it’s always hard for family and friends when a loved one dies, but I don’t think it’s ‘sad’ when anyone dies of natural causes aged 99. Especially for those who don’t know them personally.
It was a national tragedy when Diana died because of her age, circumstances, and the manner of it taking place (though even then I think the massive public displays of vicarious grief were way overdone) - this, not so much. To be clear, I respect and mourn the man but it’s not ‘sad’ in my view.
Well, I’m certainly not weeping over the death, at 99, from natural causes, of a man i never knew and who hasn’t had any impact on anything I’ll ever do in many years.
But I’m an American. I gather that citizens of the Commonwealth often develop more of an emotional attachment to their monarchs. So I’m not going to mock anyone for being saddened by his passing.
I think when people say it’s “sad” when a very old person dies, they’re not meaning it is unfortunate, unexpected, loss of unrealized potential, etc… but rather more that he’s been around a long time, and thus has made a large impact and will be missed. And there’s also a component of noting that his family will miss him- in Philip’s case, he’s got four children, eight grandchildren and a bunch of great-grandchildren, who all presumably will miss him.
So sad in that sense, but not more so than anyone else who is 99 and in the public eye, or who has a large family.
After Diana died there was a eerie feeling about the UK (it seemed to me). It was mixture of shock and grief. This feels more like a muted sadness - a totally different feeling. Diana was considered one of the people, so even many of those who didn’t care for the Royal family had some emotional reaction.
Yes, I think that will likely be the case. Or at least what they’ll say to the press. I can only imagine it will be really awkward.
After The Crown, Phillip feels far more immediate or relevant than he otherwise would I think.
it is more that i am sad for the queen. she has lost someone with whom she shared so many of life’s big moments. she has a shrinking amount of people that share her early years, that she can say, remember when… and they have a living memory, not a told memory.
i am also sad for the princess royal. she and her father had a tight bond, and yes, she was his favourite.
prince philip lived a long and event filled life. he has made a difference in many people’s life. passing in your sleep after living long and prospering is about the best for which one could hope.
You may be interested to know that I work for a national broadcaster (one of the major ones in the UK, I won’t say which though). You will not believe how many meetings and how much work is going on behind the scenes right now. All the plans we already had are being put into place but all the ad hoc stuff we need to do is ridiculously complicated and involves a large set of processes. We’ve had several false alarms and “it could be any day now” moments in the last year, but even knowing this was inevitable there’s so much still to do. Checking every script, every minute of programming, rescheduling shows, reviewing marketing messages, adjusting billings information, replanning comms on digital platforms, PR changes, working out the knock on effects of the rescheduling of programmes, etc etc. It’s never ending.
Why do you think that? I am sure that, even though it’s no great surprise, his family will all be pretty upset.
His mother was FASCINATING and is worth a Wikipedia dip.