Her Majesty The Queen has died.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

The sad news has just been announced that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has passed away today at the age of 96 after more than 70 years as the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as well as other countries and the Head of the Commonwealth.

She gave a lifetime of extraordinary service and will be sorely missed.

Long live the King.

[wab]

This just came across my news feed. Very sad to hear.

[Ditka’s dictaphone]

When I think about leadership. When I think about icons.
There is simply none greater in my lifetime.

Whatever one’s point of view on the monarchy, you have to respect the life of this most remarkable woman.

[The Marshall Plan]

The sad news has just been announced that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has passed away today at the age of 96 after more than 70 years as the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as well as other countries and the Head of the Commonwealth.

She gave a lifetime of extraordinary service and will be sorely missed.

Long live the King.

I'm being very serious.

Accept my condolences for your tragic loss. The Queen Mum was the epitome of class and dignity. My country would be much better served if our politicians, BOTH sides, conducted themselves with even a fraction of her grace.

My opinion about Charles doesn't matter here, but I'm glad I'm one step closer to having William take the throne.

Be comforted in knowing that she's with the Lord.

RIP.

[mmmc_35]

I am completely ambivalent to the British royalty.

That said she did get to live through most of our modern history in a position of some respect. Which is cool if you think about that history.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Accept my condolences for your tragic loss. The Queen Mum was the epitome of class and dignity. My country would be much better served if our politicians, BOTH sides, conducted themselves with even a fraction of her grace.

Appreciate your post TMP and sorry to correct you, but Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was not the The Queen Mother. That was her mother, also called Elizabeth, who lived to be 101 before passing in 2002 just a few weeks after her other daughter, Princess Margaret, died.

It's the title that the wife of a king adopts if she becomes widowed, at which point her eldest living child ascends to the throne. (It used to be eldest male child if there was one, but that has recently been changed.) As the wife of King George VI she was the Queen Consort and addressed as Queen Elizabeth, then when her husband died and their daughter became Queen her title changed to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Generally she was simply referred to as the Queen Mother.

There are some great anecdotes involving the the Queen and the Queen Mother.

Apparently when they phoned each other the switchboard operator always said ''Your Majesty? I have Her Majesty on the line, Your Majesty.''

Upon being informed that her meal was being delayed by a dispute between two gay members of her staff, the Queen Mother sent the message: ''Give those two old queens my compliments, but this old queen is hungry and wants her dinner!' (Or words to that effect.)

During a row between the Queen and the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother demanded "Who do you think you are?!" to which the Queen simply replied "The Queen mummy, the Queen."

[malk]

I think James Connolly put it best when he said (of King George V):

"We will not blame him for the crimes of his ancestors if he relinquishes the royal rights of his ancestors; but as long as he claims their rights, by virtue of descent, then, by virtue of descent, he must shoulder the responsibility for their crimes."

I'll not say what I really think given the ban on political threads but suffice to say that many of us over here are neither sad nor have any respect for someone who didn't apologise for the crimes of her empire and recently gave £12,000,000 to her nonce son to pay off his accuser.

De mortuis nil nisi bonum? Nah.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Everyone's entitled to their view malk, but given that Queen Elizabeth II oversaw the end of empire and transition to a Commonwealth which she herself stated "bears no resemblance to the empires of the past" I believe holding her responsible for events that happened before she ascended to the throne unfair. Furthermore, in a constitutional monarchy the monarch does not make political decisions.

There may be many who are neither sad nor have any respect for Her Majesty, but you are obviously very much in the minority.

However, like you I'll not say what I really think given the ban on political threads.

[Ditka’s dictaphone]

I mean how far back do we go to find crimes of ancestors?

The Egyptians?

[malk]

I mean how far back do we go to find crimes of ancestors?

The Egyptians?

It's there in the Connolly quote, she retained the spoils of the imperialism and colonialism that her lineage both presided over and were personal enriched by. But for that matter she was on the throne at the time of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. Buckingham Palace also lobbied for, and won from the government, exemptions from race and sex discrimination laws and an exemption from inheritance tax, the latter coming in 1993 and the former being used to bar black and minority ethnic employees of the Palace from bringing forth claims of discrimination. And I could go on and on.

If people want to mourn her that's their prerogative, I just get really annoyed when people try and pretend she was an apolitical nice old lady, and then make statements in my name (as a British Citizen, my workplace, my Rugby Club etc.) without even bothering to ask me first.

[karhu]

I only resided in a tiny little fleck of her empire for a few years, but that was enough for me to go against every fibre of my being and lean repub-

Erm, yeah. From my dismissible perspective, she was the Matt Nagy of monarchs: she knew her role and played it exactly the way she knew it should be played...and while her team never stopped saying good things about her (which starts to touch on what's important in a monarch these days, but doesn't entirely fit the bill), she never seemed to notice that the rest of the world was doing what it would. She lived a long time. Her mom seemed cool. Her children seem awful. Helluva game, Liz!

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Never, ever, compare Her Majesty to Matt Nagy again. Ever.

[southdakbearfan]

She had a heck of a run.

[karhu]

Never, ever, compare Her Majesty to Matt Nagy again. Ever.

That was too easy for me as an American to write, and calling it "my dismissible opinion" wasn't enough. Nor was my faint hint at my idea of what a monarch can do, and my fainter praise of Elizabeth for partially fulfilling it. I can only try to appreciate that function from a distance, and my appreciation is certainly tainted for having been developed largely from within a country that makes regular, clumsy, disastrous attempts at replacing what it claimed to have rejected 250 years ago. Can't tell if I conveyed any real insult here, but if I did, I apologize.

Besides, the only real comparison is Henry I = George Halas.

[The Marshall Plan]

Never, ever, compare Her Majesty to Matt Nagy again. Ever.

That was too easy for me as an American to write, and calling it "my dismissible opinion" wasn't enough. Nor was my faint hint at my idea of what a monarch can do, and my fainter praise of Elizabeth for partially fulfilling it. I can only try to appreciate that function from a distance, and my appreciation is certainly tainted for having been developed largely from within a country that makes regular, clumsy, disastrous attempts at replacing what it claimed to have rejected 250 years ago. Can't tell if I conveyed any real insult here, but if I did, I apologize.

Besides, the only real comparison is Henry I = George Halas.

Take what he says with a grain of salt. I tried being supportive of the Queen's death and I got a civics lesson instead.

Then to add onto our Bears Royal Family I always fancied Ted Phillips as Thomas Cromwell.

Edit: Who is our version of Harry? The odd red haired fellow that doesn't look like any of his other relatives and then who is the James Hewitt fellow that allegedly shagged his Mum to conceive him?

My early candidate for James Hewitt is Roquan because of the whole porn star party thing.

[Grizzled]

We'll never see her like again. She presided over an empire which transitioned to a Commonwealth. Of course she was seperated from the peoples by dint of her title and perogatives but she had the good of her people in her heart.

[karhu]

Take what he says with a grain of salt. I tried being supportive of the Queen's death and I got a civics lesson instead.

Keep your advice about this sort of thing to yourself, please. I don't need coaching on how to have a conversation. Too much shit-stirring around here, and I have my hands full keeping my kids from that sort of nonsense.

Also, HRS gave you some valuable information there. Some civics lessons are well worth heeding.

Then to add onto our Bears Royal Family I always fancied Ted Phillips as Thomas Cromwell.

Not bad at all.

Now let's not drive this off a cliff by-

Edit: Who is our version of Harry? The odd red haired fellow that doesn't look like any of his other relatives and then who is the James Hewitt fellow that allegedly shagged his Mum to conceive him?

My early candidate for James Hewitt is Roquan because of the whole porn star party thing.

Oh, dear.

[The Marshall Plan]

Take what he says with a grain of salt. I tried being supportive of the Queen's death and I got a civics lesson instead.

Keep your advice about this sort of thing to yourself, please. I don't need coaching on how to have a conversation. Too much shit-stirring around here, and I have my hands full keeping my kids from that sort of nonsense.

Also, HRS gave you some valuable information there. Some civics lessons are well worth heeding.

Then to add onto our Bears Royal Family I always fancied Ted Phillips as Thomas Cromwell.

Not bad at all.

Now let's not drive this off a cliff by-

Edit: Who is our version of Harry? The odd red haired fellow that doesn't look like any of his other relatives and then who is the James Hewitt fellow that allegedly shagged his Mum to conceive him?

My early candidate for James Hewitt is Roquan because of the whole porn star party thing.

Oh, dear.

Or people could just accept condolences for what they are and not be a snob about it. Then again that sounds like it’s too difficult for some people. Yourself included.

[karhu]

Or people could just accept condolences for what they are and not be a snob about it. Then again that sounds like it’s too difficult for some people. Yourself included.

I'm not a snob. I'm quality. If the distinction is lost on some, well....

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Blimey, I never expected to trigger yet another feud on these boards.

Take what he says with a grain of salt. I tried being supportive of the Queen's death and I got a civics lesson instead.

I thanked you for your post and provided two brief paragraphs of information to segue way into a couple of amusing (at least I think so) anecdotes and that's a 'civics lesson'? I wish most of the lessons back in my schooldays had been that short!

Can't tell if I conveyed any real insult here, but if I did, I apologize.

My response was in jest... well partially in jest. I mean comparing anyone to Matt Nagy is about as big an insult as you can get, especially around these parts. I wouldn't even sink so low as to compare TMP to Matt fricking Nagy!

[malk]

Blimey, I never expected to trigger yet another feud on these boards.

Lol, imagine if we'd actually got into it!

[HisRoyalSweetness]

We Brits are much too civilised for that sort of thing malk. We'd have calmly discussed our differences over a cup of tea and a hobnob before agreeing to disagree, shaking hands and heading off to the pub for a pint.

[karhu]

My response was in jest... well partially in jest. I mean comparing anyone to Matt Nagy is about as big an insult as you can get, especially around these parts. I wouldn't even sink so low as to compare TMP to Matt fricking Nagy!

Ah, gotcha. I'd hoped as much, but you never know. I stepped in it once with an old neighbour, the Jamaican grandma of my kids' friends down the street, just before Charles and Camilla stopped by for a visit. She wasn't impressed, didn't have any more time for C&C than she'd had for Diana, didn't think much of the royal family at all. But when I said something mildly dismissive of the Queen, I got an earful.