Leaderboard

Phillip came to me today, and said it was time to go. I looked at him and smiled, as i whispered that "I know" I then turned and looked behind me, and seen I was asleep. All my Family were around me, and I could hear them weep. I gently touched each shoulder, with Phillip by my side. Then I turned away and walked, with My Angel guide. Phillip held my hand, as he lead the way, to a world where King's and Queens, are Monarch's every day. I was given a crown to wear or a Halo known by some. The difference is up here, they are worn by everyone. I felt a sense of peace, my reign had seen its end. 70 years I had served my Country, as the peoples friend. Thank you for the years, for all your time and love. Now I am one of two again, in our Palace up above. Poem written by unknown author Reposted from a Facebook Friend..

ANNUS MORTIS 17/50 8th September 2022 Calm on the seas, and silver sleep, And waves that sway themselves in rest, And dead calm in that noble breast Which heaves but with the heaving deep. Alfred, Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam Some thought it would never happen. The chances of an asteroid wiping out all life on Earth seemed more likely. Lord Lucan showing up for a Cup of tea. Boris Johnson personally taking the blame for anything. Surely, like Tithonus on a dead planet, immortality would pull through, at the quiet limits of the world? But, no. Nary Tithonus but, like all Titans of history, eventually all are Ozymandias. Queen Elizabeth the Second, the corgi loving British head of state since 1952, has died, at the age of 96. The Queen was born in 1926, eldest child of the decent but ordinary spare to the throne, Prince Albert. (It's a very common name for royals, in line with Queen Victoria's genuinely popular other half, but none of them have used it as their regnal name, again on her request.) The future Queen would be destined to live the life of Harry, with her uncle the King, until events in 1936. There, the King (George V) died, and his son Edward VIII, became King. Edward's deepest desire, when not bullying his disabled younger brother, was to marry his Hitler sympathising American divorcee wife, Wallis Simpson. The British establishment were shocked by this, with even then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin - a man scared of his own shadow - pushing the King to pick his sex life or the monarchy. Edward promptly abdicated and was later shoved off to some island when he kept trying to make peace with the Nazis during World War Two. This meant Prince Albert became the new King George VI, and Princess Elizabeth, at the age of 10, was suddenly heir to the throne. This meant her pre-planned life of Harry was the domain of her younger sister Margaret, who promptly travelled the world, shagged gangsters and was undefeated at bar room drinking contests. Instead, Elizabeth (after driving ambulances in WW2), married a childhood friend called Philip (you might remember him) and prepared for the eventual job of being Queen. It was during this time she learnt the attribute which would endear her to the public time and again, of showing up after war bombings and seemingly genuinely sympathetic and her ability to invoke an "we're all in this together" when Buckingham Palace was hit. This line was summed up by the Queen Mother, when asked to evacuate her children: "I won't eave London without the children, the children won't leave without their dad, the King will never leave..." She became Queen in 1952, when her father, whose health had never been the greatest, died of cancer. Elizabeth (and her formidable mother) blamed the abdication for shortening her dad's life, and she was absolute in her belief she would reign until the Grim Reaper called full time. Over the next 70 years, she saw 15 Prime Ministers come and go, as well as 13 US Presidents,8 Russian Premiers, 7 Popes and 5 Sex Pistols. In the 1990s, all of her children got divorced, and Windsor Castle went up in flames in what she later referred to as her Annus Horriblis. Later in 1997, when a famous lady died by speeding in a car and not wearing a seatbelt, the press tried to turn the story of "doting grandmother looks after grieving grandsons" into one of "heartless Queen mocks nation's princess", but in her usual apt way, the Queen turned that all on its head, by appearing in public, looking sad and expressing her sympathy. (Look at the aftermath of Grenfell, in hardly the most royalist friendly territory in London, where the Queen showing up to express sympathy was compared with Theresa May's handling of the disaster.) She got on with most of her Prime Ministers, especially the great war leader Winston Churchill and the great reformer Harold Wilson, the latter of whom she held special affection for. Her quarrels with Margaret Thatcher were also legendary, through secondary sources, with Andrew Neil claiming Thatcher said the problem with Her Majesty was she was a "bloody social democrat"! But, the thing about the Queen is, she was very discrete. Prime Ministers will go on record saying how invaluable she was, but are unable to give examples. Maybe she pushed Wilson to decriminilizing homosexuality with Wilson, maybe she was braying for the Iraq War with Blair, we're unlikely to ever know. Unless you are inherently unfit for Office and leak to the press that the Queen was a Remainer in 2014. Why is it that when we think of incompetence, David Cameron always comes up? The main legacy of her tenure is the swift decolonisation of the British Empire, which had started under her father but gained significant pace in the 1950s and 1960s. Numerous gay celebrities cited being defended by the Queen when government ministers tried to censor them in the 1950s (but on the flipside, we know there were employment issues for non-whites at the Palace too). We do know, thanks to leaky governments, that she was pro-sanctions on South Africa, that she was opposed to the state visit of the Ceaucescus (bet she loved hosting Donald Trump then), and that she thought Princess Diana was a bit of a tit. Oh, and she bloody loved dogs. Given her role in history, and the vast number of people she'd met and discussed events with, the Queen would have written the most fascinating memoirs. But then she wouldn't have been the Queen. Of those who aren't ardent royalists, most have taken a respectful stance, bar your odd drunken Celtic fans or boisterous American Meghan drama lovers. We'll be taking the same stance here. By the standards of monarchs, Elizabeth II was one of the better ones. By the standards of nearly all of her predecessors in the role as British, England and Scotland monarchs, she was a class apart. But more than that, she was a living signpost of British society, an ever present to most of the population. Her popularity ratings made even people like Blair and Thatcher seem like Jeremy Corbyn by comparison. Millions are gutted today, understandably so, and for some of us, there is a melancholy in the symbolism that all hopes for Titanic immortality are as much as myth as Tithonus was, and our elder family members are getting up in age, also. We'll remember her final act as Queen, grimly holding onto life so she could outlast Boris Johnson's Premiership.

She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territory Service as soon as she turned 18, despite the protestations of her parents. BTW I am by no means a royalist either but your idiotic thread creation and your deliberately truculent attitude should probably do a bit of shuttyfuckups for now. Advocate for a republic without shouting in everyone’s faces like a prick.

Not for people with enough intelligence to make a point or share a view without being disrespectful or antagonistic.

The funeral will be an interesting form spotting opportunity for the 2023 list as almost anyone who is invited will do their hardest to actually attend so it might be the case of who isn't there and trying to decide - were they not invited or were they too ill to attend?

Have not posted on this forum in some time. But for the Queen, Rest in Peace.

Since a royal spot has now become vacant on the DL, this spot could very well be occupied by the Duke of Kent next year

American children's book writer Mildred Pitts Walter (Wiki) turns 100 today

Ah yes, I vividly remember the heated debates we had in April ‘45 about whose death had more significance that month.

Not sure if it's been said already. But if I had met Liz Truss, I would lose the will to live too.

Despite the unsubstantiated claim that "Queen Elizabeth’s official cause of death has finally been revealed by Buckingham Palace", that link contains nothing more than speculation.

Twitter is full of cretins. I never go there.

So many random things hit you. The Speaker announcing that a select number of oaths would be taken today and the rest would begin tomorrow momentarily puzzled me and then I realised...every MP needs to swear allegiance to the new King.

Here's my bets on the Asian ones over 70/ill - if invited (and a lot of the Asian royals were invited in 1952): Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei: now the longest-reigning monarch in the world, he's grown frailer during the last years, but will be there. Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain: Not that frail. Will be there. Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia: Flies to China frequently for medical treatment and "checkups", most recently was there three weeks ago. My bet is that he'll be there. King Salman of Saudi Arabia: He's still somewhat capable of attending events in his homecountry, but I doubt he'll be there because of his dementia. Vajiralongkorn of Thailand: Playboy king of Thailand, spent time in ICU last year. 2009 US cable leaked by Wikileaks said "Vajiralongkorn is believed to be suffering from a blood-related medical condition (varying sources claim he is either: HIV positive; has Hepatitis C; is afflicted by a rare form of “blood cancer,” or some combination which leads to regular blood transfusions)." if he won't appear he's probably very ill, my bet is that he'll be there. Emir Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait: From what I understand he's in very ill health, spends time abroad for treatment, has mostly transferred power to his 81-year-old half-brother and Crown Prince who is also quite ill. What about former monarchs? I wonder if there'll be any there, I could imagine Constantine II, last King of Greece there, but he'll be too ill to attend.

Updated the graphic for the seventh hit this year Every year shown has at least two deaths from this point of the year onward We might just scrape double figures if we have a busy final third

Chaim Topol is 87.

Dead

How I missed being here.

British television presenter, journalist and newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky, who has over her career presented BBC Breakfast, BBC NEWS at 6, BBC Ten o'clock news, Five news on Channel 5 and Sky News, celebrates her 50th birthday today.

@Windsor, seriously ignore the cretin. He/she/it has been a member who has lurked here since 2014 but has had nothing constructive to contribute then all of a sudden comes out from underneath his/her/its rock when they see an opportunity to grab some attention. A very sad day indeed but it hasn't sunk in yet. Barely any of us in the UK have lived in a time without her. It will sink in within the weeks to come as tributes continue and she lays in state, with the state funeral that will follow. From a DL/DDP perspective, I wonder if this will cause a flurry of deaths to follow in the coming weeks/months? A lot of people of the Queen's generation held her very dear to their hearts. I remember my late gran (also born 1926), who passed in 2016, would pretty much always refer to events of the past, the war etc. with passing mentions of the Her Majesty. For them, the loss of the monarch during this time must hit very hard indeed. I'm thinking of Leslie Phillips, Sir David Attenborough, Dame Angela Lansbury, Stanley Baxter etc.

If you think they were still German then you're either thick or xenophobic. Also they aren't billionaires. Their fortune's merely run into the hundreds of mllions. Prick.

Trust me. It WILL be a Saturday. They will force us to be miserable by cancelling football and horse racing. We WILL mourn her. (aye, right!!!!) King Charlie and queen Tampax and pretend that everything is the same but it isn't. Goodbye Lizzie - may you be the last of them. Vive le Republique.

King Charles III confirmed by Clarence House. Cheers, Clarence.

Rishi Sunak must feel REALLY shit reading that