Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 01:34 PM

Good poem.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 01:27 PM

And as someone who, over the past sixteen-or-so years, has spent months in hospital with chronic Pancreatitis and complications, liver-abscesses, bile-duct constrictions, and two major abdominal surgeries, I say a heartfelt “Amen” to that, Steve.

Funnily, I wasn’t served, even on one of those occasions, by any member of the Royal Family, let alone by HM QE2.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 10:53 AM

As the Chancellor plans tax cuts, and the Tories ignore the plight of millions who can scarcely afford to live whilst threatening to give bankers their bonuses back, and as the beleaguered National Health Service sees disillusioned and overworked staff leaving in droves, and as we squander public millions on vastly-inflated ceremonial nonsense (whilst letting Charles off from paying hundreds of millions in inheritance tax), I remembered this poem that I first read during my horrid night in A&E in May 2020 during my first bout of cellulitis, at the height of the first frightening wave of the pandemic. I was treated with such love and care that I printed off the poem (on some nice paper!) and gave it to the hospital department that treated me. It's by Michael Rosen and it's called These Are The Hands:

These are the hands
That touch us first
Feel your head
Find the pulse
And make your bed.

These are the hands
That tap your back
Test the skin
Hold your arm
Wheel the bin
Change the bulb
Fix the drip
Pour the jug
Replace your hip.

These are the hands
That fill the bath
Mop the floor
Flick the switch
Soothe the sore
Burn the swabs
Give us a jab
Throw out sharps
Design the lab.

And these are the hands
That stop the leaks
Empty the pan
Wipe the pipes
Carry the can
Clamp the veins
Make the cast
Log the dose
And touch us last.


I've read a lot about how the Queen has "served" the country. Well when I read this poem, and remember the amazing way I was treated at the hospital a couple of years ago as well as last week, I think I understand a lot better what real service is.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 09:43 AM

A bit like those Tory food banks then - one vox-popper was heard to say that they were a great thing, that we never had these under Labour!

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 09:24 AM

One year at Sidmouth there was a big queue to see Ralph McTell. As I remember I got such an uncomfortable seat that I left after the support act.

I agree we do tend to queue too readily. We don't resent it as much as we should.
I was in St Petersburgh a few years back and the Russian guide told me how everybody hated Gorbachev because he made them queue for bread, whereas they thought Putin was an okay bloke - local boy made good.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 06:39 AM

Well I picked up a nasty bug in hospital last week which has resolved into acute bronchitis, so a night in that queue would've seen me off! So thank God I'm a republican!*


*Please do not misread that, yanks...

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 05:30 AM

Funny that, Bonzo. I could have sworn that I saw someone matching your description curtsying to the catafalque (the thing on the plinth on the dais with the coffin atop)...

;-)

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 05:25 AM

I was doing a post to Mudcat, not a PhD thesis!

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 04:45 AM

Steve, it was the order you put them in that bothered me.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 03:57 AM

One of Terry Pratchett's quotes on monarchy

"Royalty was like dandelions. No matter how many heads you chopped off, the roots were still there underground, waiting to spring up again.

It seemed to be a chronic disease. It was as if even the most intelligent person had this little blank spot in their heads where someone had written: "Kings. What a good idea." Whoever had created humanity had left in a major design flaw. It was its tendency to bend at the knees.”

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 03:01 AM

Are you assuming that my reason for complaining about the cancellation of football matches is because football is my personal "priority," rather than that I make the argument against cancelling it on principle? I actually gave a list of lots of other things that have been cancelled, but you single out football, presumably because you know I'm a football fan and you're not ((I assume, possibly incorrectly). I also mentioned the cancellation of hospital appointments and operations. I note your silence as to whether they're "priorities..."

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 02:50 AM

Quite frankly, anyone who is prepared to stand through the night in temperatures down to 5c is bonkers, much as I admired the Queen.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 02:13 AM

"The football has been cancelled..". Is that really your priority? My TV watching has been mostly unaffected as I rarely watch BBC1 and have noticed few cancellations on other channels after the initial weekend.

I'm amazed at the queue. I've seen people arriving in London who are obviously heading to join in and who may now be queuing with no certainty of reaching Westminster Hall before the coffin is removed. It's a belief akin to religion.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 17 Sep 22 - 01:33 AM

Damn those nits…

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 08:50 PM

Well that's what it's called, Nigel, whether I like it or not, so I'm sort of stuck with it. Maybe one day it'll be a republic, but I'm guessing that it won't be in my lifetime.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 08:41 PM

Steve:
From: Steve Shaw - PM
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 07:18 PM

It's Carolean, if you really want to adhere to that nonsense. As I've spent virtually my whole life with her "reigning over me," I'm supposed to be an Elizabethan. Well I'm not. I'm Steve, free citizen of the United Kingdom with allegiances to anyone who I calculate deserves my allegiance.

Do you see no conflict in your claim to be a 'free citizen of the United Kingdom'?

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 05:54 PM

A small voice of dissent in the face of the tide of brainless wallowing - the Labour MP Clive Lewis in the Guardian:

"... it has been watching the livestream of tens of thousands of fellow citizens from all walks of life, quietly queueing for up to nine hours to file past a coffin while bowing and curtsying. My initial response was one of bemusement followed by a touch of despair. Why, I asked, would so many people, often with so little, show such deference to an institution that is the very embodiment of the inequalities of wealth and power that permeate our country?" (He had a lot more to say than that, but that's the problem we republicans have - trying to understand this mass mournfest...)

The other problem is that the same tide is preventing anti-monarchist dissent from being aired. Nobody wants to hear insults levelled at the Queen at this time, but at the same time we can't hear the perfectly reasonable anti-monarchy arguments that are crucial if we want to call ourselves a democracy. "Do the decent thing and wait 'til she buried..." Well no thank you. An excessively long period of "national mourning" has been imposed, during which our football has been cancelled, the Proms cancelled, our normal television has been cancelled, shops have been closed causing the people who can least afford it to lose pay, urgent operations and hospital appointments have been cancelled...

Almost worst of all, don't criticise the royals whatever you do. As ever, the establishment is protecting them. Charles is a charlatan whose behaviour and hypocrisy have been egregious and he deserves criticism. But not now, eh? But why not? My 91-year-old mum died two years ago next month. We got on and did not put our lives on hold. But we're expected to do that for the cosseted royals, who don't really even have to organise the funeral themselves. Keep your trap shut, now's not the time, the royals are all in delicate mode...

Oh yeah? Why not then! Is this an insidious version of cancel culture?

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 04:21 PM

Chuck is kissable
and sooner missable
He may be miserable
but he's not horrible.

Just call up Chuck
to build a garden
and he'll throw it up
for Aston Martins

Lets pray he is free
of Spanish influenza
I would hate to see
him on his credenza



The twelve days of Charles the Third...challenge

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 03:12 PM

Just as long as nobody calls him Charlemagne . . .

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 01:25 PM

I have to hand it to the Brits. They certainly know how to Q.
12 hour waits to pay respects to the Queen is not uncommon, even for David Beckham.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 05:42 AM

unless you shop at Waitrose - you can buy eggs there that Charles laid personally for you, and put in a box with his coat of arms.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Senoufou
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 02:25 AM

'Fork handles' hee hee!
I'm ashamed to say it, but I too am 'Queened out' by the ceaseless coverage on TV and in the newspapers. I want to watch my programmes in the evening, but it's all about the coming funeral, and footage of masses of people camping out to view the Lying In State, plus old films of her past life etc.
The Daily Mail has pages and pages of the stuff, and all I have left to read is the Letters page and my puzzles.
I am truly sorry for HM's family, who are mourning a much-loved mother, grandmother etc. But I've never met the lady.
I'm not all that impressed by Charles. But then, I've never met him either. They're all just figureheads really aren't they?

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 16 Sep 22 - 02:12 AM

Fork handles........Four candles..........or in English gone wrong - handaws / candaws!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 10:58 PM

Right. Carolean. I knew that...

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 10:24 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNTM9iM1eVw

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 08:50 PM

Big Al, you're going to have to explain that one for the folks on this side of the pond. I've heard of the Two Ronnies, but fork handles? (Is this a mondegreen?)

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 08:17 PM

I was very moved to see the Queen lying in state with fork handles. To even at this stage reference the The Two Ronnies shows that we British do have a sense of humour.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 07:18 PM

It's Carolean, if you really want to adhere to that nonsense. As I've spent virtually my whole life with her "reigning over me," I'm supposed to be an Elizabethan. Well I'm not. I'm Steve, free citizen of the United Kingdom with allegiances to anyone who I calculate deserves my allegiance. My missus and my cat come first and second. I'll work out the other rankings later, but be assured that King Chuckiebum won't get a sniff.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 07:08 PM

Ok I did not see this asked but I might have missed it, my phone has taken to showing only the left half of thw page...

What is the era's adjective? Edwardian, Elizabethan... Charlian?

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: robomatic
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 06:47 PM

Samuel was displeased that they said "Give us a king to govern us." Samuel prayed to the Lord,

and the Lord replied to Samuel "Heed the demand of the people in everything they say to you. For it is not you that they have rejected; it is Me they have rejected as their king."

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 01:32 PM

(that story of the 2 American hikers)

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 01:29 PM

I love that story.
John Meechum has a story how the new Queen was speaking indirectly about the American Joe McCarthy days a year and a half before Joe's ousting and it was wonderful and sounded a bit like Winston Churchill.
She praised diversity, freedom of thought, expression and everything else McCarthy was against.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 01:16 PM

We'd have been better off with King Rupert Bear.

He has screwed up and he will screw up (his dealings with with Diana and Camilla were despicable, and Mama colluded, and his hypocrisy regarding environmental issues knows no bounds), but the establishment will protect him. In contrast, had, say, Jeremy Corbyn been caught dropping a chewing gum wrapper on the pavement in 2018, the Mail and Express would have had him out on his ear within the hour. That's how it works here.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Acorn4
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 01:07 PM

Apparently the Beckhams are now worth more than the monarchy. Charles is a bit old and grumpy but I hope he does OK and preferable to a President chosen by Rupert
Murdoch?

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Neil D
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 01:06 PM

Well if you all do away with the monarchy within the next couple months Chuckles will be the last monarch, technically. But QE2 will be the last one anyone will remember. And really isn't it the right time. Most everyone liked the old queen and no one had the heart to throw her out of her palaces. On the other hand, does anybody really like Charles. Come on Brits, show of hands if you like your new king.

On the side, I just watched the Pistols performing "God Save the Queen" on Youtube. Cracking song that one.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 12:25 PM

Brilliant, Al! I can see a touch of the ould Victoria Wood there - let's do it! And you're just as handsome as I imagined! :-)

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 12:20 PM

I'll celebrate with a coronation chicken butty.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 11:02 AM

”Backwoodsman, gave they had a coronation yet?”

Of course not, but the fact of a coronation or not is immaterial to the matter. The accession automatically took place on 9/9/22 and was confirmed at the Accession Ceremony on 10/9/22 . The Accession Proclamation took place on that day.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/10/1122196680/charles-officially-announced-as-king-at-royal-ceremony

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 10:19 AM

My reaction was :-
"Bollocks! I wont be able to do this one....."

into your post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6yAmrHFlio

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 09:43 AM

I hear that several other crowns are available. The one atop the coffin is merely the Queen's Sunday-best one. The others are for when she's mucking out the corgis' litter trays.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 09:37 AM

The only image I could find which clearly shows and identifies the jewels in the crown.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-62906194

Interestingly, it is 'only' 2.2 lbs, about half the weight of St. Edward's crown., which is solid gold.

Perhaps, if the monarchy is somehow ended, there could be one amazing auction... ;>)

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 08:50 AM

The crown atop the Queen's coffin (which is atop the catafalque which is atop the plinth which is atop the dais) contains almost 3000 diamonds, including a huge one cut from the biggest diamond ever found, as well as other large gemstones. A value can't be put on it, but you can bet yer life that it would fetch a good few quid down Roman Road market...

At the same time, the Tories are talking about lifting the cap on bankers' bonuses.

As I said, quoting the Lord, to them that have...

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Neil D
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 08:36 AM

Backwoodsman, have they had a coronation yet?

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 08:26 AM

That’s just sad.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 07:12 AM

For the last couple of days Mrs Steve and I have amused ourselves by betting on the number of times we'll hear the ridiculous word "catafalque," uttered in hushed tones of course, in the next 5/10/15 minutes. One commentator said the coffin would rest on a catafalque, which was on a plinth, which was on a dais. I wondered whether the roof would have to come off in order to make room. Another said that "the coffin" was at rest in the Palace of Westminster. We wondered whether the Queen was still in it. This morning, a woman who had filed past the coffin after waiting for hours told the Radio 4 interviewer that her "moment alone with the Queen" had meant so much for her. She clearly hadn't looked round to see the other people in the three-mile queue...

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 05:37 AM

In order to bind a slave forever, you must first make him proud of his chains.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 04:21 AM

The government has confirmed that payments of benefits, including tax credits, due to land in accounts on Monday 19 September will be made early.

Benefits and credits will be paid on Friday 16 September, the last working day before the bank holiday.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 15 Sep 22 - 02:43 AM

”I can think of no greater tribute to the late queen than to make her the last British monarch.”

Unfortunately, you’re too late, that ship sailed immediately after her death with the accession of Charles.

And, if she had been the ‘last British monarch’, what might have followed? President Truss?

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Neil D
Date: 14 Sep 22 - 09:54 PM

Steve, I'm sorry about the issues you're having with your health and send wishes for a full recovery. I also live in the country but it only takes me 45 minutes to get to the hospital.

I can think of no greater tribute to the late queen than to make her the last British monarch.

Subject: RE: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Sep 22 - 06:47 PM

I'm a mere septuagenarian and I've got abundant liver spots all over my hands. I wear them as a badge of honour. It's a natural ageing thing, dammit.