Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else feel like the Queen has been holding on to meet Harry’s new baby and then… It’s the end?

No. Have you seen how many great grandchildren she has? Twelve maybe. She gained 3 or 4 more in the past year. I think the death of Philip is probably more of a factor. And being 96. My parents and grandparents died well before that, and were wobblier with greater cognitive decline.

Like it or not, she and Harry have a special relationship. And this child is named after her.

She is also supposed to have a special relationship with Anne's kids, and Sophie and Louise.

A couple of hundred years ago, she could have arranged for the family tree to curve back in on itself, now they're destined for irrelevance

Sure. Most people here going "Why isn't Beatrice there?" probably wouldn't be able to identify Viscount Linley or Sarah Armstrong Jones today, and have no idea who that older man standing with the queen was. By the time William is king, and his children are married with kids, people will be saying "who the heck are Archie and Lilibet?" This is probably why Charles wants to streamline the firm, to make cousins get real jobs.

Isn't that Prince Edward to the left?

Its Sarah Chatto. Why would you refer to her by her maiden name when she's been married for decades?

I realize that. Her brother is also called the Earl of Snowdon now. My point is that most people here have no idea who these people are as the family tree continues to expand, whether they are called Sarah Chatto or Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones or the queen's niece. People magazine had to explain who the Duke of Kent is. When William is king, the magazine will probably have to explain who his cousins are (eg Peter Philips, Princess Eugenie, James etc). When/if George is king, people will be confused about these people at a fancy wedding called Archie and Lilibet.

So you're worried about something a couple of decades from now? Margaret and her children were the height of society in the 70s and into the 80s. Really it was only the 90s when William and Harry actually started to have personalities and a star like Diana was on the scene that made a difference.

[Anonymous]

Sure, Americans have no idea who Sarah Chatto is, indeed most Brits probably don't either. The fact remains she is a close relative of the family and will always be invited for that reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else feel like the Queen has been holding on to meet Harry’s new baby and then… It’s the end?

More likely holding on for this platinum jubilee.

I wonder if she abdicates after this.

Have you ever listened to her? She's never abdicating and there's no reason to spend $1 billion on a Jubilee and then turn around and do the same billion for a coronation within 6 months. Especially when the Brits can't even afford to heat/cool their homes.

[twitter]. https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1532261042750988289[/twitter]

I doubt Charles will do a big coronation.

I bet once she’s dead there will be a lot less grandeur. This was the last big hurrah.

Big or small its still expensive - with multiple celebrations across the (remaining) realms. The little book the palace put out just for the Jubilee cost $12 million by itself.

Ok. It can be much smaller and not cost $1B.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else feel like the Queen has been holding on to meet Harry’s new baby and then… It’s the end?

More likely holding on for this platinum jubilee.

I wonder if she abdicates after this.

Have you ever listened to her? She's never abdicating and there's no reason to spend $1 billion on a Jubilee and then turn around and do the same billion for a coronation within 6 months. Especially when the Brits can't even afford to heat/cool their homes.

[twitter]. https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1532261042750988289[/twitter]

I doubt Charles will do a big coronation.

I bet once she’s dead there will be a lot less grandeur. This was the last big hurrah.

Big or small its still expensive - with multiple celebrations across the (remaining) realms. The little book the palace put out just for the Jubilee cost $12 million by itself.

Ok. It can be much smaller and not cost $1B.

You would think so...considering the economic straits the U.K. is in with the failing Brexit but they didn't choose to go that way. I wonder how much that flotilla cost them in 2012?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question but why do you Americans care about Royals and England? Do you have some sort of feelings because our founding fathers (and most of your heritage I suppose) came from there? I grew up in this country but never really understood why people care so much.

I cannot speak for anyone else but I caught "Di fevor" and only watch now to see what a disaster the Royals are without her.

Americans are so weird about Diana, she was not the angel you think she was and everyone knows it excep the Americans apparently. I don't understand the obsession with a seriously flawed woman who basically abandoned her children for her lovers.

I'm one of the posters whose mother woke her up for Diana's wedding. I don't think people believe Diana was an angel at all. She was terribly flawed. There are no illusions about that. She was both very good and very bad, and unlike the rest of the BRF, she let the public see all of that. People didn't idolize her so much as relate to her. That's why she was so compelling in life and memorable in death.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else feel like the Queen has been holding on to meet Harry’s new baby and then… It’s the end?

More likely holding on for this platinum jubilee.

I wonder if she abdicates after this.

Have you ever listened to her? She's never abdicating and there's no reason to spend $1 billion on a Jubilee and then turn around and do the same billion for a coronation within 6 months. Especially when the Brits can't even afford to heat/cool their homes.

[twitter]. https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1532261042750988289[/twitter]

I doubt Charles will do a big coronation.

I bet once she’s dead there will be a lot less grandeur. This was the last big hurrah.

Big or small its still expensive - with multiple celebrations across the (remaining) realms. The little book the palace put out just for the Jubilee cost $12 million by itself.

Ok. It can be much smaller and not cost $1B.

+1. And while this woman makes a point, I think there's this sentiment that if you get rid of the BRF then all these issues dissolve and miraculously the British class system simply melts away. It's a convenient scapegoat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Londoner here!

That is not a solid gold coach. It lives permanently in the Museum of London if any of you want to check it out.

Generally the attitude to the Jubilee has been an eye roll and shrug. We all got a 4 day weekend out of it so happy for that, but most Londoners I know have given central London a wide berth and either gone on holiday or stayed home and done normal things. I have no idea who all these true believers are in these huge crowds!

I did a walkabout and London looked amazing all decorated. There is union jack bunting in all the high traffic tourist areas.

There is definitely a sense that a reckoning in near for the monarchy, if not here already. The Caribbean tours have been disasters, there are a lot of calls for apologies and reparations that the BRF are silent on. They need to make an attempt to reconcile their racist and colonial past with modern sensibilities. I don't know if its possible but they for sure have to try.

Thank you for this post! Please continue to share the view from there.

(Is Brexit the cause for the marked rise in economic struggle there? Everyone is experiencing the rise in food and energy prices, but I'm not seeing the same kind of media coverage from other countries. If it is worse in the UK, do people there blame/recognize Brexit as the cause?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else feel like the Queen has been holding on to meet Harry’s new baby and then… It’s the end?

More likely holding on for this platinum jubilee.

I wonder if she abdicates after this.

Have you ever listened to her? She's never abdicating and there's no reason to spend $1 billion on a Jubilee and then turn around and do the same billion for a coronation within 6 months. Especially when the Brits can't even afford to heat/cool their homes.

[twitter]. https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1532261042750988289[/twitter]

I doubt Charles will do a big coronation.

I bet once she’s dead there will be a lot less grandeur. This was the last big hurrah.

Big or small its still expensive - with multiple celebrations across the (remaining) realms. The little book the palace put out just for the Jubilee cost $12 million by itself.

Ok. It can be much smaller and not cost $1B.

+1. And while this woman makes a point, I think there's this sentiment that if you get rid of the BRF then all these issues dissolve and miraculously the British class system simply melts away. It's a convenient scapegoat.

I mean if you're no longer paying a single family $100 million a year for random appearances - then yeah a lot of issues dissolve. Its always funny to me that the Prime Minister lives in a tiny 2-bedroom flat (and the Treasury Secretary gets an astonishing 4-bedrooms!) while the Queen has a 100-bedroom palace sitting empty. The two were fighting over those tiny spaces and the incoming Foreign? Secretary had a dispute with the fired one over a country estate that they could use. Issues like that would dissipate. And if the inheritance of these 30,000 acre estates for aristos was legally forced to be divided between the 3-5 kids they have instead of the first-born, those estates would be open to the public within 2 generations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sarah Chatto is the Queen's niece, said to be her absolute favorite in the extended family. She is a humble woman by royal standards and regularly arrives to Buckingham Palace in a black cab. She is a core family member invited to everything.

Londoner again

Sure, right up until she isnt anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sarah Chatto is the Queen's niece, said to be her absolute favorite in the extended family. She is a humble woman by royal standards and regularly arrives to Buckingham Palace in a black cab. She is a core family member invited to everything.

Londoner again

Sure, right up until she isnt anymore.

Your realize the Gloucesters and Kents and Alexandra are basically Sarah Chatto at 80/90? They are still invited to everything until they die.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, Americans have no idea who Sarah Chatto is, indeed most Brits probably don't either. The fact remains she is a close relative of the family and will always be invited for that reason.

Er no, most Brits of a certain age (over 40?) definitely know who Sarah Chatto is. I know who she is and I don't even care about any of this. And I'm from the UK.

[Anonymous]

What is it with these dress coats? Do you have one in your wardobe? What do you do when it gets hot? Do they wear anything underneath?

I saw that Jacinda Ardern wore a coat over a dress to the White House this week when it was about 93 degrees. It looked like she was expecting it to rain any moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else feel like the Queen has been holding on to meet Harry’s new baby and then… It’s the end?

More likely holding on for this platinum jubilee.

I wonder if she abdicates after this.

Have you ever listened to her? She's never abdicating and there's no reason to spend $1 billion on a Jubilee and then turn around and do the same billion for a coronation within 6 months. Especially when the Brits can't even afford to heat/cool their homes.

[twitter]. https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1532261042750988289[/twitter]

I doubt Charles will do a big coronation.

I bet once she’s dead there will be a lot less grandeur. This was the last big hurrah.

Big or small its still expensive - with multiple celebrations across the (remaining) realms. The little book the palace put out just for the Jubilee cost $12 million by itself.

Ok. It can be much smaller and not cost $1B.

+1. And while this woman makes a point, I think there's this sentiment that if you get rid of the BRF then all these issues dissolve and miraculously the British class system simply melts away. It's a convenient scapegoat.

I mean if you're no longer paying a single family $100 million a year for random appearances - then yeah a lot of issues dissolve. Its always funny to me that the Prime Minister lives in a tiny 2-bedroom flat (and the Treasury Secretary gets an astonishing 4-bedrooms!) while the Queen has a 100-bedroom palace sitting empty. The two were fighting over those tiny spaces and the incoming Foreign? Secretary had a dispute with the fired one over a country estate that they could use. Issues like that would dissipate. And if the inheritance of these 30,000 acre estates for aristos was legally forced to be divided between the 3-5 kids they have instead of the first-born, those estates would be open to the public within 2 generations.

Reforming inheritance taxes so that you can't just dodge them with trusts would break up a lot of the old holdings in a couple of generations. Just thanking the aristocracy for their service and then nationalizing and then auctioning off their heredity holdings would do it much faster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sarah Chatto is the Queen's niece, said to be her absolute favorite in the extended family. She is a humble woman by royal standards and regularly arrives to Buckingham Palace in a black cab. She is a core family member invited to everything.

Londoner again

Sure, right up until she isnt anymore.

Your realize the Gloucesters and Kents and Alexandra are basically Sarah Chatto at 80/90? They are still invited to everything until they die.

And Eugenie and Beatrice and Zara and the rest of that group will be the Gloucesters and Kents soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Londoner again, there is much hang wringing over here over the cost of living, especially energy costs which are higher than what the average American pays, particularly for fuel.

Noone really is blaming Brexit for, most western economies seem to have high inflation for which Brexit is clearly not a factor. To be honest the actual divorce from the EU took so long that by the end even remainers just wanted to get Brexit done. Boris Johnson actually ran on a campaign to actually deliver Brexit. I will say that London remains buoyant, we have the new Elizabeth line, there have been tons of high profile redevelopments - King's Cross (Coal drops and Granary Sq, new Google HQ), Nine Elms/Battersea, London Bridge etc. I can't speak for the rest of the country though...