RIPs

[The Legendary Shark]

Sounds like a right pain in the plumbs.

[sheridan]

Sounds like a right pain in the plumbs.

Not entirely looking forward to the journey home - it's difficult enough when there's NYE celebrations and terrorist attacks - I'm imagining that the next fourteen days of traffic disruption is going to make getting to work an experience.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Also, you'll need to get used to the revisions to the national anthem.  (I only know a few lines of our own, I have to admit - it's in irish.)

[I, Cosh]

I'm neither British nor a monarchist but I'm very sorry for Britain's loss - as monarchs go they didn't get much better than her.

Got to be honest here Jayzus, it's absolutely hilarious reading your forum signature straight after this post.

I can just about summon up some sympathy for her and the family as people but it's long past time this while toxic, regressive system was torn down and consigned to the dustbin of history.

[sheridan]

If a country has to have royalty, please could they be like the wearers of the Raven Crown (Bhutan)?  Their monarch is responsible for tourism, Gross National Happiness and democratisation - including instituting a retirement age for the monarch.  Wangchuck Dynasty.

I've just been checking my facts - not only do they have a Raven Crown, they also have a Dragon Queen!  And we get Princes of Wales, Dukes of $wherever.  Wales has a dragon - they should be the Prince of Dragons at least!

I found out about Bhutan in this TED Talk about the country being the only one in the world to be carbon neutral - entertaining speaker - when they first mentioned their king it gave me pause for thought, but then revisited the topic later (and said what I mentioned above).  Less than twenty minutes long and worth watching.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I'm neither British nor a monarchist but I'm very sorry for Britain's loss - as monarchs go they didn't get much better than her.

Got to be honest here Jayzus, it's absolutely hilarious reading your forum signature straight after this post.

I can just about summon up some sympathy for her and the family as people but it's long past time this while toxic, regressive system was torn down and consigned to the dustbin of history.

You'll also notice I said I'm anti-monarchy, and personally I don't feel that expressing sympathy about the passing of an iconic and apparently quite good-natured public figure is at odds with that.

I don't understand the need for a royal family and am glad that I'm a citizen rather than a subject. It might have been believable centuries ago that the right to be a monarch is ordained by God, but I don't believe in him either and the notion that people are born to rule, symbolically or otherwise, is absurd to me. Hence my tagine (though wishing death on them is just a bit of self-indulgent hyoerbole).

Maybe I wasn't clear enough:   I said that if I HAD to have a monarch it would be something like the late Elizabeth, but I'm happy that I don't have to have one.

[The Legendary Shark]

Perhaps this discussion would be better moved to The Political Thread This is the News! thread?

[JayzusB.Christ]

Perhaps this discussion would be better moved to The Political Thread This is the News! thread?

Fair point.  I've made my views on monarchy known on one or the other of those threads already so I'll say no more about it here, other than to reiterate that my human response to the queen's death and my political stance against her job are two different things. 

[The Legendary Shark]

That wasn't a dig at you (or anyone else), JBC, I share much the same views.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I know it wasn't, cheers Sharky. I totally agree that this isn't the thread for political rants.

[I, Cosh]

For what it's worth, my comment wasn't intended to be a dig at or criticism of you Jayzus. Just genuine amusement.

[JayzusB.Christ]

For what it's worth, my comment wasn't intended to be a dig at or criticism of you Jayzus. Just genuine amusement.

Sorry. Took it too seriously and got way too defensive.

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Anyway, back on topic (sadly) and (unfortunately) somewhat overshadowed by HM Queen Elizabeth II's death; Marsha Hunt, one of the last major Hollywood stars of it's Golden Era has sadly passed away on Tuesday.

[rogue69]

Gwyneth Powell, best known as the Grange Hill headteacher Mrs McClusky aged 76

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/gwyneth-powell-dead-grange-hill-headteacher-b2165761.html?src=rss

[nxylas]

Gwyneth Powell, best known as the Grange Hill headteacher Mrs McClusky aged 76

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/gwyneth-powell-dead-grange-hill-headteacher-b2165761.html?src=rss

If she was only 76, she must still have been in her thirties when she was in Grange Hill. Blimey.