Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth

Well the £ has dropped like a stone against the $ they still have their own gas and oil so it depends how you measure “well”

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I appeared live on tv with her in Jubilee year,1977- not just me of course, met her at St Katherine’s docks when she did a walkabout . Was in all the papers too. :slightly_smiling_face:

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America managed even with a retired b movie actor with alzheimers and worst of all Trump, even Truss couldn’t be that bad…probably

Why have you not included that disgusting old senile pervert, Biden? Just asking…

2010:
UK was the 5th biggest economy
Debt was 67% of GDP
AAA credit rating
Growth was 6.3%

2022:
We’re 25th economy on GDP per capita
Debt is over 102% of GDP
AAA rating is a distant memory
9 of past 12 years had negative growth

I don’t think this was Liz’s fault.

And just so we don’t go down the rabbit hole too far, these two things will be occupying many of our thoughts today.

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He’s still a recent incumbent, lets see how time judges him.

Wasn’t my implication, i was contrasting the countries.

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From the outside (over the channel) it’s a bit sad. The Queen is an iconic person, and she always behaved with respect and represented UK the best way. She spoke french very well, and did it at several occasion.
Now still from the other side of the channel, and from a personal point of view, I still have an issue with someone reigning as representant of god, chief of a religion. That’s just “not right”.
In another hand, the positive point of “modern” monarchy is a kind of continuity over the years, the governments, foreign partners, etc.
I kinda like Charles because he was the sensible, the not really loved one. And he spoke about environment issue way before others. He also could face sentimental issue to finally marry his real love. You guys now have a romantic King :grinning:
My daughter lives in UK for now 6 years, and she was surprised to see some people crying in the pub where she was, and also by the respect over the Queen shown by her same age (20+) coworkers.
That’s something she didn’t expect at that level, despite living there for now a long time.

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For me a very sad day. She will be missed not just by her family but many across the world. Like many I have only known her as our monarch.
Long live the King.

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Interesting thing. This is all over the Spanish news, as you may expect. Largely speaking with respect and admiration for someone whose life has revolved around service. La superreina, one channel said. Don’t need to translate that. There’s one exception. Where we are is kind of the border of Catalunya, so we get Catalan speaking channels too. Their news is more concerned with pics and comments of Diana, Andrew and his plaything, and that Markle character. Mealy mouthed fuckers :confused:

Using it to make a point rather than reporting the actual news. That’s just poor journalism and a disservice to their audience.

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Sad day - who knew that a flag at half mast could bring a lump to your throat. R.I.P. to the greatest monarch we will probably ever witness

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The trouble with a hereditary monarchy is that it’s only through good luck that we are not waking up to King Andrew the First. :poop:

What would you rather? Excalibur given to the worthy??? Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. However, I had no say in the current prime minister or the new king… maybe I’m just oppressed???

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And that is exactly why I much prefer a monarch to be head of state. It’s bad enough having these clowns as head of government. Them being head of state is frightening.

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At least you get to vote for them, and they generally last for 10 years maximum

Saw this on another media site… quite interesting (fessing up though, I haven’t checked the “facts”)

Elizabeth II was born less than 23 years after the Wright brothers carried out the first ever powered flight. Four of Queen Victoria’s children were still alive when she was born. The last one of them died in 1944 when Elizabeth was already 18.

She lived for more than a third of the entire age of the United States (1776) - a nation which is only 246 years old. And well over half the age of Canada (1867), and all but 25 years of the nation of Australia (1901).

She became Queen at the age of just 25, when Stalin and Truman were also in post, just 7 years after the end of WWII.

Her first Prime Minister was born in 1874. Yes, the 1800s!!!
Her last PM was born only two years before her Silver Jubilee in 1975 - so her first and last PMs were born over 100 years apart!
She was already 51 when she celebrated that first Jubilee in 1977.

Ruling in her own right (with no regent, like Louis XIV had for 13 years), she was the longest reigning monarch in World history, no matter what Wikipedia says. In my book, Regencies don’t really count as “doing the job” - you don’t really ‘rule’ when you’re only 4 years old, like he was!

She lived through three kings herself before she even took the throne - George V, Edward VIII, and her father George VI

She saw the jet age arrive, the birth of electronic computing, and the space age - all before she was 35 years old.

She ruled for 70 years at the age of 96, more than 35 years after the age at which most people retire.

Her reign is over 7% of the entire history of Britain since William the Conqueror took the crown - 956 years ago - and that’s considering that we’ve had 41 monarchs in that time. So, on a pro-rata basis, each reign would only be 23 years. So, she’s done the equivalent of over three tours of duty.

So, yeah, she certainly was Great Britain and everything that we’ve seen and grown up with. She was with us through, literally, all we’ve ever known in living memory.

Her selfless service to this country was simply astonishing, when she could have ‘retired’ from the job decades ago and enjoyed some well-deserved rest.

She is now a huge part of British history herself, there is no ‘was’ about it anymore. She is and will remain an integral component of this country, having overseen an amazing Elizabethan Age.

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I’d like to pay my respect to her contemporaries who lived through the same period but without the same advantages of guaranteed wealth, excellent diet, multiple homes; servants; the best healthcare; protection and other privileges, who actually built this country. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants-our ancestors.

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I don’t think anyone would interfere with you or me doing that… but QE2 is also part of that story… a significant part I would venture… And I would confidently guess that the majority of the folk that I know/knew from that period of time would be saddened by the loss, but grateful for her life. I obviously can’t speak for you and your folk because we have such different backgrounds.

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My Father despised the English, but loved the Queen, fought for the British army and in doing so was ostracised in his own country alongside four of his brothers. Like most folk he was full of contradictions. It’s a shame that equally worthy people fade away into obscurity.