The Daily Mail reports:
Although meetings involving the entire royal household are occasionally called, the way this has been done at the eleventh hour is highly unusual
All news sources, including the BBC, reported this morning’s meeting of the Royal Household as an “emergency meeting”. Royal lackeys had been rushed overnight from Scotland, Norfolk and the Isle of Wight. What was the emergency?
Prince Philip is going to retire in seven months time.
Now I think the Prince is wonderful for his age. I have held lengthy conversations with him, and rather like him (read The Catholic Orangemen of Togo for details). And I hope he enjoys his retirement, indeed to the extent that I hope his family have the apparently terrible stresses of being royal and owning lots of palaces, removed from all of them completely.
But I cannot for the life of me see how this constituted an “emergency”. What this timing does of course is ensure a constant stream of monarchist claptrap and forelock-tugging on all broadcast media all of local election day, complete with repeated filmed message from our glorious strong and stable leader. Local election purdah means there is no interruption to this monstrous intrusion into the general election campaign.
Now we Scots are a bit sceptical about all this. It was not immediately obvious why the announcement of a royal not yet visible pregnancy had to be made just before the independence referendum vote. There appears to be something of a coincidence between major royal announcements and popular votes.
It is also fascinating that Sky News are putting such a Scottish spin on this. Earlier we had a risible old loyal Glasgow councillor spouting rubbish. We just had vox pops outside Holyrood House. Astonishingly for Scotland, Sky News have not managed to find a single republican. They have not felt the need to wander round Sandringham or Osborne House. Their effort is very Scottish. Is anything happening today in Scotland for which you might want to motivate the Orange Order? Oh yes…
The key point about this “emergency” of course is that the decision to make this announcement now was taken after the election was called. May called on the Queen yesterday and there will have been contact between No.10 and the Palace this last week to set that up.
It was not the only thing they were setting up.
I always thought the Spitting Image portrayal of The Queen was possibly the most accurate. And Herr Philip’s public persona is, I’m quite sure, nothing like the cold, dead eyed extreme right winger that he really is. Bunch of in-bred wastrels and fuck heads if you ask me, and I’d wish they’d all piss off back to Germany, especially the dumb arms dealer one that knows Epstein a bit too well.
My anti monarchy stance is so bad, I even find Kate Middleton unattractive. I mean, she is clearly a beautiful women, and entirely out of my league, but she’s a royal posho, so I thus find her average. This is, I concede, a little weird.
What an unpleasant bunch of commenters here today.
Meh, not nearly half as unpleasant as the Firm & their legion of useful idiots.
That is your opinion but you will not find many of the forelock tugging serfs who live in this unpleasant system on this blog. Try watching BBC and Sky News. They are still eulogizing the DoE using today’s newspapers for reference.
http://news.sky.com/story/fridays-national-newspaper-front-pages-10863380
The Papers
Newspaper headlines: Prince Philip’s retirement dominates
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-39813144
You don’t say.
When he pops his clogs. will he be buried in the Mount of Olives with his mother?
be careful what you say about Royals who just retire, not pop their cloggs, or you might get your post pulled sharp ears….;)
Labour taking a drubbing in England and Wales as predicted. Labourites in Wales having to stand as independents rather than lose under Corbyn.
Actually, It’s UKIP which is really being wiped out, not Labour.
UKIP no longer has a purpose. Labour has lost seats three local elections in a row now. Unprecedented.
Current standings:
England & Wales combined:
CON 516 (+130)
LAB 326 (-113)
The point is surely that the Tories have moved into UKIP terrain. Or rather that a cabal of UKIP-style people have taken power in the Tories. You know, rather like Militant Tendency in the 80s.
The Tories have been forced into UKIP terrain. That’s where we want our Tories. It’s where we always wanted them. Back where they belong. 🙂
The Overton Window shifts further, IOW. Pushed by Blair, and pulled by Farage. It’s going to take a war to stop this…it always does.
“The point is surely that the Tories have moved into UKIP terrain”
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Or, perhaps, the other way round?
Seven years of Tory rule and a general election around the corner – the opposition should be making major gains in local elections.. ???
A banana republic result in a local election which was held low key and nobody took part in. Latest estimates is 35% participation.
And already you can hear the pundits and Tory cheats, who only last week said that the two elections are not to be compared to each other, comparing and speculating as to what this will mean for the GE.
I detect a sense of panic.
“A banana republic result in a local election which was held low key and nobody took part in. Latest estimates is 35% participation.”
You could use that argument back in the day when it was claimed, with some merit, that Lib-Lab-Con were three cheeks of the same arse.
Not any more. You have a clear left-wing alternative to the Tories. So where are the poor, downtrodden masses, reeling from the effects of savage Tory austerity and cuts? Can’t they be bothered to vote?
35% doesn’t exactly suggest hysterical enthusiasm for the other lot, though, does it?
A sensible turnout for a strong, mature, confident and prosperous democracy. We don’t do big turnouts in this country*. 🙂
(*Except when the people have had enough, as was the case in the EU referendum.)
“A banana republic result [ in banana republics, there is usually a 105% turnout, with the tin-pot dictator getting 98,995 of the vote ] in a local election which was held low key [ local elections are usually low key in the UK ] and nobody took part in. Latest estimates is 35% participation [ not unusual in local elections ].”
“At least we weren’t wiped out”, I heard one Labour supporter say.
It really is that bad. Labour supporters are so demoralised that anything short of Jeremy soiling himself in public is cause for elation.
Still, it’s funny that you go on and on about Labour’s supposed disaster, when it was actually UKIP that was wiped out.
Why should I care that UKIP was wiped out? I was one of those who transferred my vote from UKIP to the Tories. Doh!
My point was about your attitude towards Labour.
Laguerre
“it’s funny that you go on and on about Labour’s supposed disaster, when it was actually UKIP that was wiped out.”
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That depends on the angle you’re looking at it from, surely? If you assume (and it is an assumption, I admit) that many UKIP voters were former Labour voters voting UKIP as a “protest”, then perhaps the fact that this time round many of them transferred their vote to the Conservatives rather than going back to Labour could be described as a disaster for Labour?
Prince Philip said he hopes to be reborn as a deadly virus to wipe out half of humanity but if I was him I’d want to come back as another parasite.
As you can no doubt see above there is already a strong field of candidates for that role.
This echoes my thoughts almost exactly, except without the Scottish twist. In fact I even posted my thoughts on this on twitter.
Craig says “we Scots” while Wikipedia lists his nationality as “English”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Murray
It sort of says he was once “British ambassador to Uzbekistan” so the most he can claim is being “British”, while Wikipedia has him listed as “English” and “born in Norfolk”, which was in England last time I checked.
So who is in denial, Craig?
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! What a Klown????????????????