… especially strange when it’s American broadcasters doing it—WTF are they thinking 
4 Likes
Not an answer as such
1 Like
That was a bad day. I had tobacco, but no rizlas. Couldn’t get a packet for love nor money as everywhere around me spontaneously shut up shop. I eventually found a crumpled one down the back of the sofa after a despairing walk round the neighbourhood looking for an open shop.
10 Likes
7 Likes
Just a reminder that some of the people calling for #respect on Twitter are members of proscribed terrorist organisations
Also
Where are all the free speech warriors now?
21 Likes
OMG it’s also … 9/11 today 
The media are hitting Peak Performative Mourning
14 Likes
So it is.
I have my tv off and I haven’t been on any media sites aside from this one.
Instead I’m going to an outdoor Pride event, to support my friends and allies.
17 Likes
A much more positive use of your time 
13 Likes
What I find interesting to think about is that Liz II’s reign, in stark contrast to Liz I and Victoria, is going to be remembered (I think positively in the history books a hundred years from now) as the dissolution of the British Empire yet she remains generally beloved by her remaining subjects. I think it underlines just how much the world has changed during her life.
2 Likes
There is an echo chamber effect—do “we” love the Queen because the BBC has been telling us we love the Queen for seven decades?
Imagine if there was a counterpart to Fox News in the UK except instead of hating liberals, every story was about how the monarchy was evil and sick
The British media seem to be allowed to say bad things about Fergie and Andrew and Meghan Markle but not about the actual reigning monarch
9 Likes
History is written by the censors…
(and the BBC is one of the ways that the world changed in the last century - it would not have been possible to have that kind of media reach and control not just in Britain, but around the world - the BBC exports a lot of that Queen-love messaging around the world)
5 Likes
4 Likes
They should just have the funeral at Wembley and let everyone come, maybe have a week of sold out shows.
Or a month long residency.
Either she was the Queen of the people or not.
2 Likes
Um, no… it’s written by historians… If you avoid much pop history and hagiographies, there are plenty of great books on the violence of the British colonialism, from the colonization of Ireland to what’s happening today, often written by former colonial subjects themselves. The subaltern, indeed, does speak.
13 Likes
With a giant hologram of the Queen and her corgis…
4 Likes
I know - I was kidding. I do agree with @smulder that the current perception of her is hugely driven by a powerful media campaign that largely precluded criticism of the Queen on the BBC throughout her reign.
I am sure that will change over time - when I said in an earlier post that I think history will look back positively on the dissolution of the Empire under her reign I did not mean that she would be credited for it or excused for bad things. Just that I hope that the world in a hundred years will be a place where the dissolution of empires and decolonization are universally considered good things, and it occured under her reign (almost entirely out of her control). Hope
All of this in support of your thought that maybe more change occured during her reign than any of her predecessors
ETA: are there any punk rock historians thinking about doing a piece on the rise of punk in England and how that ties in with her reign?? I would read that!
2 Likes
You can’t do much better than Jon Savage’s work on the Sex Pistols… Also, Paul Gorman’s book on Malcolm McLaren is good… most books on english punk focus on the political landscape, rather then the queen directly. John Lydon said it best when he called her “our figurehead”… She’s more representative of the status quo which was not serving anyone particularly well at the time, and punk tapped into that dissatisfaction.
8 Likes
I have not read Paul Gorman’s Malcom McLaren book! I will have to check it out as I find McLaren a fascinating and divisive character. Thanks!
(Also I love that when you Google “Paul Gorman”, Google’s little autogenerated summary of “Paul Gorman - Writer” mostly has photos of the dreamy-eyed actor from Outlander and Relic and only one or two at the end of the actual writer Paul Gorman. It reminds me that maybe they are not as powerful and all knowing as they are often precieved to be 
)
1 Like
It’s an even handed account of his life, very detailed, and he doesn’t downplay his more problematic aspects nor does he treat him like the villain of punk rock… but I really don’t know any better books on the Sex Pistols than Savages… The Last Gang in Town about the Clash is good too.
For punk as a social and cultural phenomenon, you can always start with Dick Hebdige (though it’s kind of dated, if you ask me) and then read Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus.
7 Likes
