Now that the Queen has gone, replaced by the little loved Charles III, we can now start talking about all the problems of the monarchy without having to deal with people who think that Elizabeth II was the nations grandma.
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basically the complaint is he pulled a face when indicating to an aide to remove a pen holder from the small table where he was signing the document. Seems a bit overblown.
The request to delete all footage other than a 1 hour summary is much more problematic.
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It’s one thing if the palace doesn’t want the sniffling face of Princess X broadcast over and over again in frame-filling technicolour. It is certainly within a person’s fundamental rights to object to being shown in a moment of one’s personal grief for the retroactive entertainment of millions of viewers. Even if that person is a royal. This is something that the BBC and friends probably can subscribe to.
The event itself, however, is part of world history and as such should not be subject to a royal veto. It’s not as if the palace had been selling tickets to a performance. The UK public paid for it to be put on in the first place, and to be documented by the BBC and friends. They are 100% entitled to be able to see the coffin being carried or driven about, the soldiers march past, the bands play, the choir sing, the organ play, and the priest pray and preach, day in and day out forevermore if they’re so inclined. It is their history, too.
In any case the crown can ask the BBC and friends to refrain from using most of the material in the future, and the broadcasters may even comply, but there are presumably millions of copies of the whole thing sitting on people’s DVRs, computers, …, all over the world and they’re never going away again, so the whole thing is an exercise in futility. It might have worked for the coronation in 1953, but in 2022, no way.
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Looked like a goofy face but nothing horrible. And goofy face is kind of par for the particular course he’s blessed with.
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We don’t think the usual organs of propaganda can turn Chuckles into The Nation’s Grandpa in a timely manner?
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Eh, Charles has rather more notoriety at this point than Elizabeth II ever did, methinks. Off the top of my head, he’s been tied to homeopathy. And there’s the whole “black spider memos” thing.
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For the umpteenth-quadrillionth time… Boing Boing is not a newspaper, it’s a blog…
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British television channels gave Buckingham Palace a veto on the use of footage from Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, indicating the complicated relationship around the media’s coverage of the monarchy.
As part of an agreement with news broadcasters, the royal household was given the right to request that particular pieces of footage from the funeral services at Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle were not used again.
The broadcasters gave the Palace the opportunity, and the Palace took it. Surprise.
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That BoingBoing is a better source of information than some newspapers is never no mind.
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He was happy to become the patron of “The Faculty of Homeopathy”, whatever effing quackery that’s supposed to be.
All hail King Wally.
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And why do you think anyone in the general public cares about that?
(Yes, I know homeopathy is BS, but it’s not like he was drowning puppies in public. What is probably much more damaging to his reputation among tabloid readers is the fact that he had to be stopped from joining the university labour club when studying in Cambridge)
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It’s not that impressive. His mum got him the job and he didn’t even have to do a proper interview.
(stolen shamelessly from, I think, reddit)
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I can’t help but wonder if this is anything to do with the Duke of Norfolk (the man who organised the funeral ceremonies) having his driving licence taken away?
This was due to him “using his mobile phone while driving” - co-incidentally going through a red light and narrowly missing a police car. Ooops! Good thing nothing like that happened with the funeral cortege.
Or did it? - I don’t know, I didn’t watch it.
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Well no. During the funeral processions, the police knew their place and kept to their proper function of keeping the plebs away from the important people.
/s
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From what I heard, the funeral procession took Marble Arch Corner far too fast, and the results were like Ben Hur. Horses; bits of carts, slaves, princess and princesses all over road. Oh, the humanity!
Prince Andrew is already the Nation’s Disgraced Uncle.
@Jorpho “The content of the “black spider” letters, named after Charles’ distinctive handwriting” Darn I was imagining that Charlie Windsor had created an alter-ego; with a mask and everything.
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Just to put this somewhere because it’s brilliant:
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I hope he doesn’t “bare this bloody thing”!
That seems fair enough though, I’d have had extra cursing so I can’t criticise him.
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