The Queen's Jubilee

[Flosshilde]

I love the

"bringing the country together" nonsense

if we all keep saying it we might get the fairy to appear

Indeeed. They'll be saying 'We're all in it together' next.

[amateur51]

Indeeed. They'll be saying 'We're all in it together' next.

[Beef Oven]

It was quite a spectacle, wasn't it? Very impressive.

And there will be nearly 10,000 street parties over the Jubilee weekend:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18210417

In an age when many people barely talk to their neighbours for much of the time,or even know who they are, it is great to see the Jubilee bringing the country together in this way. At last, something to smile about!

Well said Mr Pee!!!

[mangerton]

Indeeed. They'll be saying 'We're all in it together' next.

[mangerton]

Just watched on iplayer The Armed Forces Tribute to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee! What a parade that was! It was quite incredible how they were able to masteremind such an event like this and with so little time tro rehearse!

Sixty years is long enough, shurely.

[MrGongGong]

Sixty years is long enough, shurely.

[Flosshilde]

Sixty years is long enough, shurely.

& they can do it while rehearsing for the funeral (& no, I'm not being tasteless - the obituaries are ready (updated regularly), the BBC & ITV will have their plans ready, & will rehearse, & the Forces will have rehearsals. Nothing can be allowed to go wrong on the big day)

[Extended Play]

& they can do it while rehearsing for the funeral (& no, I'm not being tasteless - the obituaries are ready (updated regularly), the BBC & ITV will have their plans ready, & will rehearse, & the Forces will have rehearsals. Nothing can be allowed to go wrong on the big day)

Not quite sure what point you want to make here, Flosshilde. Of course news organisations have stacks of prepared obits, and it would be surprising if national broadcasters DIDN'T carry out periodic training exercises (or "rehearsals" if you prefer) to prepare staff for events that will happen one day.

[Ferretfancy]

The BBC has, or used to have, an Obituary Unit which compiled obituaries for the great and good, first of all on film and nowadays presumably on digital video. Of course, they constantly needed updating, so they were brought in from time to time for re-dubbing. Every time this happened the archive material seemed grottier and grottier.

The joke was that when somebody famous died, they never used the formal obituary, or at least I never saw an example on air. Instead the news and current affairs people hastily cobbled together their own tributes, and the official obit went back on a dusty shelf. I suppose it provided employment for somebody, and of course it was sometimes necessary to re-do all the commentary because the original narrator had died !

[Flosshilde]

Not quite sure what point you want to make here, Flosshilde. Of course news organisations have stacks of prepared obits, and it would be surprising if national broadcasters DIDN'T carry out periodic training exercises (or "rehearsals" if you prefer) to prepare staff for events that will happen one day.

Just pre-empting a riposte from Mr Pee

[MrGongGong]

Just pre-empting a riposte from Mr Pee

Pathetic

(other statements are available ! and there's a great new series on ................................)

[Mr Pee]

Sixty years is long enough, shurely.

Conveniently ignoring the fact that many of the troops involved had only recently returned from Afghanistan, where they were putting their lives on the line and, in some cases, had seen their friends and comrades slaughtered.

Still, don't let such trivia get in the way of a cheap laugh.

[ahinton]

Conveniently ignoring the fact that many of the troops involved had only recently returned from Afghanistan, where they were putting their lives on the line and, in some cases, had seen their friends and comrades slaughtered.

What's that got to do with the length of the Queen's reign? - and it's hardly her fault that "her" governments have squandered taxpayers' money and, as you say, some of those lives where they had no business to send anyone a all...

[ahinton]

there will be nearly 10,000 street parties over the Jubilee weekend

...

In an age when many people barely talk to their neighbours for much of the time,or even know who they are, it is great to see the Jubilee bringing the country together in this way. At last, something to smile about!

So 10,000+ separate street parties in as many different places "brings the country together", does it? Really?

I am not here to undermine the Queen's achievements over six decades - far from it, in fact - but you can hardly expect her, let alone the fact of the duration of her reign to date, to "bring the country together" (whatever that may or may not mean). She does what she does and everyone else does what they do. Many people will have seen her on television and photographs of her in the press but very few have ever met her and almost no one really knows her, outside her small circle. To what extent, then, do you suppose that those people (mainly in urban situations, it has fairly to be said) who you say "barely talk to their neighbours for much of the time, or even know who they are" will talk to thee or know them any better than they now do come the end of the week in which there will be two consecutive public holidays? Your apparent optimism seems as enormous and fantasy-laden as it is unrealistic...

[teamsaint]

This "bringing the country together" comes after at least 3 decades where "divide and rule" has been one of the main features of government policy.