Fogbow

Statement of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on the Death of Queen Elizabeth II
SEPTEMBER 08, 2022
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STATEMENTS AND RELEASES

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era.

In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people across the Commonwealth. The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity.

She was the first British monarch to whom people all around the world could feel a personal and immediate connection—whether they heard her on the radio as a young princess speaking to the children of the United Kingdom, or gathered around their televisions for her coronation, or watched her final Christmas speech or her Platinum Jubilee on their phones. And she, in turn, dedicated her whole life to their service.

Supported by her beloved Prince Philip for 73 years, Queen Elizabeth II led always with grace, an unwavering commitment to duty, and the incomparable power of her example. She endured the dangers and deprivations of a world war alongside the British people and rallied them during the devastation of a global pandemic to look to better days ahead. Through her dedication to her patronages and charities, she supported causes that uplifted people and expanded opportunity. By showing friendship and respect to newly independent nations around the world, she elevated the cause of liberty and fostered enduring bonds that helped strengthen the Commonwealth, which she loved so deeply, into a community to promote peace and shared values.

Queen Elizabeth II was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. She helped make our relationship special.

We first met the Queen in 1982, traveling to the UK as part of a Senate delegation. And we were honored that she extended her hospitality to us in June 2021 during our first overseas trip as President and First Lady, where she charmed us with her wit, moved us with her kindness, and generously shared with us her wisdom. All told, she met 14 American presidents. She helped Americans commemorate both the anniversary of the founding of Jamestown and the bicentennial of our independence. And she stood in solidarity with the United States during our darkest days after 9/11, when she poignantly reminded us that “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

In the years ahead, we look forward to continuing a close friendship with The King and The Queen Consort. Today, the thoughts and prayers of people all across the United States are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief. We send our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are not only mourning their Queen, but their dear mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world.

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Barack Obama & Michelle Obama @BarackObama & @MichelleObama 5m
Like so many of you, Michelle and I are grateful to have witnessed Her Majesty’s dedicated leadership, and we are awed by her legacy of tireless, dignified public service. Our thoughts are with her family and the people of the United Kingdom at this difficult time.

Stories of the Queen’s impish side abound from those who knew her best, and she would take particular delight in those rare occasions when people failed to recognise who she was.

Richard Griffin, a former royal protection officer, described an occasion when the Queen was walking her dogs on the Balmoral estate and came across a pair of American tourists at a picnic site. He said: “There were two hikers coming towards us and the Queen would always stop and say hello.

It was clear from the moment they stopped that they hadn’t recognised the Queen.” After recounting what they had done on their holiday, the tourists asked Her Majesty, “and where do you live?” She replied: “Well, I live in London but I’ve got a holiday home just over the hills. I’ve been coming up here ever since I was a little girl, over 80 years.” One tourist asked: “Well, if you’ve been coming up here for 80 years you must have met the Queen?”

Without missing a beat, the Queen replied: “Well, I haven’t, but Dick here meets her regularly.” When Mr Griffin was asked, “What is she like?” he replied with a twinkle in his eye: “Well she can be very cantankerous at times but she’s got a great sense of humour.”

The tourists asked if they could have their picture taken with Mr Griffin, and asked his companion if she would do the honours. After the Queen took a picture of Mr Griffin with the tourists, they swapped places and Mr Griffin took a picture of the tourists with the Queen. He said: “We never let on, and we waved goodbye and Her Majesty said: ‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those pictures to their friends in America and hopefully someone tells him who I am.’”

Foggy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 3:19 pm I am not terribly sad. I mean, I'm sad, but she lived a long, super interesting life, and didn't suffer too much at the end (as I understand it). That's all any of us can ask for. I'm happy she was queen almost my entire lifetime, and I'll be interested to see what Charles III will do. But I haven't lost the guiding light of my life.

I prefer to think of her like this:



That's what women did during WWII, and she dived in.

Ben-Prime wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 3:31 pm The story about how she later drove the then Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia around personally just to tweak his nose a little still makes me smile more than most American Presidential anecdotes.

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 4:22 pm

The long read
'London Bridge is down': the secret plan for the days after the Queen’s death
She is venerated around the world. She has outlasted 12 US presidents. She stands for stability and order. But her kingdom is in turmoil, and her subjects are in denial that her reign will ever end. That’s why the palace has a plan.
***
Screens will glow. There will be tweets. At the BBC, the “radio alert transmission system” (Rats), will be activated – a cold war-era alarm designed to withstand an attack on the nation’s infrastructure. Rats, which is also sometimes referred to as “royal about to snuff it”, is a near mythical part of the intricate architecture of ritual and rehearsals for the death of major royal personalities that the BBC has maintained since the 1930s. Most staff have only ever seen it work in tests; many have never seen it work at all. “Whenever there is a strange noise in the newsroom, someone always asks, ‘Is that the Rats?’ Because we don’t know what it sounds like,” one regional reporter told me.

All news organisations will scramble to get films on air and obituaries online. At the Guardian, the deputy editor has a list of prepared stories pinned to his wall. The Times is said to have 11 days of coverage ready to go. At Sky News and ITN, which for years rehearsed the death of the Queen substituting the name “Mrs Robinson”, calls will go out to royal experts who have already signed contracts to speak exclusively on those channels. “I am going to be sitting outside the doors of the Abbey on a hugely enlarged trestle table commentating to 300 million Americans about this,” one told me.

For people stuck in traffic, or with Heart FM on in the background, there will only be the subtlest of indications, at first, that something is going on. Britain’s commercial radio stations have a network of blue “obit lights”, which is tested once a week and supposed to light up in the event of a national catastrophe. When the news breaks, these lights will start flashing, to alert DJs to switch to the news in the next few minutes and to play inoffensive music in the meantime. Every station, down to hospital radio, has prepared music lists made up of “Mood 2” (sad) or “Mood 1” (saddest) songs to reach for in times of sudden mourning. “If you ever hear Haunted Dancehall (Nursery Remix) by Sabres of Paradise on daytime Radio 1, turn the TV on,” wrote Chris Price, a BBC radio producer, for the Huffington Post in 2011. “Something terrible has just happened.”
***
But there will be no extemporising with the Queen. The newsreaders will wear black suits and black ties. Category one was made for her. Programmes will stop. Networks will merge. BBC 1, 2 and 4 will be interrupted and revert silently to their respective idents – an exercise class in a village hall, a swan waiting on a pond – before coming together for the news. Listeners to Radio 4 and Radio 5 live will hear a specific formulation of words, “This is the BBC from London,” which, intentionally or not, will summon a spirit of national emergency.

Kendra wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 3:57 pm

much ado wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:13 pm Actually, it should be

The Queen is dead; long live the King.

Chilidog wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 6:41 pm Is Mercury still in retrograde?

When Is Mercury in Retrograde in 2022?

In 2022, Mercury will be in apparent retrograde motion during the following ranges of dates:

January 13 to February 3
May 10 to June 2
September 9 to October 1
December 28 to January 18 (2023)