"Britain revels in diamond jubilee" June 03, 2012
LONDON - Stung by royal breakups, relentless snipping over her tax-free status, and a fire at Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth II famously dubbed 1992 her annus horribilis, or horrible year.
But now, the world’s highest profile monarch finds herself basking in the glow of an annus mirabilis - marvelous year.
Commemorating her 60th year on the throne, the queen’s “diamond jubilee’’ is drawing an estimated one million people to London for a four-day fete that started Saturday.
Who is paying for this?
In terms of sheer pageantry, it will dwarf last year’s nuptials of her grandson Prince William and his bride, Catherine Middleton, the duchess of Cambridge....
I dunno, they were pretty hot.
Paul McCartney and Elton John will serenade her at a glittering concert outside Buckingham Palace. And the celebration will culminate Tuesday with a day of pageantry including a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Related: Queen’s Jubilee guest list raises eyebrows
Dining with despots, 'eh?
The 60-year milestone puts Elizabeth just three years shy of becoming Britain’s longest reigning monarch, after Queen Victoria. But the observance has deeper significance.
At a time when the missteps of King Juan Carlos has Spain seriously rethinking the wisdom of monarchy, she is also symbolically marking the revival of a British royal house that has defied the odds by bringing a nation - and a world - back under its spell.
It's witchcraft.
Related: Spanish Rage at Royalty
Also see: Slow Saturday Special: Look Who I Had Lunch With
For a family once described as Britain’s most dysfunctional, and where whispers of republicanism seemed to swirl with every new tabloid headline, the rising fortunes of the British royals amount to what observers call a public relations coup.
Related: Murdoch is Mad
Yeah, the collapse of that empire is helping the other.
Though support for the monarchy has always been strong, a new opinion poll by Ipsos Mori shows 80 percent of Britons want to keep the royals - the most since surveys began in the 1980s.
I simply no longer believe in elections or polls, sorry.
Many credit the supernova wedding that produced the global stars known as “Will and Kate’’ for providing the House of Windsor with its undeniable boost.
But in the year since the bunting came down from Westminster Abbey, the royals appear to have solidified those gains, with even Prince Charles and his second wife, Camilla, scoring fresh points with the public.
To herald the diamond jubilee, Buckingham Palace has launched a charm offensive, with the queen’s national tour over the past several months drawing crowds that would be the envy of any aging rock star.
Yeah, they are loaded with charm.
But royal watchers also say the palace has been using this year to begin the process of passing the torch, with the queen dispatching younger royals on domestic and international tours that have raised the family’s profile and spread the gospel of the House of Windsor near and far.
Same as my fawning mouthpiece of a media, folks.
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"1,000 boats sail Thames for queen’s jubilee; Floating royal pageant is most lavish in 350 years" by John F. Burns | New York Times, June 04, 2012
The British people are cool with that?
Related: Bank of England offers grim outlook for British economy
Also see: U.K. Elections and Economy
Who is paying for this thing?
LONDON - The pageant, the highlight of a four-day national holiday to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, was reported by police to have drawn a million spectators along a 7-mile course through London.
With millions more at home and abroad watching on television,
commentators called it the greatest public spectacle of the queen’s
reign.
Historians said that only Churchill’s funeral procession along the Thames in 1965 came close to matching the crowds along the river.
The pageant ended with a rousing musical salute in the lee of Tower Bridge, infamous for the rugged fortress beside it, the Tower of London, where Britain’s medieval kings imprisoned and executed generations of those who fell foul of their rule.
The queen and her party appeared enraptured as the London Philharmonic orchestra, aboard a vessel that drew parallel to the royal reviewing stands, played a medley of the country’s most rousing patriotic songs before ending with “God Save the Queen.’’
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Sunday’s festive mood was in counterpoint to the country’s current woes, which include a persistent recession, the highest unemployment in 30 years and a wide range of demoralizing social problems.
Related(?): Churches in UK rip same-sex marriage
Britain, at least in the more recent decades of Elizabeth II’s reign, has also questioned the role of the monarchy, and, in some quarters, even its existence.
But at the beginning of Elizabeth II’s seventh decade on the throne, the debate has been subdued by a huge outpouring of support for the queen personally and, judging from opinion surveys, for the monarchy itself.
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Related: Britain holds concert and ex-colonies light beacons as jubilee fest continues
Elizabeth II thanks jubilant Britain as fête wraps up
Boston celebrates the queen’s diamond jubilee
WTF?
British Reoccupy Boston
Oh.
Also see:
Jewbilee
Jewbilee
Some Jewbilees are just fine:
"Prince Philip leaves hospital in time for birthday
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Prince Philip has left hospital in time to celebrate his 91st birthday. The husband of Queen Elizabeth II thanked staff at London’s King Edward VII Hospital Saturday after spending five days there for treatment for a bladder infection. Philip got into the front passenger seat of a Land Rover before being whisked off under police escort. He nodded when reporters shouted out questions about whether he was feeling better. Philip turns 91 on Sunday. His wife recently celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 years on the throne."
Actually, I'm glad that sickening, grotesque, and disgusting fossil is still alive.
Happy Birthday, Phil.
Queen's subjects:
Parents of 6 children who died in UK fire arrested
Doctors make new vein with girl’s own stem cells
UK school lunch blog photos back on menu
Speaking of the devil, it's lunch time.
Update: Our Jewish Queen?
More: A handshake across a chasm of hate
"Former IRA commander to meet Queen Elizabeth II" by Jill Lawless | Associated Press, June 23, 2012
LONDON — A once-unthinkable symbol of progress toward peace in Northern Ireland....
Related: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II to make first visit to Ireland
Ireland Fit For a Queen
It was a sign of progress toward peace....
Related: Cutting a Quick One For the Queen
Ireland Welcomes a King
Threats against the royal family have been real, as evidenced by the Provisional IRA’s 1979 assassination of Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s 79-year-old uncle. Several small IRA splinter groups still launch gun and bomb attacks in Northern Ireland.
FRU false flags?
But Peter Hain, a former Northern Ireland secretary in the British government, said the meeting “does show in shining terms how everybody is turning their backs on the past of horror and violence and moving toward peace between previously bitter enemies.”
The rulers are exception to the rule right now.
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