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Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh, aged 99, has died

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Ediswan

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C5 seem a bit uncertain what title to use. The Freesat EPG is showing "HRH The Duke of Prince Philip...".
 
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al78

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I remember the hysteria when Diana died. The way people reacted was embarrassing.
I know what you mean, I didn't get the emotional outpouring for a woman people have never met or had anything to do with, but the Diana death was far more tragic. She was quite young and had her life cut short in a completely unnecessary and avoidable manner by a reckless/dangerous driver, which is different to dieing of natural causes at a great age.
 

Trackman

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I dont think she will as she is pregnant so will be a convenient excuse not to fly.
I don't think she'll be there, I'm guessing it will be a low key funeral with no processions to keep crowds away plus with current covid restrictions the Queen would have to pick 30 people.
 

squizzler

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Yes I'm sorry about the death of the grand old Duke and listened intently to the tributes to him on Radio 4 instead of the scheduled You & Yours, but I don't see why all the BBC radio programs should be broadcasting the same thing. Radio 3 were scheduled to relay performances of Mozart and Beethovens piano quintets which would have said just as much, if not more, than any words at this time.
I agree. I was on 6Music, and I don't think their typical listener will stay around for the tributes (more likely stick on their limited edition vinyl). I am an avid radio listener, and find it rather disorientating and unsettling to be denied channels I will normally switch between.
I was listening to Radio 4 and initially thought there'd been a terrorist attack or something of that ilk.
If a thermonuclear war was underway they would hopefully let you continue to enjoy your programme for your last few minutes after the announcement.
 

brad465

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I dont think she will as she is pregnant so will be a convenient excuse not to fly.
I expect Harry will try though as he was believed to be quarantining while the Duke was in hospital in case he did need to fly back.
I don't think she'll be there, I'm guessing it will be a low key funeral with no processions to keep crowds away plus with current covid restrictions the Queen would have to pick 30 people.
By coincidence he wanted a low key funeral anyway, so whatever restrictions are in place won't hamper proceedings too much I suspect.
 

py_megapixel

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I am going to be very direct and clear about my opinion on this topic, as I cannot think of any other way to properly express the point I want to make. Some may find this post insensitive; my apologies if so.

What has happened today is that a 99-year-old man, to whom I had no particular connection, has passed away.
It is sad that a life has been lost, and I don't want to give the impression that I am glad of it. But how do I feel in general?
Exactly the same as if I was told that any other 99-year-old man to whom I had no particular connection had passed away: sympathetic, of course, but not hugely upset, certainly not enough that it will affect the rest of my day in any way whatsoever.

It also irritates me slightly the amount of news coverage it is getting. If I go to bbc.co.uk, I have to scroll down several rows to find anything at all unrelated to Prince Philip. Same with seemingly most other news sites. It would be nice if the media would not pander to the expectation that every Brit is supposed to be a diehard fan and follower of the Royal Family.
 

LSWR Cavalier

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Indeed, the death of the Princess of Hearts was surprising, someone dying at 99y10m is not surprising.

I knew someone who died at 80+. She had a good life, interests and hobbies, saw the grandchildren grew up. I feel proud and honoured to think of her.
..
I used to get really annoyed with radio 4 when I heard the words, 'a change to our advertised [promised] programmes'. I do not mind so much now, I download the programmes and listen when I choose.
 

scotrail158713

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The problem with that is that every broadcaster would want to be "the one".
But you could try and strike at least a bit of a balance. For example, the BBC don't need to show rolling coverage on BBC1, BBC2, BBC News, BBC Scotland, and wherever else it's also being covered. I've not watched any but I'd presume it's the same coverage on all their channels, so why not just have it covered on one channel?
 

21C101

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If it had been anything other than the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, I can just imagine the Duke's choice words as he flicked between Radio channels, trying to find one that hadn't abruplty ceased normal transmission to bang on about it all day.....
 

75A

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I am going to be very direct and clear about my opinion on this topic, as I cannot think of any other way to properly express the point I want to make. Some may find this post insensitive; my apologies if so.

What has happened today is that a 99-year-old man, to whom I had no particular connection, has passed away.
It is sad that a life has been lost, and I don't want to give the impression that I am glad of it. But how do I feel in general?
Exactly the same as if I was told that any other 99-year-old man to whom I had no particular connection had passed away: sympathetic, of course, but not hugely upset, certainly not enough that it will affect the rest of my day in any way whatsoever.

It also irritates me slightly the amount of news coverage it is getting. If I go to bbc.co.uk, I have to scroll down several rows to find anything at all unrelated to Prince Philip. Same with seemingly most other news sites. It would be nice if the media would not pander to the expectation that every Brit is supposed to be a diehard fan and follower of the Royal Family.
Couldn't agree more.
 

Journeyman

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I am going to be very direct and clear about my opinion on this topic, as I cannot think of any other way to properly express the point I want to make. Some may find this post insensitive; my apologies if so.

What has happened today is that a 99-year-old man, to whom I had no particular connection, has passed away.
It is sad that a life has been lost, and I don't want to give the impression that I am glad of it. But how do I feel in general?
Exactly the same as if I was told that any other 99-year-old man to whom I had no particular connection had passed away: sympathetic, of course, but not hugely upset, certainly not enough that it will affect the rest of my day in any way whatsoever.

It also irritates me slightly the amount of news coverage it is getting. If I go to bbc.co.uk, I have to scroll down several rows to find anything at all unrelated to Prince Philip. Same with seemingly most other news sites. It would be nice if the media would not pander to the expectation that every Brit is supposed to be a diehard fan and follower of the Royal Family.
Absolutely spot on.

The Royal Family doesn't seem to have advanced much beyond the 1950s in the way they handle this stuff. They seem completely oblivious to the fact that (a) there are now hundreds of media outlets, and expecting them all to stop normal programming is ridiculous, (b) there's only so much you can say about a very old man dying, (c) the majority of people in the country no longer care about the royals because (d) their popularity has hit rock bottom because of the appalling way they behave a lot of the time.

Terribly sad for the Queen, but personally it's no different to me than any other elderly stranger's death, and I really don't need to hear a bunch of hangers-on saying the same things over and over again. Honestly, how much is there to say?
 

61653 HTAFC

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I've just heard the Chief Minister of Gibraltar say "... the Duke came here very often, on occasion..."

Such poor phrasing is far more upsetting than a very rich man dying at a ripe old age.
 

DynamicSpirit

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Absolutely spot on.

The Royal Family doesn't seem to have advanced much beyond the 1950s in the way they handle this stuff. They seem completely oblivious to the fact that (a) there are now hundreds of media outlets, and expecting them all to stop normal programming is ridiculous, (b) there's only so much you can say about a very old man dying, (c) the majority of people in the country no longer care about the royals because (d) their popularity has hit rock bottom because of the appalling way they behave a lot of the time.

I don't think it's the fault of the Royal Family if loads of channels are doing wall-to-wall Prince Phillip - I very much doubt they have any say in the broadcasters' choice of programming. I also don't generally speaking see anything wrong with how most of the Royal Family behave (with one or two very obvious exceptions). The Queen certainly seems to have an impeccable record of service.
 

Trackman

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I don't think it's the fault of the Royal Family if loads of channels are doing wall-to-wall Prince Phillip - I very much doubt they have any say in the broadcasters' choice of programming.
Just put on RT News (UK) for the headlines at 4pm for a laugh to see what was leading.
First was flights abroad for Brits, secondly Covid passports, Prince Phillip then gets mentioned and then the Government sending asylum seekers to an Army barracks in Kent... oh then knife crime in London. Took them 15 minutes to get around to Prince Philip and then it was a montage lasting a minute. After the break it went straight to the Army barracks in Folkestone for a live broadcast.
 

37424

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I don't think it's the fault of the Royal Family if loads of channels are doing wall-to-wall Prince Phillip - I very much doubt they have any say in the broadcasters' choice of programming. I also don't generally speaking see anything wrong with how most of the Royal Family behave (with one or two very obvious exceptions). The Queen certainly seems to have an impeccable record of service.
Indeed I think its the broadcasters that haven't moved on from the 1950's and the BBC in particular, if we have to have wall to wall coverage on BBC1 ok fair enough but we don't need it on BBC2 and all the main radio stations as well, but this exactly what happened when the Queen Mother died and I ended up just switching off TV and Radio for about a week.

And of course Prince Phillip never seemed to be someone who wanted a great deal of fuss about himself.
 
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Busaholic

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My grandfather died at exactly the same age as Prince Philip, having announced previously he couldn't be bothered with ''all the fuss and nonsense'' on reaching 100, and I suspect the Duke was of the same mindset. I think I have a very similar temperament, actually, and had a grudging respect for the man, his wife and his daughter, but none of the others.
 

py_megapixel

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What bad news is bojo sneaking out quietly under the radar while we are thinking about the Duke?
I mean... some people might be thinking about him; I am not apart from when I read this specific forum thread...

The problem is that I am unable to find anywhere reporting about the actually important things which are going on in the world, because the media is so saturated with this one story. Which, as you rightly say, is almost certainly being used by a politician as an excuse to tell the public some bad news without anyone hearing them.
 

Gloster

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The problem for the broadcasters is that if they don’t go over the top they will be pilloried by some (well, most) of the newspapers. The criticism will then be picked up by popularity seeking politicians who will then try and introduce curbs on the papers’ activities, including (who’d have thought it) their ability to investigate politicians. The newspapers will also pander to their readers and I suspect that newspaper readers are more pro-royal than the majority of the population.
 

DynamicSpirit

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I mean... some people might be thinking about him; I am not apart from when I read this specific forum thread...

The problem is that I am unable to find anywhere reporting about the actually important things which are going on in the world, because the media is so saturated with this one story. Which, as you rightly say, is almost certainly being used by a politician as an excuse to tell the public some bad news without anyone hearing them.

I just checked. Go to the BBC website. If you are on a phone then scroll down past the Prince Philip stories. If you on a computer then click on any of the different sections of your choice (they are laid out horizontally across the top of the screen: Home / Brexit / Coronvirus / UK / World etc. A couple of them will take a small amount of scrolling, but it really isn't hard to find tons of stories about what else is going on in the World. (I do nevertheless sympathize if you're someone who isn't that interested in the story given that there is a huge amount of coverage of it).

btw it seems a tad cynical to assume it's being used by the Government to get some bad news out. Given that a lot of Government activities take days or weeks to prepare, and presumably almost no-one would have known Prince Philip was going to die today, I'd suggest it's maybe a bit unrealistic too (I don't doubt that some people in the Government would be tempted, though).
 

DerekC

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I am sorry for the Queen, as I would be for any elderly lady who has just lost her partner of many years. I will get irritated by the wall to wall coverage though, and particularly the endless recycling of the same facts.

A few days ago I was wondering whether the Queen (like the rest of us) would have to apply via the Department for Work and Pensions for a Royal congratulations card to be sent to her husband on his 100th, and whether she would get a call from them to verify his identity. Now we will never know!
 

61653 HTAFC

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I mean... some people might be thinking about him; I am not apart from when I read this specific forum thread...

The problem is that I am unable to find anywhere reporting about the actually important things which are going on in the world, because the media is so saturated with this one story. Which, as you rightly say, is almost certainly being used by a politician as an excuse to tell the public some bad news without anyone hearing them.
One thing is for sure. If in a few days time we find that some politician has attempted to "bury bad news" the worst they'll suffer is a temporary loss of portfolio. Some underling will be scapegoated.
 

yorksrob

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RIP Prince Philip.

Unsurprisingly I never met him, but he seemed very public spirited and had a wry sense of humour.
 

brad465

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What bad news is bojo sneaking out quietly under the radar while we are thinking about the Duke?
The unrest in NI, while already have had muted coverage, will now be undercover even more, unless it does outlast the mourning period (or die down and flare up again later).





North Korea is now one of the many trends on Twitter, with users comparing the outpouring of grief and wall-to-wall media coverage of this news to them.
 
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