Setting a good example for the plebes, I see

February 14, 2022 10:24 AM

Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla come down with covid after mingling mask-free with the public. Prince Charles has tested positive for covid a second time, the day after going maskless at a public event. After first testing negative, Duchess Camilla went out maskless to another public event, and then of course got diagnosed as positive right after that. And yes, the Queen did see Charles recently, whyever do you ask? The Palace so far declines to say if she's been tested or what the results are, or even if she got a booster. They just claim she doesn't have symptoms.

Note that Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie, at least, go out in public with masks on (to the Super Bowl, no less).

posted by jenfullmoon (41 comments total)

Have we moved into some sort of Weekend at Brenda's scenario here?
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:28 AM on February 14, 2022 [8 favorites]

I think people have been wondering about that one for the last few months, actually...
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:32 AM on February 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Prince Charles has tested positive for covid a second time

This is NOT what the mods meant when planning the February doubles jubilee!!
posted by phunniemee at 10:33 AM on February 14, 2022 [22 favorites]

Prince Charles is 73. He's not getting a silver jubilee. If he can take the crown and get away with it by saying "My only crime was hugging my mum!", more (absolute?) power to him.

Maybe that's the monarch the UK needs and/or deserves right now.
posted by Garm at 10:36 AM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Would his title be "Queenslayer" after passing on Covid and committing regicide?
posted by nickggully at 10:37 AM on February 14, 2022 [15 favorites]

Have we moved into some sort of Weekend at Brenda's scenario here?

She’s just passed the point where her reign would have been 69 years, so there’s no need anymore.
posted by grahamparks at 10:38 AM on February 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'm thinking less Weekend at Bernie's and more King Ralph.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:39 AM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

something something pining to the fjords
posted by OverlappingElvis at 10:40 AM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

I've seriously been wondering what happens if she doesn't make it to June and all the festivities. It sounds ridiculously optimistic of them to plan something THAT far in advance in a pandemic when she's 95. I get the whole "she's sad in February because of her dad's death and she doesn't want to party down then" thing, but lasting until June? In good enough shape to be in public? I dunno, man.

I didn't post about this either, but there's also been commentary of late about how the Queen is now publicly supporting "Queen Camilla" instead of this "princess consort" BS that was originally floated about. But that seems like a giant "duh" to me because clearly that was just for PR and Charles can do whatever the hell he pleases once she's dead, anyway.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:44 AM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Every time I see news about various celebrities coming down with Covid after not wearing a mask I think "Hm, yes, time to encourage people to stop wearing masks, I am very smart."
posted by bleep at 10:45 AM on February 14, 2022 [8 favorites]

Note that Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie, at least, go out in public with masks on (to the Super Bowl, no less).

Probably because that's the law in California?
posted by atrazine at 10:55 AM on February 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

Abolish the monarchy. Abolish the House of Lords. Dismantle the UK.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 11:01 AM on February 14, 2022 [22 favorites]

And sell it for scraps and firewood?
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 11:05 AM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

I didn't post about this either, but there's also been commentary of late about how the Queen is now publicly supporting "Queen Camilla" instead of this "princess consort" BS that was originally floated about. But that seems like a giant "duh" to me because clearly that was just for PR and Charles can do whatever the hell he pleases once she's dead, anyway.

It's not quite as simple as that though. The monarch of the United Kingdom is also the head of the Church of England and the Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith). In the old days the Commonwealth realms would have broken from the crown over the King marrying a divorceé little alone her getting to be Princess Consort. Princess Consort and the civil marriage was the backroom negotiation between all the stuffy old men back in 2005. Plus the general public hates Camilla so Charles insisting that she be Queen Consort, even if the Queen gives her blessing while she's alive, could have some... interesting... consequences.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 11:10 AM on February 14, 2022 [5 favorites]

Probably because that's the law in California?

Maybe? But I'd venture to say that most people at the Super Bowl were not wearing masks, by the looks of things as I was watching it.
posted by cooker girl at 11:11 AM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Somehow I'm surprised he caught such a…common disease. You'd think he'd stick to the more regal ones, like hemophilia.
posted by adamrice at 11:12 AM on February 14, 2022 [17 favorites]

some... interesting... consequences

Can you be more specific? On a scale of grumbling in the tabloids to Beefeaters going into the Tower of London to polish up the old equipment, what sort of consequences are we talking about?
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:14 AM on February 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Dismantle the UK.

You say you want a revolution...
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:16 AM on February 14, 2022

ABC news says that she's been triple vaccinated.
posted by eye of newt at 11:17 AM on February 14, 2022

Can you be more specific? On a scale of grumbling in the tabloids to Beefeaters going into the Tower of London to polish up the old equipment, what sort of consequences are we talking about?

Well it depends on how craven the Commons is at the time and how pissed off the people are about it. There could be anything from the whole cabinet resigning, Commonwealth realms breaking from the crown, Scotland wanting to get the fuck out quicker than ever, or there could be nary a peep as the Tory men wonder aloud "who hasn't divorced and remarried to their mistress from time to time?"
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 11:26 AM on February 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

My impression is that things have changed since Wallis and Edward's day re: queening a divorcee.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:31 AM on February 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

also, there aren't any commonwealth realms left to break away. Being Scottish, I don't fully understand the concept of church and state, 'cos we don't got it.
posted by scruss at 12:11 PM on February 14, 2022

Trnying t' renmember , , if Mem'ries off Third Corvid Vaxcation actually recv'd in my own ( Royal ) Arm , or if may be just remberance of poor old Placace gornilla , who had learnt to inject Barbitauate & would steale the Needless from the Palance Doctors & pass out in Thron Room with Nedles still hanging out from his big hairy Gorilna Arm, gave me Frightful visions or Night Mares of Needle in gornilla arm for many years
posted by mubba at 12:58 PM on February 14, 2022 [12 favorites]

She’s just passed the point where her reign would have been 69 years, so there’s no need anymore.

April 2 will be the 55th day of Elizabeth's 70th regnal year. If you still think she's in her 69th year, it'll be her 420th day. Once she passes that day...who knows?
posted by stannate at 2:54 PM on February 14, 2022 [7 favorites]

My impression is that things have changed since Wallis and Edward's day re: queening a divorcee

The situation with Edward and Wallis was extremely complex and even more fascinating.

Edward was known to be a Nazi sympathizer, and after he and Wallis married in 1937, they toured Germany, under their titles as Duke and Duchess of Windsor, at German expense and as personal guests of Adolf Hitler. They were in France when it fell to the Nazis in 1940 and left for Spain to avoid being interned. During their visit, the Spanish Foreign Minister contacted the German government to ask whether they should be detained; the answer was yes, but that any such action should not be attributed to Germany. Hitler planned to restore Edward to the throne as a puppet monarch if he conquered Britain.

In July, Churchill ordered Edward back to England under threat of court martial if he disobeyed, but then instead Edward was named Governor of the Bahamas and ordered to assume his post immediately in order to get him out of Europe.

After further complicated diplomatic machinations throughout July, Hitler's personal emissary put a plot into motion to kidnap the Duke and Duchess, but the plot failed.
posted by jamjam at 6:05 PM on February 14, 2022 [12 favorites]

One interesting document to encounter in the midst of all this is King Charles III. Started out as a stage play, turned into a BBC film [1h27m]. I watched it not too long ago. It's strangely prescient about a lot of things.
posted by hippybear at 6:52 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

I think it's a bit of an overstatement to say that the general public hates Camila. Prince Charles is certainly not well liked, either by Royalists or the general public, but Camila isn't really considered by anybody. She's just one of those things, like driving on the left, nuclear submarines, or the continued existence of the royal family, that you put up with as an English person. It's too much work to change and it's not really your call, so people just tend to lump it.
posted by The River Ivel at 2:44 AM on February 15, 2022 [10 favorites]

There's this idea that Camilla is responsible for the mess that was Charles and Diana's marriage, but that was doomed from the start. I don't think even the gutter tabloids really bother to hate her anymore, although they do occasionally try to dig up the Diana murder conspiracy theories and give them an airing. I'm sure that will come up again when Charles is crowned.

Given that the vast majority of the UK population were born after Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, I think her passing - hopefully not for a while yet - will trigger a lot of people to consider whether we should have a monarchy or not. The Queen is part of the fabric of life, part of the furniture, she's on our coins and banknotes. I'm not sure how people will feel about King Charles III or whatever name he takes upon his coronation.

From a pure publicity standpoint, the monarchy would do well to just skip him and crown Prince William, but of course that's not how it works.

And really I feel sorry for the lot of them. Sure many of them are awful people, but they're also born into their jobs, born into the spotlight, born into journalists following them to university, born into so many expectations. Wealthy, yes, but they don't have the same freedom an ordinary person does. Prince Charles was born to be Prince of Wales, then King. There's no consideration whether he wants to do that, or whether he's any good at it (he kind of isn't).

At least if we elected the head of state they would have chosen to go for the job.

Although we're terrible at choosing political leaders, so it wouldn't necessarily be an improvement.
posted by mathw at 3:17 AM on February 15, 2022 [7 favorites]

Abolish the monarchy

Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
posted by DreamerFi at 3:32 AM on February 15, 2022 [5 favorites]

Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Trouble is the current UK government doesn't have such a mandate. Over half the votes in the last election were for other parties, but they ended up with a 70-ish seat majority in the Commons anyway. Yay democracy!
posted by mathw at 3:35 AM on February 15, 2022 [4 favorites]

That's a perfect setup to the next line in that monty python skit I quoted: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system!
posted by DreamerFi at 3:39 AM on February 15, 2022 [6 favorites]

My favourite arguments for not abolishing the monarchy are;

(i) I cannot think of any figures in public life who I would want to elect to be head of state, especially when you imagine the set of people who would put themselves up for the job (Blair, Dyson, Farage, Branson)

(ii) If it were abolished then I suspect it would be an "Obama moment", i.e. there'd be a lot of "we abolished the monarchy, so we must be a classless society!" The monarchy is an excellent symbol of how the UK works; entrenched privilege, fundamental hypocrisy, bizarre tradition, blood-soaked foundations, built with stolen wealth. Address all that stuff and then getting shot of them would mean something. Or get shot of them as part of fundamental constitutional change. Swapping them out for whichever awful politico is amusing people this month would just be subbing in a different depressing metaphor.
posted by Luddite at 8:13 AM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]

Camilla sounds like a jerk (man stealing, sharing her covid, basically boffing the prince because her off-and-on shitty cheating boyfriend was boffing a princess....KEEPING IT CLASSY), but after decades of her I am frankly out of juice to care. She won. What can you do.

I do think it'll be interesting to see if the monarchy lasts after Charles takes the throne because really, nobody other than Camilla likes him. (I still find it irritating that that guy, of all people, ended up with his perfect soulmate.) His reign will be short but irritating and I think he's gonna get on everyone's nerves. And while I used to like William, it's sadly become apparent over the years that he's taking after dad's side in personality in his older age, so....Monarchy seem like they're there for marketing and publicity and whatnot more than anything else, so we'll see what happens when the ones in power are just plain disliked by everyone, I suppose.

Prince Harry was briefly unmasked at the Super Bowl, surely that’s NBD- oh, wait (I note that it looks like Harry may have been drinking something around the time of that photo.)

On another royal family note--I don't think I can start another FPP today so it's gonna go here, continued from here: Prince Andrew & Virginia Giuffre reached a private financial settlement.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:43 AM on February 15, 2022

She must be considering dusting off the old Golden Throne by now. Yes, she'd be locked in a prison of flesh for ten thousand years but on the upside she'd keep her clownish family away from the top.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 1:42 PM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

I genuinely thought the Queen was dead and the crown was hiding it so I am absolutely flabbergasted when people mention her in present tense.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 5:18 PM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Is he using homeopathy to treat himself?
posted by kathrynm at 6:19 PM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Updates: both Prince Charles and the Queen are going around other people without masks, AGAIN.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:24 PM on February 17, 2022

Maybe this is their way of getting the crown to the Duke of Cambridge quickly?
posted by VyanSelei at 12:40 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Wouldn't totally surprise me for Charles wanting his mother finally gone, at least...
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:39 PM on February 18, 2022

In King Charles III, Elizabeth dies and Camilla moves in to get her and Charles declared/coronated right after the death because the UK cannot be without a leader, or something. But he makes a terrible King and the public demand he hand things over to William. It's really worth a watch! [1h27m, pseudo-Shakespeare, interesting and fun]
posted by hippybear at 7:45 PM on February 18, 2022

Updates: both Prince Charles and the Queen are going around other people without masks, AGAIN.

And, unsurprisingly, the headlines this morning are saying that she caught it.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:48 AM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]