HOC Speaker announcing the Queen's health has deteriorated.

[MrsRobinsonsHandprints]

I'm not really a Royalist, but this is sad news. The fact it has been announced in the HOC makes me think she must be really quite unwell.

She is just such a constant, a link to a world that no longer exists. A person that actually believes in duty to the country.

Sad if the news of the death of the most dutiful Queen who has been dutiful all her life has been broken by some loose lipped, ill judged, lacking in all forms of duty person out to get some likes.

But then that clearly shows the difference between old school duty and the rot we have today.

Quite. Your sister is completely unprofessional and you are untrustworthy.

Anyone hear that ringing noise in the background on the BBC coverage?
Someone forget to switch their phone on silent or was that the RATS notification as mentioned in the London Bridge article upthread?

From the article:
"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."

You put it better than me.

I’m feel quite angry at @steppon and her sister.

Lots of similar noise suddenly on twitter about a 4pm announcement

I do wish people would stop trying to imply some insider knowledge. Stop attention seeking.

yep

@Flowership why are you angry at me & my sister?!

My sister is very high up in Local Government and no such announcement has been made to them.

She usually told me what was happening with covid, restrictions etc before announcements were made, although i would never post such a statement on Mumsnet and kept it private.

@Mcintosh I'm sorry but that is just not true. There is no way a comms officer in local government has been told. I have some involvement in the protocol and that just would not have happened.

Local Government aka local councils will find out on the 6 o clock news same as the rest of us

2022. What a terrible year. This really is the end of an era. 😥

Well she has absolutely no reason to lie and neither have I

That’s like saying hi I work for God and we’ve got the queen in heaven now, you will all know at 4pm. How utterly ridiculous just to get some clout here.

What bollocks!

I too am in gov comms and we've not heard a dickie bird apart from what the rest of us know.

Why on earth would they brief thousands of government officials ahead of announcing something to the public? What are those officials all meant to be preparing for? Common sense says that if the Queen is seriously ill, her immediate family and a few key senior people in the UK Government who might need to take specific action would be told.

Not @steppon I was agreeing with her, it was Mcintosh that was a total dick. I just didn't want to repost it.

I wish there would have been no statement. Let her pass in peace without the general public knowing until the BBC announces it.

God save the Queen. Anyway, I read that guardian article someone posted about "London Bridge is Down". I think it was written in 2017 and it was so depressed about the state of Britain/the World. Sweet summer children we were!

Yep I heard that weird noise too. I rewound and turned the volume up as my first thought was church bell. No idea what it was though.

God sorry! Numerous people on here have already said she has already passed. I wasn’t saying anything for ‘clout’, I’ve been on mumsnet for nearly 10 years and would never want to cause any offence.

i will report my comment, apologies for any offence caused that was caused

Comms for local government 🤦🏼‍♀️

Horrible to leak that kind of thing even if she did know anything, but I don't believe she does.

I don't understand why BBC have suspended regular programming until 6pm? I'm not in the UK so can't watch...what are they saying? Surely there's nothing to say except "the Queen is unwell, her family are with her"?

Bless her. She really did her duty until her dying days. It feels mawkish to have 24hr rolling coverage and the awful constant commentary that says nothing but just fills space! From experience, deaths (like births) can be drawn out, let them have their privacy and just announce it when the time comes.

Yes it's a bit silly really. They could have asked for family to go the Balmoral, and then say she's unwell and doctors are looking after her.

That's 24 hour news for you though isn't it? We've nothing to say so we'll keep saying it until there is something to say.