Do govt employee find out early about the Queen’s death?

[Ginandpink]

My brother said they were told early, doesn’t make sense?

@bottleofbeer HMP Wormwood Scrubs?!

Yes, the tone of comments by people who are likely to be briefed on the true situation, like the Archbishop of Canterbury, were so solemn this afternoon that I assumed she had either already died or that they knew death was inevitable.

I am pleased that we know for sure that she was (relatively) well up until 2 days ago.

Are you all forgetting Diana? How stuff ground to a halt? She wasn't the head of anything.

When your 'boss' is the Queen, because you legally do your job in her name, are you really that surprised that there is protocol in place that means business as usual, isn't business as usual?

I'm an underling, I don't claim any high power 😁

My boss is the Queen, but the nature of my dept means that business as usual is likely to carry on, for the most part. Other depts will differ though.

Wormwood Scrubs? 😁

Not that far off but no.

Well we know she is going to be moved tomorrow to Holyrood and then later transported down to London so presumably there will be a need to have logistics in lots of buildings en route or around there.

Don't know why you're sure you know when Liz Truss found out.

Presumably because it's been announced when the PM and Kier Starmer found out.

Although I daresay there will be some on here who "know" that that's also a lie and they're just pretending they found out later than everyone's very important friend's and husbands

Oh business will carry on as usual but it doesn't surprise me that today, my dept closed.

I think "dying" can be fairly obvious, exact time of death following this less so. Quite conceivable that "clearly dying but still breathing" became apparent late morning with actual cessation of heartbeat mid afternoon. Would very much fit the timeline of events.

I just hope it was quick and as painless as possible.

Not connected in any way but the nature of the coverage from lunch time implied that the Queen was expected to die in the next 6-12 hours or less.

Going to have to relearn the national anthem now, or next time I sing it (fortunately not going to be solo or public) there will be a dire mix of everything!

The PM will have known very quickly after she died and will have been kept informed. But the discussing and whispering in parliament and all the scurrying around will have been updates about who was where, what time announcements will have been planned for, whether the family had arrived at Balmoral yet etc etc

I don’t think she’d have died by the time they put the lunch time statement out. Pretty sure they wouldn’t lie and say she was still alive if she was dead. Plus the speaker of the House of Commons wouldn’t have sent well wishes if they knew she’d already died. So it must have been after 1ish I think. I would have thought PM would have been told very quickly but it might have depended on whether they’d managed to contact the family?

We're not even close to the route from Scotland to London.

But it's possible that people from every force may be needed.

I've told you, it's all there. I just didn't 'say' it 🙂

Lots of people are not told the Queen has died, but they were given jobs which makes it pretty clear she had. While the news were talking about the family rushing to Balmoral, a friend was told to at work in a council place to collect the books of condolence from the store and have them to hand.
Many staff are told to carry out tasks that make it obvious the Queen has died before it is officially announced.

Well, that's exactly my point.

The PM will not have been told that the Queen was dead hours after the friends and husband of various MNetters were told she was dead.

There's no chance various randoms were told she was dead at 12.30/1/2/3/3.30pm and the PM not informed until 4.30pm.

My boss is the Queen, but the nature of my dept means that business as usual is likely to carry on, for the most part. Other depts will differ though.

how did she do your appraisals?

Around 2ish.

I was at a friend's until 1.45pm.

Word was that she was seriously ill and notice had been given by the Speaker about it before I left around 12 to 12.30pm.

When I got home and stuck the news on and it was just about breaking that they had cancelled the afternoon schedule til 6pm.

At that point it was obvious it was a 'this is your notice period'.

She cancelled the privvy meeting last night, but the family stayed put. They only decided to travel around lunchtime today.

So i think this morning she must have taken a significant turn for the worse compared to even last night.

Huw and Nick were tripping over themselves to get the present tense all afternoon. They didn't slip up but it looked awkward and not natural to the point I commented on it.

Councils getting condolence books to hand doesn't mean anyone was told she had died.

As soon as they announced the 96-year-old Queen was in a condition that had her doctors "very concerned" those things would start falling into place.

That's common sense. Not inside info.

Why is it so important to know the exact time of her death?

There's no chance various randoms were told she was dead at 12.30/1/2/3/3.30pm and the PM not informed until 4.30pm.

Then I don't think she was only told then.
I

Whether anyone wants to believe it or not, there is hierarchical dissemination for information with these type of occurrences.

A family member who is very senior in his industry and his team (small SLT) were briefed earlier this afternoon - but ever the professional, he didn’t say a word until after the media announced it.

*How do you think all the people at TV stations get the rescheduling done and get the content in place and all the technicians get stuff in order?

How did the National Anthem play after Huw made the announcement?*

All the content and the national anthem is ready to go and has been for several years. It takes seconds to line up a VT and press play.

The rescheduling is not that big a job because news are on air all the time anyway, they switched it to BBC One and called it a news special. It was obviously very rolling newsy and being done on the fly. The newsreaders and royal correspondents are on standby and have their outfits / black ties ready all the time.

It was obvious from the announcement and from the family's behaviour what was going to happen, hence the live coverage, but the broadcasters don't get a huge amount of notice of the official announcement. That's why everything is ready to go at a moment's notice.

I’ve just seen a tiktok video about that with screenshots

So the PM, and the Leader of the Opposition, is lying about the time she was informed about the Queen's death?

Seriously?

I mean, she'll have known she was dying (as we all did) and she will have had more detailed info about it, but you actually think she's outright lied about it?

My appraisals? 🤣🤣🤣

Dunno but they must have been good!

Did she not do them one to one?