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

[Ginandpink]

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

It’s a bit worrying that so many people working in sensitive areas can’t keep their mouths shut.

Exactly. The very simple but important difference between 'dying' and the state of being dead.

Good job Mumsnet wasn't about in the days of the D-Day landings or they would have known about the date before Eisenhower.

Operation London Bridge has always planned a 6 pm announcement of the Queen’s death.

Firstly the announcement wasn't at 6pm.
Secondly, if she had died at 6.30pm, do you think they would have waited almost 24 hrs to announce it?

Honestly it’s not something that interests me enough to give a massive amount of thought to.

I work for MOD - myself and my colleagues found out from BBC1

Honestly it’s not something that interests me enough to give a massive amount of thought to.

And yet here you are talking bollocks on a mumsnet thread with the rest of us.

I very much doubt normal people will have been told before the rest of us.

It would only take 1 person to let slip and then the rest of the world would know in a matter of seconds.

I do think that family members and maybe specific people were informed but the most logical theory is that the doctors told the family it’s not going to be very long now and therefore everyone was just waiting for it to happen within the next couple of days.

MN had multiple threads about her dying before she actually died.
It was inevitable.

I feel sad about it. But take a step back and think about King Charles. He had to start a new job the day after his mother passed away.

I only read today that Charles always travelled with a black mourning suit in his luggage. The palace really is a well oiled machine.

Most snr royals have always carried black clothes with them wherever they travel, in case needed (not just for the Queen.) As do PMs and Heads of State.

I'm puzzled how people are referring to a black suit as a 'mourning' suit. I saw it on the Mail online and assumed some journo had made a typo.

A 'morning suit' or 'morning dress' is a type of wedding attire. I don't think we call black suits 'mourning suits'.

Back to the thread, it's usually always been a case that the media holds back to announce important deaths, for a few hours, to give the family some privacy.

This thread is bonkers! All these important folk that people claim to know! The ex husband who heads up education (? - a woman is in this job), the senior figures in the home office and in universities!

All these people jumping to boast about how well connected they are. I suppose we all need to believe we are special and a cut above everyone else.

fascinating

This is like the covid threads where everyone knew someone in the know

My daughter told me at 4 as she was aware through her work of the transport links being arranged. I still didn’t believe it until the announcement.

Does anyone know at exactly what time Liz Truss, Keir Starmer and the Speaker were handed the notes in parliament?

The press are reporting that Charles had been collected by helicopter at 6.45am that morning, implying that they knew at that stage that she may well be about to pass.

If that were the case, Truss, Starmer and the Speaker would almost certainly have been informed of the situation during the morning, and then it is hard to see what was so urgent mid afternoon for the passing of notes. I suspect the note actually said that she had died.

I thought it would be 6pm too and when it wasn't I made a quick trip to Tesco so missed the announcement! The Newspaper editors must have been in a state of panic all afternoon, Do I hold the front page or not??
It would always be announced a few hours after the event, they had to inform the Government and all the Commonwealth governments. Jacinda Ardern said she was wakened by a policeman shining a torch in her face when the news came through.
The communications we have now must have made it much easier to inform them all, I seem to recall reading that the Palace had difficulty in 1952 letting her know that her father had died and she was now Queen.

I doubt Keir Starmer would have talked about her recovery, if that had been the case! Clearly it was a bit of an unlikely thing to happen anyway, even if they knew she was gravely ill, but it would be bizarre of him to say so if she had died.

I expect, like others have said, that she was clearly unwell Wed night, enough that Charles wanted to be with her at that point, but there was no way of knowing if it was going to be hours or a day or more. Then she might well have rapidly declined or had an additional episode mid-late morning, at which point the notes were given and it was decided that the others would rush up there to potentially be able to see her before she died.

Ok. 👍🏻 🤦🏼‍♀️

Embassy staff. Yes we knew a few hours in advance. And we were able to prep our comma line for the announcement at dinner time.

Yes I thought that too. I thought that the tone of the Radio 4 coverage from about 1pm, when I happened to start listening, wouldn’t have been considered appropriate if they hadn’t been given the go ahead to treat it that way. It was very much ‘what’s it going to be like when she’s gone’.

I don’t work in any govt role: and DH works in a very low level public sector role (nothing to do with the RF)

from 1pm onwards it was very obvious that the queen was either already dead or would be dead within hours. The rest of the afternoon was really just waiting for the announcement

what I mean is that the rumours all over the place were likely to be gossip and conjecture. Very few people would actually have “known” until the announcement

To be honest thats what made him look a bit stupid

From the tone of the messages of various big whigs around the world, religious leaders, government and country representatives which were coming through from about lunchtime, they were almost obituary like while providing 'best wishes' type things but clearly were written as if someone was dying. So even other ambassadors etc were aware certainly that the time was very near.

And he would have known that too, why he talked of recovery who knows

Do all these Very Important Husbands with Very Important Jobs who "knew at 1pm" know that their wives are spreading Official Sensitive information on Mumsnet?

My sister sent me this message yesterday (Thursday) at 16.37:
Apparently according to DD, the Queen has already died,
and that they're waiting for all political, security and media protocols in place before announcing.

My DN was involved in a massive conference that Megan Markle was at.
I have to say I thought it was bs at the time.

By ‘knew’ I mean not told I’m so many words but we were told to prep protocol and wait for an announcement. It’s not really that secret and sensitive, of course the announcement is delayed while some preparations take place. And no I’m not the ambassador or particularly high up but how would we prepare if not informed??

The BBC were about a minute behind as I’d had a message from DD (accountant, not involved in any government, military type things, just a normal accountant) to say it had been announced as she was driving home.

I wondered from the Queens hands in the Truss photos if she’d had some kind of cannula in there that caused the bruising, but she was 96 and at that age you bruise from anything.

Do all these Very Important Husbands with Very Important Jobs who "knew at 1pm" know that their wives are spreading Official Sensitive information on Mumsnet?

Oh chill out.