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

[Ginandpink]

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

😂

Not exactly insider info, it was always going to be 10 days after the announcement but unlikely to be a Sunday, it’s just an educated guess.

Exactly this, the entire announcement had a detailed plan in place and from a broadcast perspective there has to be a lead time to physically get people in suits/arrange the technical requirements for an announcement to go across all channels simultaneously etc.

That doesn’t happen by magic, it needs people to have time to set these things in motion.

From the fact it was rolling news you mean? Everyone knew that!

It wouldn’t have anything to do with the head of BBC One except that their schedule was flipped to rolling news. If anything Comms would come via head of news or the DG, not BBC one.

There has to be a timeline, it’s been meticulously planned for years, anyone working in the media had an obit plan for this day.

They have obit plans for all the high profile royals, they’re regularly checked and assessed.

Don’t be ridiculous, had she died before the new PM was announced then Charles would’ve been the one meeting them, he takes the role of king immediately.

I imagine they might’ve rescheduled the meeting had it fallen very close purely from a logistical perspective.

I don't know about Government employees but the Media knew at least 2 hours beforehand that the Queen had already passed or was in the very final hours of her life, but obviously the news was strictly embargoed. There was a point around 3.30pm when all the presenters on the news channels started changing into black jackets and ties. That's when we knew there was no way the Queen would recover.

Exactly. Everyone knew that she was dead or imminently dying at that point. You didn't need to be briefed.

So millions of people knew. It wasn't a secret. It didn't require special briefings of Very Important Husbands, QCs or anyone else. It had been on the frigging news.

Considering the wall to wall tv coverage all morning and afternoon, relatives flying up - not exactly a surprise was it?
RIP The Queen.

Some Met police officers were quoted in the Daily Mail yesterday, telling of how they were briefed at some point that 'London Bridge 'was 'down'. Though no times are mentioned.

Think it was a joke.

It was pretty obvious she was either dead or close to it as soon as the medical ‘concern’ was announced. The tv coverage gave it away, although nobody said directly they were talking as though she was already gone.

Hoping so! You can never quite tell on MN...

What building?

If I was prepared to say I'd have said so from the start. No, I'm not being mysterious or making out like I'm MI bloody 5 but people tend to prefer anonymity on here. It's nothing particularly important, these places exist in every town in the country.

Was it a nuclear power plant

Firstly, for anyone working on Her Majesty’s funeral plans / our nations response to her death, thank you for everything you are doing. It’s Saturday afternoon and I‘ m sure a lot of plans have been put in place at an exceptional pace with people working long hours.

With regard to who knew, I suspect that people were put on high alert / get ready from lunchtime when the queens health must have seriously deteriorated and them given the go ahead to implement any plans before the announcement was made to the rest of us.

i can’t see it I spoke to several people who work there, through work on Friday.

They have reviewed security plans but not cleared buildings.

I do not claim to have any inside knowledge at all, but was listening to the radio during lunch break at work. I was listening to the PM giving info about the energy crisis on my PC. It happened that the particular radio station is one that shows a 'live feed' in the corner of the web page. It was clear something was happening as LT was handed a note and AR looked very shocked as well. Once the Speaker made the announcement my gut feeling was that HMQ had already died.

My belief is that if there had been any chance of the London based family getting there in time to see her, they would have left immediately - it's not as though they have to ask to leave work or sort out emergency childcare - and would have had a helicopter waiting for them at Aberdeen airport. The fact that they left London so late and then drove to Balmoral, suggests to me they already knew they were too late. As for Harry, I suspect that the announcement was timed for 6B30pm , just after he was due to have landed at Aberdeen and be in a car on his way to Balmoral, but unfortunately his flight was delayed and meant the announcement happened before he landed.

I actually hope that HMQ did die earlier and that the family had a few hours to themselves before the world and his wife got involved.

Ooh weird that the timings are similar but still not sure what to make of it, tbh I’m not sure if we will ever know the exact time of death.

@Erictheavocado

My belief is that if there had been any chance of the London based family getting there in time to see her, they would have left immediately - it's not as though they have to ask to leave work or sort out emergency childcare - and would have had a helicopter waiting for them at Aberdeen airport. The fact that they left London so late and then drove to Balmoral, suggests to me they already knew they were too late.

Not sure as to the reasons for the timings but as I understand it the poor weather at the time in that part of the world precluded the use of a helicopter transfer (from the looks of the TV it certainly didn't look great at Balmoral Thursday afternoon.).

Isn’t it just!

Thats the bit I can’t get my head round, that someone in that position so closely connected with the Royal Family would break all confidentially agreements of the highest order to tell this info to “Joe Bloggs” so soon after signing the certificate. Highly unprofessional and totally crass in this situation.

Thats why I’m struggling to believe any of this actually true!

Of course it’s not true. For one thing, a doctor doesn’t sign the death certificate- that’s the registrar. The doctor signs the MCCD, which is simply a statement of the cause of death.

of course it's not. Some of them are people just trying to make a point about how you can say anything on the internet!!

I also read about the helicopter transfer problem, had to drive from Aberdeen. I think they were probably trying to get there in time, but if they didn't know until lunchtime just how imminent it was likely to be, it might still have taken a while to get them all organised and together and so on, especially if they were out doing engagements in the morning.

This is an interesting read about the media process/timeline.

www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/british-newsrooms-queen-elizabeth-ii-death

I work for an NHS arms length body. I’d suspected it since hearing about the senior Royals rushing up to Balmoral but found out officially when everyone else did at 6.30pm.