If you’re going to Buckingham Palace to lay flowers

[eldorado02]

The queue typically starts at Hyde Park Corner, so head there to save time.

it’s a wonderful, reverent atmosphere ❤️

Waste does happen, yes. We have a duty to reduce unnecessary waste. That’s what being part of a decent society means.

"Unnecessary " doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

It is unnecessary.

It is unnecessary.

A decent society doesn't tell people what they feel.

This simply unnecessary like the flowers, then there is the unfortunately unnecessary but unavoidable waste which is a result of modern living.
The flowers are just unnecessary, and can be completely avoided if people chose to.

Isnt that exactly what you’re doing to me? You can’t even justify the unnecessary waste outside of ‘it’ll make me feel better’.

I'm not telling you how to feel. I'm disagreeing with you.

I'm not the one saying the 100, 000s of people who feel they want to lay flowers as a mark of whatever emotion they want to express are doing something 'unnecessary'. I respect their feelings even if they're different to mine.

You don't seem to have any take on the emotions of grief. Apologies if I am wrong. "This will make me feel better" is a very powerful force. And shouldn't be trivialised. I wish it on anyone who needs it. Believe me.

But is getting boring for everyone. Have a good day.

I wonder if you’d still think ‘feeling better’ was worth anything unnecessary like say, spraying ‘fuck the police’ outside Buckingham Palace or buying loads of food and leaving it to rot there. I doubt it.

I’ll take that as a no then.

You are telling people how to feel also.

From what I can gather the mood at the Palace was almost carnival. I find it hard to believe that all the people laying flowers were doing it to help them process their profound grief or as a sombre mark of respect. It's partly performative and largely the need to feel a part of a big event.

From what I can gather the mood at the Palace was almost carnival. I find it hard to believe that all the people laying flowers were doing it to help them process their profound grief or as a sombre mark of respect. It's partly performative and largely the need to feel a part of a big event.

And? So what?

Awfully chilly up there in the superior seats?

Really am over and out now.

I think that's accurate.

It's hard not to feel a little superior over it all actually because I can see that people aren't behaving appropriately and I'm not even a royalist.

People cheering and kissing Charles...he's the King ffs and he's in mourning. A true royalist would have more respect surely.
People hanging the bunting and flags out like it's a celebration...completely wrong

Not to mention the careless crap on social media...widely shared poems about our "great county" or images with 1926-2021 on them...if you truly cared then surely you would check that what you're posting is accurate

It seems to be widely accepted now that Paddington led the Queen away so not sure if he's also supposed to be dead or if he is the grim reaper...it just cheapens it all

So it's all this kind of stuff that leads me to think that there's little genuine grief involved I'm afraid. I'm not saying that people don't feel sad, but not to the extent that utter wastefulness becomes necessary for their feelings.

That is not the same at all, and I'm sorry for your loss.

Gifting flowers on an individual level is not the same as hundreds of thousands of bunches being bought for a stranger and laid in a short time in a few locations. The first is a thoughtful gesture and the second is waste on a mass scale.

*It's hard not to feel a little superior over it all actually because I can see that people aren't behaving appropriately and I'm not even a royalist.

People cheering and kissing Charles...he's the King ffs and he's in mourning. A true royalist would have more respect surely.
People hanging the bunting and flags out like it's a celebration...completely wrong

Not to mention the careless crap on social media...widely shared poems about our "great county" or images with 1926-2021 on them...if you truly cared then surely you would check that what you're posting is accurate

It seems to be widely accepted now that Paddington led the Queen away so not sure if he's also supposed to be dead or if he is the grim reaper...it just cheapens it all

So it's all this kind of stuff that leads me to think that there's little genuine grief involved I'm afraid. I'm not saying that people don't feel sad, but not to the extent that utter wastefulness becomes necessary for their feelings.*

God, the plebs eh.

Gifting flowers on an individual level is not the same as hundreds of thousands of bunches being bought for a stranger and laid in a short time in a few locations. The first is a thoughtful gesture and the second is waste on a mass scale.

It's ALL waste.

But somehow the flowers for me were more thoughtful?

list of Queen Elizabeth II patronage and charities You are better off donating to one of her many charities as that's money better spent.

Imagine if those 6m flowers laid for Diana had been trees planted instead. There would be mature forests commemorating her memory now and the lasting good that could have done.

I love this idea.

So many people making their way though the Great Park in Windsor today carting cellophane wrapped flowers. I do hope they take the cellophane away with them rather than leave it there.

The Castle staff clear away the flowers after a few day, as more flood in. They all end up in compost.

Tree planting would be marvellous.

Love this! 👍

There was something on some news broadcast or other that floral tributes (either the ones at Balmoral, or somewhere else nearby) are to be gathered by a primary school, composted and used in the planting of a memorial tree.

I planted a Jubilee tree back in June, and on Thursday gathered some acorns which I hope will germinate and become memorial trees. I don't know if the Queen's Canopy met its target, but it was a good project

They did plant trees in memory of Diana.

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/in-memory-gifts

I’ve come back from it today. I didn’t take flowers. However, the flower memorial bit in Green Park really just looked like a decomposing compost pile -they’re laid out on the ground in lines. I found it a bit depressing. The walk through to Buckingham Palace was busy, and for quite a long time we were corralled between fences. Tempers were getting a bit frayed as no-one knew why the crowd wasn’t moving. In the end, apparently Charles was coming through by car - there was some inappropriate, to my mind, cheering. It was very hot and I believe a couple of people fainted, or nearly fainted. There were quite a few people there with young children, and pushchairs. It must have been tedious for them. It seemed that a lot of the messages written on cards had also been written by children.