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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder where the royal family are for the Olympic closing ceremony?

100 replies

hermioneweasley · 12/08/2012 21:09

I mean, isn't this what we have them for?

If they can't be arsed to turn up for this, when the eyes of the world are n London, what is their purpose?

OP posts:
EdithWeston · 12/08/2012 21:32

I was wondering where Prince Charles is. Hope everything is OK.

bebumba · 12/08/2012 21:33

Perhaps they weren't lucky enough to get tickets in the lottery :)

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 12/08/2012 21:33

Well I didn't see them today! I was working in their garden at Sandringham!
I'm glad the queen and prince Phillip weren't there. They are elderly, and they shouldn't keep being paraded about till all hours. It was freezing for the Jubillee, it's been sweltering today! Harry is more than uP to the job!

LST · 12/08/2012 21:33

The queen must be bloody knackered the year she's had. I like seeing the young royal at these events. The queen and Phillip can't really enjoy it.

Original poster
hermioneweasley · 12/08/2012 21:35

She can't delay her holiday a day for the Olympics?! One of the justifications for a royal family is how good they are for tourism, well billions of people are watching this. And it's not just her and Philip what about Charles etc?

OP posts:
B00Magoo · 12/08/2012 21:36

I hope that they're all well. Just spare me Emile Sandé again. In our musical history,WHO IS SHE??!!

alphabite · 12/08/2012 21:37

Yes I am sure billions will be lost in tourism because they are not there hermione.

Trills · 12/08/2012 21:39

She did a spot of skydiving for the opening ceremony - I think that gives her a bit of credit to spend on a night off.

alphabite · 12/08/2012 21:41

The thing is they can't win if they are there or if they aren't. There were threads a week or so ago moaning about Wills and Kate taking up seats that other spectators could use. They can't win.

TherapeuticVino · 12/08/2012 21:43

I think they're going to fire Queenie out of a cannon at the end.

BartletForTeamGB · 12/08/2012 21:44

Why not let the 'young' royals take on this duty? I'm betting Harry & Kate might actually enjoy themselves rather than just feel shattered as the Queen and Prince Philip (who is 90!) would. They are elderly so surely are entitled to a bit of a break.

uselfullife · 12/08/2012 21:46

Poor Queen, she can't do anything right.

Groovee · 12/08/2012 21:49

Does no harm to see Harry and Kate there. It's not always about the queen and she is 86

KenDoddsDadsDog · 12/08/2012 21:49

William is up here in NE England for some reason.

prettybird · 12/08/2012 21:49

"The Queen will not attend tonight?s closing ceremony, as Buckingham Palace said there was no official role for a Head of State in the ceremony." according to the Telegraph.

Sidge · 12/08/2012 21:49

Liz is at home with a cup of cocoa and a well-thumbed copy of '50 Shades of Grey'.

Phil is asleep under a corgi blanket.

Charles and Camilla have rented a DVD from Blockbusters and it's due back tomorrow so they need to watch it now.

William is at work so Kate thought she'd pop along with her BIL.

Troo facts.

prettybird · 12/08/2012 21:51

... and William is back on duty with the RAF

EdithWeston · 12/08/2012 21:51

As I wrote on the parallel thread in "chat": Well, after the flak she got for not looking super alert all the way through the opening, I think a "stuff orf, I'm staying in with Dubonnet and the wide screen" is in order.

But it is quite touching that people just do want her there. Love her or loathe her, she's deeply engraved (?) in the public psyche; and no one below retirement age knows what the country can be like without her as Head of State.

exoticfruits · 12/08/2012 21:53

Only last week there was a thread asking why they were turning up at so many events! They can't win!

Chunkamatic · 12/08/2012 21:56

She has been in Balmoral for a while now and was never intending to attend this ceremony.

Over the next year you will see a lot of her duties and appearances delegated to the younger royals, as other have said she is 86 after all!

Original poster
hermioneweasley · 12/08/2012 21:58

Alphabite, either it is important for Britain's mystique to have an active monarchy or it isn't. Along with the opening ceremony this is the biggest global audience that London will have for years, surely this would be the perfect place to showcase them. I could take a view that if she's not capable of sitting for a few hours she should step down as head of state, or I could ask where any of her children are.

OP posts:
ilovesooty · 12/08/2012 22:00

It's not a state occasion. I don't see why she should have to go.

alphabite · 12/08/2012 22:04

After this year you are saying she HASN'T been an active monarch? Seriously Hermione? I am no royalist. Infact I'd rather not have a royal family. However I think the Olympics isn't about them. It is about the athletes.

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 13/08/2012 00:29

The thing is, at the end of the day, they are human beings. They are elderly people! Not objects to be paraded about.
Whether or not she is head of state, she has a right to a life. She won't be figure heading anything if she has a heart attack in the heat, because shes up till midnight, and is knackered, or had frozen to death on that flipping Jubillee barge!
The royal family were represented. Katherine will one day be Queen. Why can't she represent HM?

NoComet · 13/08/2012 00:38

I don't think she'd want to upstage the Athletes. If she goes anywhere she becomes the focus of attention in a way that wouldn't be appropriate tonight.