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

[hermioneweasley]

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?

Why should HM turn up to close something? William gets slated for being away from work and then slated for being at work and it's always the same people who are just against the british constitution and want to shove a socialist republic.

Princess Anne was their and it was good for Harry to get to take the centre stage every once in a while although disappointing to see that despite everyone claiming they 'so luv him' they don't even know his name. There in for more of a shock if Prince Charles decides to be a King George or Albert.

I bet most of the female athletes much preferred having Harry there to any other member of the Royal family! I bet they thought that Harry would go down better than Charles, given that William's back at work.

Most of the athletes seemd to be having too good a time with each other to notice who was there from the Royal family.

Ahh bless, poor ol' Liz
Harry was there, as was Kate, Anne & a couple of others sitting in the row behind
Zara was with the Athletes, surely thats enough.

Liz & Phil are entitled to an early night every now & then. SHouldnt we be looking out for our pensioners.

I reckon Harry was there so he was well-placed to race back to the Athletes' Village afterwards and join the multinational orgy that was inevitable.*

(*I have friends who used to compete internationally and they have some great tales to tell of what used to happen in the Athletes' Village at big sporting events - all those young people with great bods, lots of testosterone, emotions running high = LOTS of bedhopping.)

Princess Anne's husband was there, too. And there were some foreign royals.

The Queen always starts her Balmoral holiday at this time. Every year.

It's not a surprise.

Mind you she still has to do her Red Boxes and host visiting VIPs plus (lucky her) the PM goes up to hold meeetings.

You'd think Wills could have swapped his shift or something.

There's always lots of bed hopping (or so I've heard) - if there weren't, there'd be no need for an official condom supplier to the Games, nor would 150,000 been supplied to the Village.

When my gran was 86 she'd be asleep in her chair by 9:00pm. What would you rather, the Queen slumped over snoozing during the closing, or a yummy ginger to look at ;P

The rumour on Twitter is that Harry went, almost on his own, because Phillip is in a bad way again.

And with access to the BBC you take twitter as your source of news?

I've seen on another website, from someone supposedly "in the media" that an announcement about Philip is imminent!
Could be total crap of course.

Actually, I'm trying to remember if Prince P was on the news video of the Queen coming to Balmoral?

I wasn't paying close attention though as it was dinner time.

Oh dear - I hope it's just rumour.

I'm no royalist but I have developed an affection for Her Maj and Prince P after their sterling endurance efforts on that bloomin barge!!

Well malifenace name the website?

Have also heard from a journalist friend that Prince Philip is not very well. However I am taking this with a massive pinch of salt after believing that Mrs Thatcher was on her death bed last Christmas!

The Queen can't just 'step down'; that's not how a monarchy works.

Being that I am a lowly colonial, I don't have strong feelings on the monarchy either way, but it really gets my goat when people make strident pronoucements without having a clue of the facts.

If you believe rumours Prince Phillip is dead then you might also be in mourning for Rowan Atkinson who apparently died way back in February and trended on twitter.

I suspect that if he had died, there would be a fairly swift announcement. I doubt they would send Harry to deal with last night on his own (even with Kate or his Aunt) if his grandfather had died.

Phillip hasn't been well all year; but that gives even more reason for Harry to have done last night alone - to prepare him - and doesn't show anything more than that.

I'll wait until an official announcement rather than a stupid rumour off twitter I think.

There is a very good chance that Prince Phillip didn't feel up to it. He doesn't have to be on his death bed though. After the Jubilee stuff, I imagine they are being more careful about his health. This could well be a gentle handing over of "non essential" appearances to the younger royals.

I have to say that my first thought on seeing Harry's worried expression last night was: Oh shit. Someone has died. But I think it would have been announced first thing this morning had that been the case. Maybe he was just having a bad day.

It was always written that HM would not be in attendance and Harry is representing the Head of State with other Royal heads in attendance not jsut our own. He cold not walk out waving and grinning like the court Jester he can be some times. If anything people should realise that in a few months if they read about him in his helicopter having to take action then that is probably his game face and not getting his guns off in a gung ho fashion

Harry is 3rd in line - hardly just a random Royal. Seems very appropriate for him to be there.

It just wasn't an "old person" type even was it? I very much doubt my grandparents even watched at all, let alone contemplate going and watching it all live til gone midnight. Seems right it was a younger member of the royal family there to represent them. It wasn't William as her had work duties - if he'd not turned up at work I can imagine there'd be even more uproar about him not working too.

"Uncomfortable but hot as fuck!"

Agree!