Palace requests mourners to stop leaving stuff like marmalade sandwiches

[Sparklybutold]

So the palace has now told people to stop leaving marmalade sarnies and such...

Those who thought it was ok the first time still think it's ok? Or now the palace acknowledges how ‘unsustainable’ it is change your opinion?

FWIW. It was idiotic the first time and still is.

If flowers are to continue, why can't it just be one flower instead of a whole bunch. Maybe it would as big but its less wasteful and doesn't need any wrapping

Bunches of flowers don’t need wrapping and they’re all going to be used as compost in the royal gardens. There’s nothing wasteful about that.

I read in the London Standard this morning that there are volunteers (members of the public) who are going round and removing the plastic wrappings from the flowers. The article also reiterated the request not to leave toys and other non-compostable stuff.

But it’s ridiculous that more than one person did it and if you can see a load of sandwiches then surely you’d know not to leave any!

Each to their own, but I think that about the flowers as well. The laying of a single flower or few small bunches to show respect and bring beauty to the inherent sadness is quite a moving thing; when there's a mountain of them and you're just chucking yours on top of everybody else's (incidentally hiding somebody else's tribute), they lose all significance.

Especially as the tributes were being gathered in a huge glorious park - and not a bleak urban backdrop. There were already plenty of living trees and plants in that park which will remain living months and years from now - no real need at all to kill living flowers to bring from elsewhere, just to embellish that.

The 'brown bread' comment is spot on, though!!

You don't think 6 million flowers left for Diana was significant of something?

It was significant in demonstrating people's own strength of feeling - whether genuine or whipped up by the media, who knows - but I still don't think it was a dignified tribute to her; it was all for their own benefit.

People were even flinging flowers at the windscreen of the hearse carrying her body, to the extent that the driver had to use the wipers to be able to see to drive safely - for somebody who died in a car crash, for goodness' sake.

Flowers aren't like money, where the more is given, the more good it can do - they're meant to be symbolic when left in tribute. Without wanting to be crass, at 'ordinary' people's funerals, you will often see 'MUM' or 'JAMES' or whatever spelled out in poignant floral tributes. A huge mountain of flowers as we're seeing now would be the equivalent of them having their deceased loved one's full address and CV spelled out in flowers. Nobody would see that as a mark of them having been loved far more than somebody with just 'GRANDAD' on theirs. You also don't tend to see non-family members copying this, with a sea of 'COLLEAGUE', 'NEIGHBOUR', 'PUB LANDLORD' or 'CLIENT' (of a carer).

Adding another bunch of flowers to a colossal mound of them is not that dissimilar to MN threads where hundreds of people over several days will all feel the need to come on and say the exact same (obvious) thing, over and over again. Not even "I agree that...." or similar, but apparently oblivious to the idea that the comment has already been made endlessly, and that nobody will find it any more poignant or thought-provoking if they say it yet again.

As a more appropriate tribute(for those who can), the Royal Voluntary Service are asking for donations in the Queen's memory. www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/
There are numerous other charities that she supported: the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB); the Leonard Cheshire Foundation; the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI); the RSPCA; the Dogs Trust; and doubtless many others.

It doesn't matter that the flowers themselves get composted. The production, transport and packaging (both for transportation and for sale) of flowers produces just as much waste/emissions as many other industries.

And I agree either PPs - piles of flowers lose all significance.

I think it was significant of people's need to feel a part of something bigger than themselves. But genuine grief? No.

I don't think it's reasonable to equate the sadness and vague sense of loss that one might feel when a public figure dies with the raw, wounding grief that people often feel at the death of a close loved one.

I think many death rituals are for the benefit of those doing them. And I don't see that as a problem. Apart from the religious aspects that's what they're for.

There is healing power and comfort in observed rituals and being part of community. Whether it's about death or not. And flowers ( and other items ) have been left as a death ritual forever.

Each tribute is one tribute. More is not better but there are more , because literally hundreds of thousands feel a connection.

*was significant of people's need to feel a part of something bigger than themselves. But genuine grief? No.

I don't think it's reasonable to equate the sadness and vague sense of loss that one might feel when a public figure dies with the raw, wounding grief that people often feel at the death of a close loved one.*

I doubt it's the same feeling but so what ? I thought we were over telling other people what they felt?

"people's need to feel part of something bigger " Absolutely yes. And?

It doesn't matter that the flowers themselves get composted. The production, transport and packaging (both for transportation and for sale) of flowers produces just as much waste/emissions as many other industries.

Of course. Just like the food you ate this morning, the heat in your house and the clothes you are wearing.

Apologies if you live a totally self sufficient life and don't use electricity.

Of course it matters that the flowers get composted. It's a very positive way of dealing with them. The flower mulch from Diana's tributes were used on Kensington Gardens.

This in spades

Ridiculous. I hope everyone who is leaving them has also donated to a food bank

Of course it matters that the flowers get composted. It's a very positive way of dealing with them. The flower mulch from Diana's tributes were used on Kensington Gardens.

If the flowers are going to be left, then it's obviously far better that they be composted than not; but it seems quite bizarre to me to be cutting down tons of living flowers across the world, transporting them from across the world to London (or wherever), leaving them for a week and then mulching them to use as compost to help flowers grow!

The food that I've eaten today and the heating that I use in the winter keep me healthy and alive. It would be different if I were setting out a trolley-load (or 100 trolley-loads) of food in my kitchen just to look at and then throwing it away after a week. I can see a link between omnivores killing animals in order to eat their meat and use their hides for shoes - which a lot of people still find ethically objectionable - and somebody going to Kenya to shoot endangered species, for no other reason than to brag about it and be Charlie Big Potatoes in their social circles, which the vast, vast majority of people would heartily condemn.

They also had the 'Ash for Cash' scheme in NI a few years ago, where people were effectively financially rewarded for burning off as much fuel as possible, without needing or even actually using it for anybody's benefit.

I get that people who love flowers derive great pleasure and enjoyment in looking at and sniffing a pretty bunch for the few days before they die - and thus do consider that a very worthwhile use of them; but it's a bit difficult to do that when they're at the bottom of a great big heap in a park.

Could it be that the optics of getting at least as large a pile as Princess Diana might be important here?

Maybe that does matter to some people, but how do you even measure that? Did somebody think to make a clear, lasting flood-level-style mark back in 1997, so they know what they have to 'beat' now?

If the flowers are going to be left, then it's obviously far better that they be composted than not; but it seems quite bizarre to me to be cutting down tons of living flowers across the world, transporting them from across the world to London (or wherever), leaving them for a week and then mulching them to use as compost to help flowers grow!

I suppose his thread could be one on the sustainably of the flower industry. It isn't.

Or even the sustainability of the funeral industry or the sustainability of the entire Royal Funeral. It won't be.

Of course they won't be - how else would they humblebrag to their followers on Facebook and Instagram about how kind they are without a perfectly coordinated photograph?

The food that I've eaten today and the heating that I use in the winter keep me healthy and alive. It would be different if I were setting out a trolley-load (or 100 trolley-loads) of food in my kitchen just to look at and then throwing it away after a week.

Probably more equivalent to your Christmas food trolley when you don't just buy what you need to stay alive. You buy things that help you celebrate.

I will attract rats, and cause lots of litter and rotting food in the street.

And marmalade sandwiches are actually Paddington's thing, the queen wasn't exactly known for her love of marmalade or keeping sandwiches in her hat.
I understand the nod to the scene she did with Paddington but it's not really relevant to her on a huge scale.

@carrotsandpeaass I live in Westminster Tons of rubbish and food waste is discarded by residents, workers, tourists and hospitality businesses every day in bins and on the street and is cleared away as if by elves overnight. So if I told you that I'm relaxed about this stuff being left in the relatively small area in front of Buckingham Palace and in Green Park until next Tuesday at the latest would it make you feel better for your sake and of course as a local resident, mine? After all, though I realise this is a wider environmental issue for us all, I'm the one who is directly affected. I can report there are a lot of flowers but not as many as for Diana. Like then, the overwhelming smell is of lilies and they are starting to go over but as I said, there are no rats yet.

No, we shouldn't keep quiet when people are imposing their faux-grief on others who are genuinely bereft. Where on earth is that acceptable?

Why even feign grief? Trying to appropriate someone else's grief is appalling. People didn't used to behave like this. I still shudder at those awful women screeching 'Diaaaaannnna' as her cortege passed. The two boys walking behind it. Horrific day for them and then that.

Is it all down to social media and the prevalence of phones? Perhaps, but I know that if I'd been trying to get my face on camera as so many feel it their right to do, I'd be shamed. Grief is for the bereaved and nobody else should be making it about themselves.

I felt a jolt when I heard that the queen had died, I'm not a royalist but she has been part of the fabric of all of my lifetime and I feel sorry that she's gone as I believe she was a positive model for UK PLC. If we have a royal family then the queen was about as good as it gets. To her family she was so much more.

I still shudder at those awful women screeching 'Diaaaaannnna' as her cortege passed. The two boys walking behind it.

Yes, exactly.

She'd probably have preferred the martini.

I haven't seen anybody leaving a bottle of Dubonnet yet, but give it time...

This argument is insane.

I eat food to stay alive. Hundreds of tonnes of flowers are not necessary to anything, and I doubt they even really serve a purpose by being helpful/comforting to her family. I imagine her family would find the grief process easier if they didn't have to engage with this public spectacle.

The fact is that piling hundreds of tonnes of anything (teddies, marmalade, flowers..) up as part of a public spectacle will always be inherently wasteful in a way that e.g. eating a marmalade sandwich is not.