Is the UK suffering from mass hysteria?

[User135644]

The Queen's passing is sad and seismic and the funeral will be a special occasion.

However, people genuinely seem to have gone mad.

Wait until Monday...

Yes yes, YANBU! I do think it's all a bit bonkers, the 12 hour queuing to see the Queen's coffin. I don't understand it.

She was a great lady, I totally respect her and will watch the funeral. But... yes there's a lot of stuff I just don't understand.

News report of someone bringing their parents ashes to view the queen 😳

Exactly.

This is nothing compared to Diana, but there’s still the propensity for it to escalate!

I'm utterly sick of it

The media has us believe everyone is beside themselves but not one person in any work meeting or discussion even mentioned it (aside from the day off) all week.I'm in Scotland though so not sure if people relate as much up here.

A work meeting was postponed yesterday for two weeks because of it, and I can't understand that.

This. You can watch/ listen to the coverage or you can go on catch-up, netflix, read a book etc etc and watch a million other things. You don't have to take part in any mourning at all. You can do a shop that covers Monday in the same way as you would for any other Bank Holiday and then ignore all of it. On Tuesday it will all be over. We have a monarchy. The head of that monarchy has died. We do state occasions brilliantly and I will watch the bits of the funeral that interest me and wander off and do something else in the bits that don't. If people wish to express emotion that's up to them. I haven't seen any hysteria. No one is shouting and wailing like they did for Diana. Scotland did a tremendous job and the city and countryside looked absolutely stunning. It has all been done with great dignity and style. Surely we can allow a week for this before we get back to Martin Lewis shouting and yelling . Now that really is deliberately seeking to wind people up and cause mass hysteria.

Yes - totally mental.

Yeh I can’t say I’m missing the doom and click bait it replaces

well put

What are you seeing that I'm not? I see thousands of people calmly waiting to pay their respects. I see people quietly observing her the last trip from Buckingham Palace.
Sure there's the odd person a bit OTT, but you get that in any very crowded situation.

CN ANNADURAI

In 1969, the funeral of CN Annadurai took the Guinness World Record for highest funeral attendance, a record it still holds. Annadurai was a chief minister in the Tamil Nadu region of India. Around 15 million people gathered in the region's capital of Chennai to follow the funeral procession.

Yes

No. It’s very different feeling to when Diana died which was mass hysteria.

the only hysteria I’ve witnessed is from the anti monarchists who are practically frothing at the mouth to point out people who are quietly and respectfully contemplating the death of a much loved monarch are hysterical

Nope. In fact round by me and in my large public workplace I found myself wondering if I am the only one who noticed the Queen’s passing. It seems barely recognised.

Not hysteria, just folk wanting to be part of history I suspect.

Diana, now that was hysteria

I think a lot of it is due to a repressed sense of British patriotism that only seems to be freely expressed during half-decent sporting prowess and royal occasions.

^^ I think this is a really interesting theory. Especially post-Covid when many people were not able to mourn the death of their loved ones.

It could also explain why repressed English men feel the need to be violent at football matches.

Diana wasn't mad btw. Yes she struggled with her mh during her marriage, but many young mothers in their twenties would have similar issues if they found out that their husband loved someone else but they were obligated to pretend in front of the entire world that their marriage was fine. . And when she didn't want to pretend any more she was villified! It was put about by paid PR professionals and friends of Charles that she was mad. The same tactic that Victorian gentlemen used against the wives they couldn't divorce. Yes she was paranoid latterly but she had been fed vile untruths by Martin Bashir and thought she couldn't trust her own staff. How miserable that must have been for her. In between those two phases though she blossomed and was very focused on her causes.

Great post @TempsPerdu

The level of the collective sorrow when Diana died was unreal. Never seen anything like it.

With the Queen it’s more reverence. She represents the UK (and the commonwealth) so it’s not just the person but the symbolism of the role. She’s been a fantastic stateswoman who has barely put a foot wrong in her seven decades. The role itself (monarch) being non partisan is very much about unifying and comforting people, and she has done that throughout her entire reign. Mandela loved her (unlike Thatcher and Reagan the Queen supported him and his cause, hence the Queen not seeing eye to eye with Thatcher whom she saw as uncaring). I saw a fellow Irishman Martin McGuinness react to her in a way I’ve never seen him react to anyone before. He was like a giddy 10 year old. She commanded huge respect and made people feel 10 feet tall, and this level of respect is now being seen in her death.

Yes the media have lost it, just watched Kate Garroway and Ben on breakfast tv and it was like watching something from the Will Ferrell film anchorman!
Kate actually said let us know if you’ve met someone in the queue to pay your respects to the Queen lying in state. and now they have started a romance!
Let’s get the term “ quipid” trending ( instead of Cupid she said to swap it for the qu in queen)

Did she look at the average age of people in the queue! and why would you hook up in a funeral line ?
Next day there was zero mention of it. Honestly!

YABU. I recall Diana's death and the reaction - people flinging flowers in front of a coffin? Fecking Elton John warbling, and her awful brother and his inflammatory drivel? And 9/11 not long after that - even the unexpected Leave vote, which was greeted like the advent of Armageddon. I don't think the people publicly mourning the Q are unhinged at all. They seem quite together and restrained. It seems to be younger and, interestingly, more 'educated' people who have a tendency to hysterical overreaction.

Uk, no.
MN, yes

I don't get what you mean