Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

Separately, for Tamas, I regret to announce that Sir Simon Jenkins has written a column again:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/22/putin-dictator-tyrant-criticism-regime

His run as Britain's wrongest man continues unchallenged.

[Maladict]

The princess has cancer, too

[Sheilbh]

The princess has cancer, too

Ooof. On a purely human level, having one family member with cancer is difficult, having multiple members dealing with it's going to be fucking awful (even with palaces and, you imagine, the best treatment available).

Also last few weeks are maybe indicative. If William and Harry's childhood was absolutely scarred by the irresponsibility and cruelty of the old media world (and the public's demand for content), the sort of rumours circulating online will be easily searchable to their kids in a few years time whenever anything happens.

And again thinking of the Mantel Royal Bodies essay

Edit: Just thinking about that with the kids and maybe that's the impact of social media: we're all tabloids now?

[Tamas]

Separately, for Tamas, I regret to announce that Sir Simon Jenkins has written a column again:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/22/putin-dictator-tyrant-criticism-regime

His run as Britain's wrongest man continues unchallenged.

He has reached the "at least he is making the trains run on time" stage.

[Caliga]

There's also rumors on the interwebs that the King's cancer is pancreatic.  God Save the King  

[Maladict]

There's also rumors on the interwebs that the King's cancer is pancreatic.  God Save the King  

That's terrible. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

As usual the tabloids have behaved execrably 

They claim to be fans of the royal family and then hound them, it is disgusting.

[Josquius]

Yep
The omg edited photo stuff was just bizare.

[Sheilbh]

As usual the tabloids have behaved execrably 

They claim to be fans of the royal family and then hound them, it is disgusting.

I'm not sure I agree. I was away on holiday so I might have missed it. But from away, a lot of the speculation I saw was from the US - I've already seen Americans sharing clips of Anderson Cooper and a doctor on CNN alleging that the doctor is casting doubt on her diagnosis (it doesn't, but there we are).

I believe the people who paid for the footage of her and her mum in a car after treatment were TMZ (who also paid the paps for the photos of Harry and Meghan in New York).

I don't think that's because the tabloids have had an attack of conscience but the "right to a private life" cases in the UK since the Human Rights Act are a pretty big constraint on them (see also the reports in the US media and discussed on Colbert's show about William's alleged affair). I imagine they tried to get around that by publishing about the controversy - that's normally the strategy they take when they can't report something but want to.

As I say I think the reality is maybe even darker that the internet has allowe the type of prurient interest in the royals that used to be a British specialty to metastasise (I follow a Mexican newspaper on Twitter and it published more royal stories than any of the British press I follow - there is a new story at least once a day ). It's always been the tabloids defence: they were just giving us what we wanted. And here we've had a story where they've largely not been able to print and we've done it all ourselves.

The omg edited photo stuff was just bizare.

Although again not sure I'd blame the tabloids there. That was Reuters and the AP issuing kill notices on that photo because it had been altered at source in ways that didn't comply with their rules. My first thought on that was that it implied that no other photo provided by the Royals - or, say, the White House or any other in-house media team - has been altered in the same way, which seems implausible (I think the Guardian have already uncovered multiple photos issued by Buckingham Palace with similar photoshopping that weren't "killed" by the wire agencies).

Edit: Basically my experience online with this story mirrors the Guardian's deputy political editor here, this wasn't just the usual suspects which is what made it feel a bit weird:

Jessica Elgot is on maternity leave
@jessicaelgot
What's been so depressing about this whole affair has been seeing people I thought were quite serious political commentators - especially in the US - openly mocking a women who was quite obviously seriously unwell.  You don't have to love the Royals to find that distasteful.

[Valmy]

The British press is why I wouldn't trade places with the Princes for...well...all the money and stuff they get. I would be looking in ancient charters to see if the royal power to do beheadings were still in force in a few weeks.

[Valmy]

As I say I think the reality is maybe even darker that the internet has allowe the type of prurient interest in the royals that used to be a British specialty to metastasise (I follow a Mexican newspaper on Twitter and it published more royal stories than any of the British press I follow - there is a new story at least once a day ). It's always been the tabloids defence: they were just giving us what we wanted. And here we've had a story where they've largely not been able to print and we've done it all ourselves.

Yeah. I don't think I have gone to the grocery store my whole life without being bombarded with magazines all about the Royals. Stupid ass shit I wouldn't read even if I cared about the royals. I hate that I always know all their names and the gossip around them involuntarily.

I mean what is this? Canada?

[Josquius]

In other "I can't believe this is news", the England flag nonsense.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2024/mar/22/england-flag-shirt-nike-gareth-southgate?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

I guess at a squint the horizontal bar sort of looks like one of the myriad of LGBT flags?
But the triggering outrage is just amazing.
 I'm sure I remember a kit not too long ago, a red one maybe, or perhaps it was another country, which had the flag as a slightly different coloured pattern across the whole shirt.
Certain people really are looking for reasons to be angry these days. Tinfoil hat on I wonder if there's some political shit stirrers trying to ferment a nonsense culture war argument here.

[Syt]

There's been some controversy over Germany's new away kits because they're - gasp - pink!



And in the latest stab in the back the German team have announced that they will switch from (German) supplier Adidas to  Nike!

[Tamas]

To be fair, with national teams perhaps we shouldn't act surprised that nationalism gets thrown in the mix.

[Sheilbh]

And in the latest stab in the back the German team have announced that they will switch from (German) supplier Adidas to  Nike!

Germany has fallen