Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh Current Events 22: August 2010-June 2011


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She does, indeed! HM has more knowledge in her little finger than this silly young woman...
 
From the article: She said: 'I've met her about seven times and she never remembers me. When you get close to her you realise she's an old woman and has no idea what's going on.

Interesting comment. The Queen is old - old people do start to fail. The comment is from someone who has seen the Queen up close not just once or even twice. Interesting. I'll wager she will likely never meet the Queen again - fried all future invitations - unless she was misquoted, or quoted out of context. Though I have to say recent pictures of the Queen show an amazing change in her face. if she is ailing in some way - would the Crown admit it?

The honesty of the young. She may have said it but thought it was off-the-record or the interviewer is reporting what someone else said she said. I'm trying to give her the benefit. The quote will likely be selling lots of that issue of Esquire, anyway!

Its also the Daily Mail which I am coming to understand - even at my distance - is a newspaper intent on printing what sells, even if its a lie. Can we trust this report?
 
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First of all, I am not sure of the Queen's mental facilities (although this is the first time I have heard such of a report). Secondly, I would taken anything written in the Daily Mail with a grain of salt.

Finally, the Queen has met thousands of people during her lifetime. Yes, I would imagine that if you have met someone seven times the chances are she (the Queen) should have an inkling of who Charlotte Church is. The catty Zonk says that obviously Charlotte in her seven meetings has not made enough of an impression on the Queen that she remembers her.

I agree, she most likely won't get another opportunity to meet the Queen. I would even wager a guess that within 24 to 36 hours we will get the "I have been misquoted" statement.
 
From the article: She said: 'I've met her about seven times and she never remembers me. When you get close to her you realise she's an old woman and has no idea what's going on.


With the hundreds and perhaps thousands of people HM meets and greets each month, there is no way I'd expect her to remember each person that she's met that month let alone over years of time. Putting the fact across that because this Charlotte was not remembered by HM seems to me that she's got too high of an opinion of herself and that she "deserved" to be remembered. As she wasn't, she blames it on old age. Personally I think HM probably didn't find much to be remembered.

Making this statement reminds me of the old adage "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullsticks".
 
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Earth to Miss Church: YOU will one day be OLD as well. And I hope you will be judged kinder by others than you are to HM.
 
It's so sad when young people cruelly criticize the older ones,I think it wasn't good idea to publish this neither from "Mail" nor from Miss Church.
I wonder what got her so angry to describe the Queen in such a manner.
 
After making my initial, somewhat aggressive, remark, I thought I'd better take a deep breath and have a look at the evidence, for HM is, indeed, 84.

So I watched HM's Christmas message, and saw nothing there to make me suspect I was looking at a woman who "has no idea what's going on". I then read that last year HM carried out 444 engagements. That'll do me. Even if she were beginning to have difficulty remembering some details of recent events, that is a very, very long way from having no idea what's going on.

As others have observed, HM meets hundreds of people in the course of fulfilling her duties. She cannot be expected to remember every one of those to whom she speaks briefly in a meet and greet lineup. I suspect that Ms Church regularly changes her appearance, too, and that HM has met scores of young performers who look very much like she does, and can hardly be expected to remember her if she has not left an impression on HM for some reason. I think she might have managed to do that now, though.:whistling:
 
I would also wager that Ms. Church was a child the first time she met the Queen. I'm sure she has changed a lot over the years.
 
I imagine Ms. Church will try to retract her statement, claiming that she was "misquoted," just like her infamous 9/11 statements. She has a mouth on her and zero tact. Too bad she doesn't realize that she's only reflecting poorly on herself. Why on earth would the Queen remember her?
 
I'd like to bet that with the weekly meetings with the Prime Minister, daily paperwork on national and international matters, HM could leave Ms Church way behind in any discussion on current affairs - or actually any world situation for the last 70 years. The Queen regularly meets world figures and earns their respect with her knowledge and common sense. Charlotte may have "met" HM several times - for a few inconsequential secends each time, but I know whose knowledge I'd rather rely on....
 
Miss Church is a noted entertainer and not just someone the Queen meets in the street. I would expect that she would be briefed on who she is about to meet and on the fact that she has meet that person beforehand. If she then can't remember having met the person, who is regularly in the media, and to whom she has been formally introduced then her staff are failing her or her mind is going.

I wouldn't expect the Queen to remember me but I would expect her to be able to say she remembers someone she has meet 7 times, who is fairly well known within her own country and whom I expect her staff have briefed her about.
 
Whilst I broadly agree with you, IMO Charlotte Church is a D-list celeb, and hardly one that you would expect to catch HMs attention.
 
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Whilst I broadly agree with you, IMO Charlotte Church is a D-list celeb, and hardly one that you would expect to catch HMs attention.


Obviously she has caught someone's attention if she has met the Queen 7 times - and why would she be meeting the Queen that many times - because she is someone of note - not just a D-list celeb but one who is noted within her own country and is regularly in the media there and one who is sufficiently prominent to be in the Queen's presence 7 times.

Either the Queen's staff is failing to properly brief her or her mind is going if she can't remember someone who is regularly reported upon and who she is meeting 7 times.
 
One has to wonder in what context the word "meet" actually means in this context. If Ms. Church had been in receiving lines after command performances, it's not unlikely that HM might remember her face, but not her name; or vice versa. Who knows.

Charlotte Church was charming as a child, but now --- not so much.
 
My guess would be that HM remembers precisely those she wants to remember (or wants to acknowledge remembering) whereas the list of people performing for her are not necessarily her personal choices, but the selection of those creating the events.
 
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HM strikes me as a canny woman - after all, her mother was Scottish !!
 
My guess would be that HM remembers precisely those she wants to remember (or wants to acknowledge remembering) whereas the list of people performing for her are not necessarily her personal choices, but the selection of those creating the events.


So you are suggesting that the Queen would be rude enough to not acknowledge meeting someone before, even if she remembered doing so or had been advised 'look at this command performance you have meet xyz before but not abc'. For Miss Church to say that the Queen doesn't remember meeting her would mean that the conversation had gone along those lines and I would expect a properly advised Queen, who hasn't started loosing it, to say something like 'we meet last year didn't we?' even if she actually doesn't remember the meeting she would have been advised about who was who - or so we are told (that she is briefed about everyone that she is about to meet).
 
I would imagine that the Queen is briefed before meeting people except maybe in a receiving line unless they stand on her shoulder. Otherwise it would be a bit obvious that she doesn't remember you as she goes down the line. I would also expect that if the Queen has met someone before, her staff would advise of such a meeting.

Regardless, unless you are speaking to a family member privately, I find it a bit rude to suggest in a public article that someone might be losing it. Surely the British public has a right to know if the monarch is not well and if she is losing her memory but 1) Charlotte Church NOT be the one to do it and 2) or it shouldn't be announced in a magazine but rather via Buckingham Palace or the British Prime Minister.

I am sorry but I find it tacky.
 
I agree totally that it is tacky for someone like Miss Church to make such a comment.
 
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Having friends who are older than I it has been interesting as the years have worn on to see them make the traverse into older age before me. While I do see a small percentage keep their wits about them in toto into their 70's and 80's (a few of my relatives are into their 90's and amazingly sharp, still) - something does seem to start happening about the 70's.

These older folks seem just as 'sharp' in a sense but their 'awareness universes' seem to shrink. I am thinking of a friend of mine in her mid 70's who is living an exceedingly busy life - working part time while helping raise a grandson - yet when one really talks with her one becomes aware that she is not the woman she was at 45. There are whole swatches of events that she is not clear about - though she is absolutely dead-on about the present and what needs to be done, etc. Like someone with dyslexia, I realize that she is 'coping' with a shift and unless one is made aware through a slip one would believe that she is 'fine'. And she is fine really - but she is not the same as she was even 10 years ago.

The effects of aging are slow - and it can really be hard to identify when its happening in a way that approaches impairment of faculties. Iluvbertie's comments are pertinent - that no matter anyone's opinion of Ms Church personally (and I do think that she said this - if she really said it - in an off-the-record off-the-cuff kind of way) - HM would have been briefed, would have had the information given her 'you have met Ms Church 6 times before' etc. At 45 HM could sustain that briefing - at 85 she may not be able to - she forgets, gets confused - the precursor to appearing 'doddering' to the onlooker. Its what happens.

I find it interesting that greetings were sent to Australia from HM and The Prince of Wales as well - is this the norm? I think we need to see Charles stepping up to the plate more - there may come a time when he really will need to be the primary Royal while his mother has the privacy to have an old age. That to me seems only human - not anything to rail against. Its just the way of life. Prior to this I have had the sense that hints have been given that HM may start to step back a bit, with Charles stepping forward more as her representative. That this comes now is interesting (and so close on the heels of that powerful and heart breaking scene - that all of us who have had to deal with failing parents can relate to - in 'The King's Speech' with the ailing King George).
 
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Another case of Daily Fail! I'm pretty sure there will be a "out of context, never said that" comment from Ms. Church pretty soon.

Nothing about Ms. Church strikes me as memorable, but maybe I'm biased. I don't like ageism.
 
So you are suggesting that the Queen would be rude enough to not acknowledge meeting someone before, even if she remembered doing so or had been advised 'look at this command performance you have meet xyz before but not abc'. For Miss Church to say that the Queen doesn't remember meeting her would mean that the conversation had gone along those lines and I would expect a properly advised Queen, who hasn't started loosing it, to say something like 'we meet last year didn't we?' even if she actually doesn't remember the meeting she would have been advised about who was who - or so we are told (that she is briefed about everyone that she is about to meet).

I'm very sure HM is not rude in anything she does - ever.
But there is a difference between making a big show of "How lovely to see you again" and a polite but bland acceptance of an introduction without any acknowledgment of prior meetings.

Given these pronouncements and some other behaviour of Ms Church, it could easily be that she has even mistaken the Queen's customary formality and thinks that she is not recognised when it's simply that HM is just not one to gush over people - even her nearest & dearest - in public.

If, in fact HM does not find Ms C a particularly charismatic or attractive person, I'm sure she would never be so insincere as to feign an affinity which simply does not exist.

(She may like the lady's singing talents but dislike her other attitudes and behaviours...in the same way as some other people do - myself included)
 
Hear, Hear! Well said, Gill, and I couldn't agree more.
 
Recently, the Queen acted in a most gracious manner with Michelle Obama, who was waaaaaaaayyyy outside the limits of polite protocol when she hugged HM. I'm sure Obama had been briefed that one doesn't touch the Queen. I am in total agreement with you, Gill.
 
Has anybody ever thought Miss Church might be making this all up to attract attention?
She's not with Celtic women any more and just released her first album in 5 years in October. What a coinky dink it might not be doing oh so well and a little slip of the tongue might generate sales? Hmmmm?
 
She's bored and she's no longer making the headlines with her weight loss or her children or the end of her marriage etc.
 
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The same thought occurred to me. Any celebrity is pretty well guaranteed a headline by being negative about the Queen.:ermm:


Has anybody ever thought Miss Church might be making this all up to attract attention?
 
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