I feel as though all the adults have now finally left the room. Elizabeth is the most competent public figure I have seen over the entirety of my life, and the only Queen of England over that period as well.

Almost the same age as my mother and there were similarities between the attitudes of the two women, even though backgrounds were quite different. So in some ways she felt like a mother to me: stern, but not without care, with my best interests at heart, and with all the privileges of being able to offer quiet advice, but not the perquisites of being able to enforce it.

Over my lifetime I have also seen a steady deterioration of the standards and competencies in public life. Morrison and Albanese are both pale imitations of their predecessors, and now Albanese is in power there are no powerful Mandarins to set him straight about the impossibility of his programs.

The US is just as bad, and the omens for the UK, Canada, and Europe not good.

While the Queen could only reign so long as she did not rule, I think we, and the British people, will miss the steadiness and sense of continuity, symbolised by her reign. While I'm not a monarchist I feel a strong sense of loss today.

Yes, Graham. A great loss. The world will not be the same. I can't see anyone, monarchist or not, feeling the same way about her successor or his successors. The Monarchy will be on the skids, the same as everything else.

The queen was a great argument for monarchy, and Champagne Charlie is a great argument for a republic.

I woke up this morning to the news that after 70 years
on the throne Queen Elizabeth II, aged 96, died at
Balmoral. Her son, King Charles III announced her
death (8th September 2022) at 6.30 pm London time.
We're told that there will be a state funeral in about
10 days. She came to the throne in 1952 and witnessed
enormous social change in her lifetime.

Her death will be deeply felt throughout the United
Kingdom and by countless people around the world.
I must admit that I felt sadness engulf me as well.
My mother was a great admirer of Queen Elizabeth
and mum was hoping to live to be one hundred so she
could get a letter from Her Majesty. Mum did not make
it. She died also aged 96 a few years back.

My Deepest Condolences go out to her son and families.
And to the people of the UK. They've lost a much loved
mother, grand-mother, and very strong, dedicated,
and capable monarch.

May she Rest In Peace.

Thank you David, par for the course, the first disparigment.

Yes it is a day for reflection. I'm certainly old enough to have sung God Save the Queen at school and she has been a constant through my life as she will have with most Australians.

Grahams' comment about falling standards really has to be extended to the Royal family itself. The gap between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Andrew couldn't be wider.

I do think it is a little churlish to be tossing Albanese in with Morrison given Albo is not long in the role and the slimy, deceitful, bullying, narcissistic taody we had as our last PM was scraping the bottom of the barrel.