I am in mourning

I am utterly devastated. Not by Her Royal Wrinkliness shuffling off this mortal coil (two down this year, how many left?), but by Liverpool being dumped out of the Champions League quarter finals by Bayer Leverkusen tonight. Now that is a true loss for this country. Seriously though, I was actually saddened to hear that the last Empress of India is finally resting six foot under; surely “Britain’s favourite grandmother” should have been preserved like the national asset she was — perhaps Damien Hirst could have knocked up a little tank for her (but where to display her — the British Museum or the Tate Modern?). Maybe some people reading this think I’m being a little harsh — after all, we are talking about the death of a little old lady — so here’s a little for/against reminder (via smh.com.au):

Street Parties and Bunting:

• She was an earl’s daughter, raised in the height of privilege in castles and estates, and enjoyed a 4-month honeymoon in Africa whilst back home millions of people were living in terrible poverty.
• Even after the “modernisation” of the monarchy in the 1990s, she still had 5 opulent “homes”, 6 cars and a staff of 50 (including a watchman who sat outside her door all night, three chauffeurs, five chefs, two pages, three footmen, two dressers and 30 more assorted secretaries, maids, treasurers and housekeepers) to pander to her every whim — gosh, how remarkable that she lived to be 101!
• She was rather right-wing, and agreed with apartheid, wanted to bring back hanging and stop immigration.
• She called any rich person who voted Labour “a traitor”.
• She didn’t want Buckingham Palace open to the public; she went berserk when they first started to allow government ministers to use the royal train; and apoplectic when the royals agreed to start paying income tax.
• In 1994 she put two-thirds of her £26 million fortune in a trust for her great-grandchildren to avoid paying inheritance tax.
• She had an estimated bank overdraft of £4m.
• She received £643,000 a year from the civil list
• She was, according to Princess Diana, “the chief leper in the leper colony”.
• She gave only one official newspaper interview in her life, in 1923 before her marriage to the Duke of York. Royal advisers were said to have been so horrified that they suggested she remain silent for good.
• She looked quite creepy.

Black Armbands:

• She had the guts to stay in London during the Blitz.
• She often enjoyed a triple gin before eating and a glass of champagne with her meal.

If, like me, you’ve overdosed on fawning pro-monarchy pants over the last week or so, you’ll find plenty to chuckle about at Throneout, including features such as Royal Affairs (“If you wanted to know why Prince Harry looks remarkably like Major James Hewitt or why Prince Edward and Prince Andrew don’t resemble their “father” like Prince Charles does, then you will find it all here.”) and the Choco Starfish Awards for Royal media coverage.

Ranting over, I was a little embarrassed to discover that quite a few people from the css-discuss mailing list had visited this page over the last few days (some even took the trouble to compliment me on my choice of colours). Rob had signed up for the list and posted a question about one of the CSS experiments on his site. Naturally this led to a relative flood of visitors to his pages, some of whom found their way over here. Had I known that some of the most respected CSS experts would be visiting, I’d have tidied up a bit first — especially that shoddy blue Gonzo div below.

According to The Register, Ben Verwaayen, British Telecom’s chief exec, has pledged that customer satisfaction is to become the “cornerstone” of his company’s operation with the aim to be “the most customer focused and efficient communications company in the markets in which it operates”. Oh look, a flying pig.

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