The Queen is 92 years old. Many expect her to live a decade more or longer, but the truth is that the Queen is slowing down. The first time people really acknowledged that, it seemed, was when she had a really bad, lingering cold over Christmas 2016 and into the 2017 New Year. She skipped church services for the first time as Queen, and while she wasn’t at death’s door, she did seem quite fragile there for several weeks. Skip ahead to this week, after the Queen made public appearances every day for nine days (when the events were about horses), she suddenly came down with some kind of cold or something and couldn’t put in an appearance at the Knights of the Grand Cross and Order of Bath event. So now the British media asks the question: is the Queen doing too much?
While the nation has been overheating in the summer sun, the Queen has coolly been carrying out a timetable that would tire a woman half her age. In the last ten days, the 92-year-old monarch has given out trophies, hosted receptions and greeted foreign dignitaries – as well as wearing heavy robes in the sweltering weather. So with such a packed diary, it’s no wonder Her Majesty has finally been laid low with a summer sniffle.
After nine appearances in ten days, yesterday she was forced to pull out of a ceremony in St Paul’s Cathedral because of a cold. Buckingham Palace said she was feeling ‘under the weather’, but aides stressed there was no cause for alarm. Courtiers said her cold was mild enough that no doctor had been called and she was not taken to hospital. And it seems the Queen will no doubt be back on form very quickly – as it is understood she was well enough to travel to Windsor yesterday afternoon for the weekend as planned.
As well as this, the programme of events for next week – she is due to visit Scotland – is currently expected to go ahead.
Dickie Arbiter, a former Buckingham Palace press secretary, said: ‘To have had to back off from a ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral would really upset her but obviously she’s got a summer cold and she’s erring on the side of caution. She is the only one who can say if she’s doing too much or not, but she is certainly very good at pacing herself.’
Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, added: ‘I can’t believe how much she’s doing, and I think she’s trying to do too much.’
Wait, the Queen is going to Scotland next week… and then she’ll travel back down to Windsor Castle in time to meet Donald Trump on the 13th? I’m truly wondering if the Queen is setting up her excuses for calling that off. I’m being completely serious – this is a good two-week time frame to set up her “I’m sick” alibi. Right now it’s just being called a little summer cold. She keeps calm and carries on, makes it to Scotland, carries out a few of appearances next week while looking noticeably under the weather, then suddenly she cancels the rest of her plans at this time next week because the cold has become more serious with all the travel. BOOM. She has to stay in Scotland, so sorry, she can’t fly back down to Windsor Castle to meet Trump on the 13th. There you go. But who would meet Trump in her place? Charles, I would assume.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Well she is in her nineties….
Yeah, as much as I’d enjoy her deliberately tricking Trump, she’s a nonagenarian, people this age get sick easily, even with lighter schedule and die as quickly.
Whatever it takes. I’m hoping they never meet.
I made a comment over in DListed that this is TQ laying the “ground work” to get out of meeting the Orange Sh!tstain lol Smart cookie, our Queenie! That lingering cold kept her out of commission for quite some time…jus’ sayin’…😗🎶
ETA: After seeing some comments below, I don’t think she’d skip out due to “fear”, but rather because of a high level of disdain/contempt.
She is ninety something. Why should she have to go through the indignity of giving Emperor Babyhands one minute of her time? I think if I had to meet someone like him in my nineties I would look for a break, too.
Although…she is so devoted even at her age she will tolerate him for the sake of God and her Kingdom.
I wish Charles could do it…
My mother- in -law is the same age. One month she is healthy and has enormous energy and the next month she gets a cold and is tired and doesn’t leave the house. It comes with the age.
Heck, I’m in my 40’s and that happens to me too, lol. No joke, I had a bad head cold in May, recovered, felt wonderful for a few weeks, and then I went to a wedding last weekend and boom, I now have another head cold.
If my health can fluctuate so quickly, then ofc the Queen’s will too. I’m not reading a lot into it yet, though it would be deliciously funny if she did do her events in Scotland and then bowed out of meeting Trumpelstiltskin.
OK that’s a new one. Thanks. Love it! (“Trumplestiltskin”)
I like Trumplethinskin too!
QEII is not scared of Trump. He’s a buffoon, a fat kid in a candy store, a bad kid from Willy Wonka. He’s about as scary as an untrained, old, and overweight pug.
She’ll meet with him, unless she’s incapacitated, as Head of State. If she’s too sick or tired, Charles or Andrew will take her place. I don’t expect Will or the Sussexes anywhere because it’s summer and it’s not necessary.
I don’t think she’s scared of him. I do think she would and should think strategically about whether meeting with him looks like tacit approval as well as whether he will try to claim some kind of “contact dignity” from having met her.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she met him or found a courteous way to avoid it.
But she’s met with Putin who at that time was much more of a threat (he’s still a large threat). She’s met with the Chinese President as well. I just don’t think she will single out Trump.
Now Charles has a history of making political stances by getting out of diplomatic meetings but not QE.
Nobody said HM is “scared” of Trump. And yeah, yeah, yeah, I know she’s met with Putin and other bad people etc etc. That was then, this is now. She is 92 years old and doesn’t owe Trump her presence just because she met with Putin years ago; that argument is old and tired. HM has a right to NOT want to meet with Trump (or anyone else for that matter) and can say NO to that meeting regardless of whether Trump is a lot better or worse than Putin.
She. Will. Not. Refuse. Trump. Just. Because. She. May. Not. Like. Him. Personally. It’s. Not. Her. Style.
She’s the head of state. It’s her duty to meet with the people the government asks her to meet with. HM has never shirked her duty in all her life, and she’s not about to start now.
Scared, absolutely not. Revolted, most likely.
Yes this. Not scared at all, think of the monsters she has met & hosted over her many years. I don’t think that pleading illness is her style, she is not one to shirk her duty no matter how repulsive he is.
The Queen has hosted many state functions for dictators such as Presidents Assad and Mugabe.
Being apolitical, she has to acquiesce.
By comparison, Trump is at least democratically elected……sort of.
Think of how great it will play out on a future episode of the Crown.
Who could blame her? I wouldn’t want to spend even 30 seconds in his company; aside from all the things that make him a horrible “leader,” he just seems like a genuinely unpleasant person the be around.
Right? Just the *thought* of ever meeting him makes me feel sick. I can’t imagine how I’d feel it it became a reality.
I kind of think she wants to face down Trump and then just go have tea like it was no big deal.
Isn’t it enough, if the prime minister meets the orange guy, must it be the queen?
I hope she’s planning her excuses. she’s served her country well for decades, she’s always been dignified and professional. Now that she is in her twilight years she deserves a break. She shouldn’t have to be in the same room breathing the same air as that orange sack of rotting garbage. She deserves better.
Plus, I really want to see Donnie anus-mouth throw a hissy fit at being shunned by her majesty. My bets are on him calling her a “low IQ individual” since that seems to be the best he can come up with.
She is incredibly active at 92 BECAUSE she is incredibly active at 92. Activity keeps elders strong mentally and physically but is a delicate balance and any malady is dangerous at that age.
I’m on Team Queen Elizabeth.
At 92, she can do whatever the heck she wants. If this is her diplomatic way of avoiding The Orange Fool, I say go ahead. Me? I’m tactless and rude, I’d put on the crown, FaceTime The Orange Fool and tell him right out “Idiot! Do not even think of setting foot in England, I will have the Royal corgis rip you to shreds.”
Unfortunately, she no longer has her corgis. The last one passed away a little while ago. 🙁
She doesn’t have any corgis descended from her original corgi. She did adopt a corgi that belonged to a gameskeeper who died. And she does have dorgis (dachshund corgi mixes) So she isn’t dogless.
The Queen has greeted and met with many despots and tyrants during her rule. I doubt she’ll make an excuse to not meet this wannabe one.
There’s zero chance the Queen would lie and concoct some elaborate hoax to avoid meeting a head of state. Absolutely zero. This is real life, not some fake manipulated Bravo show. In the real world heads of state do not behave this way. If the Queen does pull out of the meeting it’ll be because she really is seriously unwell.
Unfortunately I think you are right. The “having an extended cold” theory is plausible, but your take is even more plausible and likely. 🙁
I said it yesterday it again I will laugh so hard if Donny Boy shows up to Windsor and there’s a sign saying “La reina no esta aqui”
I dare him to insult QEII on Twitter. Imagine the backlash.
As for whether Liz is setting up a sick excuse, I think she actually might be. Probably because she knows it will be a horrible time. I’m sure she’s not scared of Don the Con , and she’s used to meeting terrible people so she wouldn’t object on moral grounds, but I can see her saying “I don’t want to spend time with this orange dumbass.”
YES, I wondered this too, if only because the best way to get out of an unwanted engagement is to get the alibi in motion so early that one’s eventual disposition seems inevitable, not purposeful. Not that I’d know, of course.
The queen has met with all kinds of riffraff in her day, but I love the fantasy that, at 92, she’s thinking, “Okay, I am finally drawing a line in the sand here!”
Oh I hope, I hope I hope!!!!
If the Queen has to meet him, she should toss back a few G&T’s and put on her best RRBF(Royal Resting Bitch Face) I still hope if the Queen can’t meet 45, that Princess Anne will take her place. That would be entertaining!!
Can you imagine the look on Princess Anne’s face throughout the whole ordeal? She would chew Trumputin up, spit him right back out, and give no F’s in the process.
That is why I hope it happens! There can be a hidden camera and the Queen can be having a good laugh watching her daughter turn 45 into a pile of orange compost!
She is cagey, I wouldn’t put it past her.
If they do meet, I hope she puts norovirus in his tea.
I am fully confident that HM knows a fascist when she sees one.
lol
I don’t understand why anyone other than the PM should have to suffer through a meeting with Trump.
Here’s a thought: Tell him he has to locate every single missing child that he kidnapped and restore them to their parents before he’s allowed into the UK. You know, like telling a kid that they can’t have dessert until they’ve eaten their vegetables.
^This.
Because HM is the head of state and the PM is the head of government. In the US, the President is both.
I’m a-okay with her setting the groundwork for an epic and well-deserved snub. He’s an evil reality star dictator who just wants to use her for a photo op, and she knows it. I don’t think she’s scared. I think she just doesn’t like him. Wasn’t there a video where geese were honking, or something like that, and she said it sounded like Trump? I hope she does beg off sick — but makes a full recovery and lasts that extra decade.
HM is not scared of him, but he is damn irritating, gross, perverted, uncouth, annoying, rude and shows horrible manners during diplomatic meetings. HM has met weirdo despots but generally they put on a tolerable diplomatic veneer. The same can’t be said of the sulking Orange. I can’t even look at his pictures or listen to his voice. Imagine having to shake his hand and look at that face and mouth. Gross. If May is the one who invited him, May can host him at her house and feed him Big Macs.
Yes, let May do the hosting duties. Leave TQ out of it!
Yes and hold his hand. The Pope is supposed to be a very religious figure who shouldn’t show judgement and disdain (at least openly) and even he cannot control his RBF with Dotard.
I think the Queen sees it as her duty but also she likes to go out and about and meet people. Have you ever seen old people in a nursing home just sitting there waiting to take their last breath because they’re so bored? Even her Mother stayed active until her late nineties. They enjoy getting dressed up and meeting and greeting.
Well, the Queen should avoid Trump not just because he is a wannabe fascist despot and a child kidnapper. Many people are saying he has cooties.
And yes, the PM is the only one who should be stuck with him. She invited him. He’s her problem. Hope she gets cooties.
I do hope our counterparts in the UK have plans to give the guy a suitable escort of protesters everywhere he goes. At a safe distance, of course. Remember he has cooties.
My dream would be that she has the meeting, he waits in the room, she breezes in says hello and walks back out. That would make him so angry, to be treated as no one special.
I think she will have the meeting and be professional.
My dream is that she starts asking him about the kidnapped kids. Preferably in Spanish.
Of course she’s not afraid of him. She’s a tough old lady, and what can he do anyway? Sit on her dogs? Bomb London?
He’s everything she’s likely to despise – loud, vulgar, dishonest, fascist, and a fake Christian. That’s precisely why she’ll carry on as normal, she won’t let her personal feelings get in the way of duty. She’s not that person. The Queen sees her position as an obligation to represent GB in a neutral and polite manner.
I’ve been battling a sinus infection this past week. No amount of medication will do anything to relieve the pressure on my sinuses, my glands are pressing down on my neck, and the congestion is awful. I tried going into work twice this week only to be told my my boss to not come back until Monday. I can’t imagine doing half the things she is doing right now since I’m sick and I’m only 30! She is a champ.
Amelie……try homeopathic Kali. Bich (potency 6). It works brilliantly for my father who suffered infected sinus’s for decades. He calls it his miracle cure, the moment you feel a sinus attack coming on dissolve a couple of pills under the tongue or a few drops under the tongue if you use the liquid form. He hasn’t had a sinus episode in almost 5years now. Look on line for a homeopathic supplier if you don’t have one near by.
Guys, I know you’re probably not into soccer but you don’t need to know about it. I loved the dig. I’d totally love a small post about it.
During the meeting Trump and Portuguese president both agreed that Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world. And then:
“So will Christian [sic] ever run for president against you?” Trump asked De Sousa. “He wouldn’t win! You know he won’t win?”
The Portuguese politician paused for thought, before grabbing Trump’s arm. “Well, President, you know [there’s] something I must tell you: Portugal is not the United States. It’s a little different!”
She is 92 , she doesn’t need an alibi to take a day off.
Lol at the idea of Charles meeting with the orange asshat. Chaz could mumble some hilarious shade and the OA wouldn’t even know what he said.
Tbh, she’s met a lot worse than Emperor Bigly.
She should not have to be subjected to his bullshit. Stay in bed, Liz, no one would blame you.
Personally, I’m hoping she read the comment I saw somewhere that we want Emperor Babyfists to get an in-person of HRH Princess Anne’s death-ray, stink-eye, decided it was an absolutely *brilliant* idea, after which she and Anne started immediate plotting.