DBWI: HM the Queen hadn't had a breakdown on national TV

Peppe

So, everyone remembers the kerfuffle that was the year of 1979, when Prince Philipp entered a coma after falling over a balcony in Buckingham (of which he would wake up only in 1988), the British Government and economy were in basically freefall (fromw what I understand, I'm not actually british, just really fond of them) and Her Majesty, in a half-state of catatonia, was somehow convinced to do an interview to the BBC...

Said interview, shall we say, caused something, when she entered with a blank face, suffenly pulled a flask from her purse, downed it, and spent half an hour first giving a normal interview, before having a sudden emotional collapse and she for the first time gave her opinion on British Politics, drunkenly shaming most of it in television (while wrestling with her son, who was trying to control her in her anger/crazedness)

What if said faithful interview hadn't happened?
 
Last edited:

Post

She probably wouldn't have abdicted the throne in 1981 to her son, George VII.
I wonder if it's possible that she would still have been queen today, although that may be a stretch, she's 94 now.
 
Dolan

Dolan

Banned
The Queen Mother is much happier now, especially with Prince Philip being mostly healthy nowadays. True, without the accident and subsequent breakdown, she could be the oldest reigning Queen, but... well, you can't just retract the now memetic Royal Breakdown... right?

Also without being forced to take the reign as King, Prince George (back then still known with his birth name Charles), might never become a mature, responsible King he is known today (as The King himself self-admitted in his 2019 interview). He might either still stick with his married lover Camilla, or worse, ends up with the celebrity Gold-Digger Diana, both will definitely destroy his reputation. Sure, he only got married much later in 1986, but it was worth the wait.
 
Whiteshore

Whiteshore

Dolan said:
Sure, he only got married much later in 1986, but it was worth the wait.
Click to expand...
Indeed, not only due to the loving marriage between the two Royals but because of their three daughters, who probably would not have had an easy childhood with alternate mothers.
 

ASUKIRIK

Banned
Having the Queen basically roasting all politicians as "Idiot Conservatives and Imbecile Labour" who only serve their own self-interests despite their own rethorics definitely shook British political class at the time. Even as the Queen were pressurized to abdicate, the voters do sympathize with The Queen and Liberals started making comeback in 1980s, with their slogan of "We are neither idiots nor imbeciles".
 
Whiteshore

Whiteshore

ASUKIRIK said:
Liberals started making comeback in 1980s, with their slogan of "We are neither idiots nor imbeciles".
Click to expand...
With the Social Democrat-Liberal Alliance winning big in 1984, with Roy Jenkins being the Kingmaker of the 1984 elections as the SDP-Liberal Alliance (the core of the future Liberal Democrats) won 105 seats and the Liberal Democrats won over many moderates from both Labour and the Tories owing not only to the Queen's outburst but because Tony Benn and Margaret Thatcher respectively became leaders of Labour and the Tories. In a sense, the road to Tony Blair becoming the first LibDem Prime Minister in the early 2000s started with the Queen's outburst.
 
Last edited:

overoceans

OOC:

I'm not quite seeing why the Queen would think herself obligated to grant an interview in these circumstances. Is the idea that her public behaviour has become so noticably odd that her subjects want to know more about her mental state?

If so, maybe we need to establish why Elizabeth is acting this way to begin with. Without getting into stereotypes about the stiff upper lip, why would she be any more inept at handling this sort of thing than any other widow or near-widow?
 
Dolan

Dolan

Banned
ASUKIRIK said:
Even as the Queen were pressurized to abdicate, the voters do sympathize with The Queen and Liberals started making comeback in 1980s, with their slogan of "We are neither idiots nor imbeciles".
Click to expand...
The interview was apparently the idea of PM Callaghan to "raise the morale" of the British people, which completely backfired on Labour party.

The Tories could technically salvage the situation (while having the Queen called them as idiots) by just... not agreeing with the movement to force her to abdicate, but...

Well, at least both Tories and Labours never gained any prominence again.
 

overoceans

OOC:

Okay, I hate to keep raining on the parade here, but...

Tories and Labour are gonna be wiped out forever because a bombed-out-of-her-skull figurehead insulted them on TV?
 

West

Look as bad as that incident was for Parlament it was lets face it much needed.

The people the Queen mentioned by name were infamously corrupt, or dangerously incompetent. The shake up that followed the breakdown led to a lot of needed reforms that made the UK the least corrupt country in the world by index to this day. It also spawned anti corruption efforts in America, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and most of Europe who then followed what has been come to be known as the English model.

Greece expecially after the reforms is a much better country so while it was bad for her as a person and embarising it was needed pain that helped the country get better.
 

andys

The interview would rapidly be ended, with "technical difficulties" being given as the reason for the sudden halt.

In 1979 the BBC are not the organisation they are today.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top