Sadly, it was probably Diana's death that started much of this. In the days after, the Queen was keeping a respectable silence at Balmoral and got flamed by the tabloids for not making a more visible statement of grief, sorrow etc. (The Sun's headline ran something like 'Ma'am, your People are Grieving! Where are you?') Since then politicians, sadly, are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Making a public statement of 'grief' is now required. Apparently. By someone. Somewhere.
Another way in which murdoch has ruined the world. If anything, it makes the real occasions of national/state grief seem poor by comparison when the tabloids are smothered in gushing tributes to some big brother contestant who they were calling a foul bigoted racist but a few months before.
I only have sympathy for people whose loved ones have been taken, especially in circumstances like Drummer Rigby's, but why does his death at the hands of 'Islamic Extremists' mean more than the deaths of his fellow servicemen's at the hands of other 'Islamic Extremists'? Bozzer and Dave don't turn up for those funerals, because as Ardiles said, they're not 'expected' to.
The whole flag at Buckingham Palace debacle after Diana's death is a fantastic example of this. Historically, there was never a flag flying if the Royals weren't in residence, but because all the mouth breathers with no knowledge of history or tradition went "OHHHH, WHERE'S THE FLAG, IT'S OBVIOUSLY AN INSULT TO HER LEGACY" they now have to fly one.
I wonder if George Osborne is there with his fake tears again. The cunt.
They weren't fake. He had an onion up his sleeve.
