Flurry About Head of State’s Health

Continuing the media’s fixation with our head of state’s health and longevity (see News Update of 1 January 2017), there is intense media speculation in Britain, picked up in the colonies, that a very big announcement was about to be made – the Queen was to hand over all of her duties to Charles; Phillip was dead (hurriedly retracted by one newspaper); British PM called to Buckingham Palace etc. All it was in the end – and not unexpected – was that Prince Phillip, Queen consort and Australian knight, was to effectively retire at the age of 96 “in the autumn” this year. As it’s autumn here, WfaAR had to work out when that was: around September/October in the northern hemisphere. As reported on ABC online: “After the day’s events, and a sleepless night for many in other parts of the world, the news brought on a sense of relief, sadness and even amusement at the global fuss, with one twitter user suggesting the Queen had just ‘trolled the whole world’.” In other non-news, the Queen and Prince Phillip were both reported to be in good health “on Wednesday” and in good health in the last few months. Prince Phillip carried out 184 official engagements in the year to March 2016.