[JasonB]

We don't usually encourage political posts here, and I hope this won't be seen as one.

But I just wanted to say that, in spite of the fact that I'm not a royalist, or a monarchist in any way, I think Queen Elizabeth did her best for our country, and I think she will be sorely missed.

[Kevan]

Yes, she served her loyal public...unlike too many of her self-serving family.

[Scuderia_Turini]

Her Majesty is up there with the genuinely highly-regarded people of the world, may she Rest In Peace. We met in 1980 when she came to officially open our new factory in Edinburgh and although our conversation was brief, I felt totally at ease due to her gracious personality. 

Leo

[Anthony B]

RIP Queen Elizabeth - you have been there my entire life - it will be different in many small ways going forward.

[Kevan]

The most respected person of our lifetime, QE2 the end of an era.

[Gordon Steadman]

Not in anyway a royalist. They are, after all, just people like the rest of us. It's sad when anyone dies.

However, The Queen was clearly a well regarded person and behaved with great dignity doing a job that no-one in their right mind would take on without a real sense of destiny.

I found the blanket coverage last evening rather an intrusion, not to us but to the royal family. Obviously it needed reporting but the family should have been given a few days of private mourning before the whole parade starts. A simple announcement would have been sufficient. There is plenty of time for the obituaries.

Certainly she was an important part of the UK's place in the world and acted accordingly. It will be interesting to see how Charles acts in the role and how his many personal interests are bought to the fore. I get the impression that he won't keep quite as non aligned as his mother did.

[BAracer]

It is sad, and I do hope she was 'comfortable' as the earlier press statement indicated. 

I don't think you can really argue that she devoted her life to the role. I think the country will become a different place without her.

[Kevan]

I spent a fair few hours yesterday doing our clubs Slot Rally report, BBC had an all day tribute to The Queen, plenty of food for thought.  It's amazing just how much she was entwined into our lives and we took it for granted without noticing.

[OXO cube]

whether your a royalist or not 
its important to remember 
than this was in the end just a nice old lady 
someones mother , gran and great gran
and when it comes to mortality , we are all equal 

god save the king :) hehehe

[CMOTD]

I spent much of my childhood and adolescence living in the next village to Sandringham, my uncle was the local butcher who supplied most of the meat to the estate, he was very friendly with the Queen's chef and there are a number of tales I could tell about the household. I never met the Queen but she was a very frequent sight in the area and the locals were often overtaken by her when she was out driving so nobody was that overawed by Royalty.

However, 'Her Maj' was directly responsible for a welcome pay rise I once received. During the mid 70s I was employed as a lighting sales engineer and Sandringham estate was one of my customers. In 1977, the chief electrician asked me to sort out some floodlighting for the flagpole on top of Sandringham House following a command from on high. This would necessitate some trial and error so I would need to take samples up to the roof and adjust the beam angles so that the flag would be lit regardless of the wind direction.

Now there was a slight problem with doing this as we would need to run the Royal Standard up the flagpole in order to do the job and that was not allowed as the Queen wasn't in residence at the time so there was a delay while permission was sought and granted from Buckingham Palace. The only route to the relevant part of the roof was through the Queen's private section of the house so I have actually been past her bedroom but the door was shut so I never got a glimpse inside.

Anyway, job eventually done, lights installed and they are there to this day as far as I know. Some weeks later my area manager informed me that he had received a letter from the palace saying that the Queen was very pleased with the job I had done and thanking me for my efforts. As a result the lit flagpole was used in some publicity material for the firm and I got a £250 p.a. pay rise.

Just a small footnote in the greater scheme of things I suppose but yet another example of her thoughtfulness and attention to detail, taking time to thank someone she had never met for doing a minor job at one of her houses.

In the words of Paddington Bear at the Jubilee: "Thank you Ma'am..................for everything."