IIN to be sad at Prince Phillip’s death (even though he was flawed)

Phillip was a dickhead. He had the good fortune to be born to a privileged family, he grew up amongst the social elite, and he was in his mid-twenties when he decided to marry Elizabeth - old enough to know exactly what he was getting into.

It's true that his family had to deal with serious upheaval when he was young, but their problems were trivial compared to those suffered by the families of Greek and Turkish soldiers killed and wounded in the aggressive war promoted by Phillip's father which resulted in the family being kicked out of Greece.

A load of BS is talked about the "gilded cage" of the British royal family. That gets a huge boo fucking hoo from me. The British tabloid press is uniquely vile and intrusive, but that's the sea that the British social elite and celebrities choose to swim in. There are other royal families in Europe which managed to negotiate the move to a lower profile in the twentieth century while still holding on to their unearned, elevated social status and a very comfortable lifestyle. Elizabeth and Phillip chose not to go that route, and the consequences are entirely on them.

The most damming thing about Phillip is that he was a huge failure at the most important job a man can ever have: he was very obviously a crap father.

All his children are fucked up in various ways and to varying degrees, and three out of four of them have had serious problems with their personal relationships. (It could be four out of four: Edward is such an inconsequential dweeb that nobody pays much attention to him, so even though he's been married for more than twenty years to the same woman, who knows what the hell he gets up to in private.)

I simply don't care that he's died. He was a very old man who was given many opportunities in life, screwed up repeatedly, and clearly enjoyed acting the arsehole and kicking down. I'm sure there were countless people who died yesterday tragically early through no fault of their own, and whose passing will make the world a much less enjoyable place for those who knew them. I can feel a degree of detached sympathy for their family and friends, but I really don't give a shit about how the British royals are feeling today.

The only thing that does matter to me is that it seems highly unlikely that Britain will now descend into the ridiculous collective hysteria that followed the death of bloody stupid Diana.