A “fairytale kiss provided an antidote to our times”. The “ultimate fairytale ending”. Australia’s European correspondents hauled their sacks of florid cliches to Copenhagen’s Christiansborg Palace to watch the woman formerly known as Mary Donaldson become queen of Denmark.
One wonders if The Australian‘s Jacquelin Magnay and the Nine papers’ Rob Harris were struck by the coincidences in their coverage. I mean, what are the chances that both writers would be put in mind of Danish fairytale author Hans Christian Andersen? That both would be struck by the magic of Copenhagen’s “cobbled streets”? Harris added a reference to Scandi-noir favourite Borgen to complete the list of things that come up when you google “Denmark”. (Presumably there was no way to work in a reference to Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich or pioneering existentialist Søren Kierkegaard? Posh and Becks conceived their first son Brooklyn in Denmark — is there anything in that?)
Harris casts the event as “an antidote, perhaps, to months of horror headlines” that we might allow ourselves to be swept up in, “if only for a moment”. He’s filed six consecutive pieces on Queen Mary in the last week, including the insight garnered from an old interview that Mary doesn’t allow phones at the table (if you think I’m picking out the most mundane detail of the piece to be a jerk, it’s literally the headline).
But Harris and Nine are a picture of restraint compared to the Oz: “Here was the new royal couple, the first Australian-born queen, beaming and beautiful: offering a perfect wave, embraced by her husband and soon joined by her son, 18-year-old Christian, now the heir and new crown prince, and the rest of the family”.
The criteria that Magnay uses to separate a “perfect” wave from a failed one, alas, isn’t explained, but for the uninitiated, it involves moving one’s hand from side to side in a gesture of greeting. From the sounds of things, Mary nailed it.
We also learn that “the couple’s stipend of $416,000 a month from the Danish government will increase substantially”, which is nice to hear. To her credit, Magnay doesn’t go along with the many outlets that insist on referring to her as “our Mary” (the new queen renounced her Australian citizenship decades ago).
Meanwhile, over at the ABC, check out this truly unforgivable bit of clickbait: “Denmark’s King Frederik wanted a low-key ascension. But one thing he saw brought him to tears.”
Spoiler: it was the crowds. Literally the crowds gathered to celebrate his ascension to the throne.
Frankly, the Tourism Tasmania board comes away with the most dignified thing in the papers today, with this ad in the Nine papers:
“Get me a bucket” – Mr Creosote
I’ve just about had it with Crikey. Been a subscriber for 25 years, since the start, when I was 45. I am now a cranky old man subscriber – mad as hell.
Ever since Private Media bought them out their IT has gone to the sh!thouse. I get the email every weekday, as always, but now when I click on a link to read the article, it demands I log in, again for every article, every day.
Try to ring Private Media and you get treated the same as every other organisation treats you these days – it goes to a voicemail and you are required to leave a message or put your complaint on their website because they’re too busy to worry about customer relations by actually having someone answer a phone.
I have done this previously and got some anodyne rubbish back but the problem is still the same.
Private Media clearly doesn’t give a rat’s @rse about its subscribers by fixing this problem.
That actually signs like more a problem with your browser than Crikey. But hard to know without the details
A problem with Google? I checked again and today it is not demanding I log in for every article, as it was last week, but still for the first article.
BTW, I use Google on my iPad (now) and Firefox on my laptop.
Would whoever is posting a negative on my comments like to explain why?
Agree DF. Ive turned off the auto renew. Can’t fathom why anyone would want to stay when all their decent journos, like Hardaker and Maeve, are leaving or have left. Since Sacking Peter Fray, the editorial leadership has been a joke. I’d say it’s about as competent as the pathetic website upgrade but even that’s probably too charitable.
I only subscribe when the discounts are on. It comes down to what flavour pap you want. In my case, it’s anything but Murdoch or Fairfux.
MWM is good, and Crikey nemesis, FJ, has had to stop journalling because he was so good the death threats were more than threats.
Plus the comments here are entertaining.
A friend asked me to point out that it’s presumably because you’re posting negative off-topic comments in a place that won’t get them dealt with. Free speech though.
Robby Crusoe you ain’t.
Same login problem here
ditto, never a problem until Crikey ‘updated’ their website…
And it only took 3 months!
Yes I had the problem but it has now gone and I did something I can’t remember . . .
My biggest complaint is not being able to comment on political articles.
I hope we get plenty of comments on Dutton’s brain-snap on Woolies. what a d-ckhead
He-he, good one Charlie. And thanks. Royality is defunct, as it ought to be in the real political and moral universe that is Liberal Democracy. One wonders at all the hoopla. Royality can help us understand history and older cultures. But perpetuating it today seems surreal, mischievous and perhaps a tad perverse. Let’s address the reality, and the threats posed to our world by the intrusions and infusions of the far right and would-be dictators, such as in the possible ascension to the Presidental throne once again of Donald Trump. Charlie’s piece is nonetheless spot on, seeing the trash for what it is.
And for us colonials down under we shall never have a home-grown head of state. Instead, we have King Charles, a man who actively abetted the overthrow of a duly elected Australian government. Long live the King!
It appears the journos quoted above in Nine & The Australian have found their metier.
Most amusing. In 2023, however, the words “republican” and “president” are so charged with ill omen that I would hope Australia never has to apply the words to itself. If we can one day have a head of state that is a symbol of nationhood above politics, is not elected on a platform of empty promises, has clearly defined powers in last resort defenestrating the elected prime minister and could never, ever, be Gerry Harvey – then I might vote for it. Until then I simply don’t have enough details…
Good one Halley’s Comment (ha – I like your nom de plume). The image of Gerry Harvey being some sort of disinterested moderator of political excess is surreal!
O, and too, the charged political terms you spoke of – I reckon that phenomena is evidence we are all going the way of America. They put image and emotional reaction first and foremost, systematically as it were. And that’s probably due to them living in a highly sensitised body politick within 80 years of regnant Commercialism.
It’s 2024. Happy New Year!
That’s what they want you to believe