





A 'budget' supermarket in Norway would still be out of reach for many in Europe and the US.
On a more serious note, the UK came close to a formal secession crisis in 2014, when 45% of Scots voted for independence from Westminster in a referendum.
At that time, the position of the SNP (Scottish National Party) was to retain the Monarchy and this remains the official position, however the party membership has shifted strongly in the direction of Republicanism, indeed the former First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, recently called for the abolition of the Monarchy.
When we discuss threats to the future of existant Monarchies, surely the strongest threat comes from internal secessionist movements, wether they be in Scotland, Catalonia, Flanders, Alberta etc?
Following standard practice, her accoucheur (male midwife) Sir Richard Croft restricted her diet, purged her and bled her regularly during the pregnancy in hopes that the baby would be small enough to deliver. This severely weakened her, and Christian Stockmar—her husband Prince Leopold's physician in-ordinary—saw the treatment as outdated and didn't join the medical team in fear of being blamed if anything went awry as he was a foreigner.
Charlotte was later overdue at 42 weeks and went to labor in her bedroom at Claremont. The first stage lasted 26 hours, Croft and Charlotte's personal physician Matthew Baillie called in Dr. John Sims after the second stage began, but Croft refused to let him enter the room or see the Princess. The second stage lasted for 24 hours.
Croft correctly diagnosed that the baby was in a breech position (feet first instead of head first), but didn't intervene and forceps were not used. Although forceps likely would have resulted in a far less tiring labor, the medical community at the time viewed the tool as dangerous and favored a hands-off approach to delivery. Cesarean sections were out of the question as it would've killed the Princess almost immediately.
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Finally, Charlotte delivered a 9 pound stillborn son. She seemed to have recovered quickly and nourished herself after her long-lasting diet. A little after midnight, however, she began to vomit and complained about pain in her abdomen. Once Croft was called, she was cold to the touch, went into convulsions, bleeding and breathing with extreme difficulty. He placed hot compresses, the accepted way to handle postpartum bleeding, but it didn't stop.
Croft sent a footman to Baillie and Sims, and Baillie gave her wine and brandy mixed with laudanum to energize her from her exhaustion, restore her failing pulse, and manage her abdominal pain. They called in Stockmar, who was initially reluctant to get involved. Charlotte grabbed his hand and said "They have made me tipsy."
Stockmar left to wake Prince Leopold, who took an opiate and collapsed into his bed after the assurance of Charlotte's health following the labor. Stockmar heard Charlotte shout "Stocky! Stocky!" and went back to see her dead. The initial cause was said to be internal bleeding, but modern studies point it to be pulmonary embolism.
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The public outcry was immense. Many blamed the Prince Regent (Charlotte's father) and the Queen (Charlotte's grandmother) for her death because they didn't attend, even though Charlotte told them not to come. Still, the majority of the blame went to Richard Croft. Croft was accused of medical negligence, incompetence and said to have waited too long to intervene. Speculation was widely circulated that forceps could've saved the lives of mother and child, despite most physicians' disfavor of the instrument. The criticism and furious backlash towards Croft did not go ignored by him, and he committed suicide by gun only 3 months later.
This line of deaths—son, mother, and accoucheur, is known as the "triple obstetrical tragedy".
Yes, the old fashioned telegram does still exist in the year of our Lord 2026 and I am here for it.
The loss of the council seat in Dover comes just weeks after the Greens took a seat from the Tories in Reigate. In both elections, support for the Tories fell significantly and therefor cannot be wholly explained away by the presence of Reform and Restore candidates.
What in God's name are Conservative voters doing? Do they seriously imagine that the Green party is still the cuddly greens of yesteryear, the party of Jean Lambert and Sarah Parkin?
Tories must be made to realise exactly WHAT and WHO they are backing when they switch their votes to Polanski's Green party. If they cannot be made to do so then the Conservative party richly deserves the label of 'the stupid party'
In 2001, the Duchess' youngest son, Lord Nicholas Windsor, entered the Roman Catholic faith and forfeited his place in the line of succession.