It’s not that I think there is an easy way, it’s just that I don’t think that his position in the line of succession is a meaningful response to whether or not he is in it in this context

No, I don’t think there is. I was only saying that in response to the claim that he’s now 8th in line - yes, he is, but not because of any actual intention from the monarchy

Fair enough, thanks! I’ll edit my initial comment

I did. I found the 30th October 2025 statement from the royal family saying they had “initiated a formal process” to do so, and Andrew’s corresponding one agreeing not to publically use the titles, but nothing since. So what am I missing?

When did that actually happen? Last I saw, he was just agreeing not to use them publically

He was born 2nd in line, now he’s about 8th in line

So still in line for the throne. He’s 8th because other people were born ahead of him in the succession, not because the monarchy demoted him or something

Here’s the police statement https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/news/thames-valley/news/2026/february/16-02-25/thames-valley-police-open-investigation-into-misconduct-in-public-office/

Major UK news outlets like the BBC and Guardian are reporting it

I do wish that the news would stop calling him ex-Prince or ex-Duke until he actually is one. He just agreed to stop using the titles, he still has them. < Edit: Andrew actually was stripped of said titles in November 2025, though remains in line for the throne. > He’s still in line for the fucking throne. Don’t pretend that the monarchy has done more than it actually has here.

Also, though, good

I also quite enjoyed the Guardian article’s picture of this policeman having a really good day at work

There’s also this in the last paragraph:

The most recent video on Look Mum No Computer’s YouTube channel is a clip from a concert, where he attempts to piece together a Blur song on the fly, all by himself, on a bank of ancient electronic instruments.

The link goes to Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz. The title says Gorillaz too. I mean, sure, Damon Albarn is in both of them, but if he knew that in order to make the Blur connection then it only makes it weirder to mix them up

Oh shit, we’re doing something cool this year? Assuming the whole event doesn’t collapse over Israel

1dalm has said the same now, so it seems you were the one to read it correctly in the first place. Such is the difficulty of communication by text!

I dunno about you, but as a man I really don’t see why I should be upset about not being in a document about women. Not every conversation has to be about me.

It’s a document about women, not about trans people, so trans men just weren’t covered. The line about trans women is a single very short clause to make sure they’re included in all the other stuff

Of course I think it’s relevant, what I don’t understand is how the EU needs the UK more tha vice versa when the EU is bringing more to the table (including in terms of naval capacity)

It’s far too old a practice to be that

“Quietly” as in it’s being done with far fewer bombs and bullets than Gaza

So why bring up the navy in this context?

This is a somewhat common practice in headlines (in English, at least), but would not be used in normal writing. It’s similar to how headlines almost never use the word “and”, instead replacing it with a comma. If I go to Reuters’ website just now I can quite quickly find headlines about “UK rocket maker Orbex”, “South Korea crypto exchange”, and “Argentina unions”.

That said, there are also a lot of headlines (including on Reuters) that don’t do this, and I have no idea what decides when it is or isn’t applied. I can just reassure you that no, this is not you misunderstanding English, it’s just a weird convention for news headlines specifically

We have the biggest individual navy in Europe (excluding Russia, but… well we’ve seen how that has been faring), but we do not have a bigger navy than the EU together. If there is some naval threat that the EU cannot handle, we are in an even worse position to try to face it alone. If we’re operating on might is right logic then we absolutely need the EU, because we aren’t competing with heavyweights like the US and China alone

The second-biggest cryptocurrency split in two becaue some people just decided to undo transactions. The transactions were absolutely theft, but the point is that some people just decided to change what the ledger said.