There’s futility and then there’s utter futility. When I first heard of that spoof call from Australia, impersonating Her Majesty (God bless her) and enquiring after her daughter-in-law, I said “I wouldn’t like to be the nurse that fell for that one!”. What I had in mind, of course, was that the unfortunate nurse or whoever had let the call through, which had made a laughing-stock of things royal, would get such a blast from her superiors, it’d singe her hair. Alas, it ended with something far, far worse: the death of the unfortunate nurse.
So now - who’s to blame? Is it the pair in Australia, who carried out the prank? I would reply with a very firm No. Anyone I spoke to in the immediate aftermath said it was a right laugh, down to the sound of barking Corgis in the background. Now, however, lots of people are getting very moral about the spoof-makers. They’ve been taken off-air, there’s talk of banning all prank calls, they’re the villains.
I don’t believe that for a moment. I don’t know, of course, but I don’t think it’s wildly inaccurate to speculate that those higher up the food chain from that poor, poor nurse gave her the mother and father of all bawlings-out, and that this directly related to the terrible and terminal step she took afterwards. The alternative is to believe that the nurse felt so badly about in some way having failed to shield the royal personage, the bearer within her of the next-but-one-or-is-it-two destined to sit on the royal throne, that she felt suicide was the only way out.
Dear God, I hope not. That would indeed have been an utterly wasteful and futile gesture - to give your life because in some vague way you’d embarrassed a pampered woman getting ready to produce another leech on the public purse.
Fair play Jude, you got it spot on with this one. Love your blogs.
ReplyDeletePeople have been impersonating British PMs and other high ranking people for years now, there's no way that anybody could have predicted the very sad outcome to what was just a (very funny) prank.
ReplyDeleteFind it odd so many people took to facebook and twitter to abuse the DJ's. Have they never told a joke in their lives. Tragic incident but maybe there were other factors involved who knows. All in all I think people need to calm down no-one and I repeat no-one would have predicted anything like that happening
ReplyDeleteWhen you indulge in these type of pranks and hoaxes,you never know how vulnerable or fragile your victim may be
ReplyDeleteIt may be justifiable when pricking the pomposity of the great and good, but making a nurse the butt of the joke, is both cruel and pathetically unfunny.
But at least Jude was able to vaguely pin the blame on the royals so not completely futile then.
Hang your head in shame Collins. It is utterly appalling and reprehensible to speculate on the causes of suiside in the manner in which you have done, so as enable you to take some politically motivated potshot at the Royals. Poor Poor Poor.
ReplyDeleteContrary to some of the commenters above I read Jude as criticising hospital management and the structure of a monarchical society that would lead to anyone seeing their life as worth less than someone else's embarrasment.
ReplyDeleteSuicide doesn't come out of the blue, this woman was obviously fragile to begin with. Where was the duty of care by the hospital here? It seems fairly clear that they have to share some of the responsibility for this, not that you'd hear that in any of the MSM who have turned rabidly on the DJ's. The hypocrisy of the British media in this affair is staggering.
Look to the above 2 posters I think you need to realise that these sort of pranks happen all the time without any problems. Lets clear one thing up the nurse in question didnt even give out any private confidential information she just put the call through to Kates ward and another nurse was then duped. I would be very worried if we lived in a world where we couldnt tell a joke for fear of some over reaction. Like I said earlier we dont know the full details, we dont know what was happening in the nurses life for all we know it was a massive coincedence. The worst bit about this tragic incident is how so many people have decided to target and abuse the 2 pranksters, what are these people looking for. The Djs lives are already ruined after this.
ReplyDeletethe worst thing about this blog is that the author has made wild speculations about the the reasons for the nurses suicide so as to justify having a go at the monarchy. Warped.
ReplyDeleteAny wilder than the speculation that she took her own life because she transferred a prank caller?
ReplyDelete"Any wilder than the speculation that she took her own life because she transferred a prank caller?"
DeleteWell yes actually.
The chain of events as we know them suggest that is what happened.
Jude's version requires imagining a managerial bawling out for which there is no evidence as yet, and a ridiculous attempt to blame the patient (yes Virginia, the sick pregnant woman) in the hospital somehow, rather than the obvious culprits.
It is not rocket science.