Who We Will Miss In 2023 (And Who We Won’t)

This will obviously be a long list but at the top must be the Queen of England. Known to most people as simply The Queen, she held the record for the longest marriage of any royal anywhere – seventy-three years with her late husband; she was the longest serving monarch in British history, clocking up a staggering seventy years on the Throne; and an unparalleled record of service. Such was the reverence for this woman that the queue to see her lying in state stretched for miles with waiting times in excess of twenty-four hours.

Bernard Cribbins was a much loved character actor, comedian and narrator who was only three years younger than The Queen when he died in July. Dennis Waterman was likewise an actor as well as a comedian and also had a career in music. He died in May, aged 74.

The musicians we will miss include Burke Shelley of the heavy metal band Budgie; Dan McCafferty, lead vocalist with Nazareth who died last month; and Manny Charlton, lead guitarist with the same band who died in July, less than three weeks short of his eighty-first birthday.

The biggest name in rock music to have died this year was arguably Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac who died on November 30. McVie did three stints with the band and was still with it when she died.

The youngest person on this list and clearly the most tragic was Takeoff, an American rapper who was just 28 when he was shot dead at Houston, Texas on November 1, as usual for no apparent reason. 

The oldest person on this list is Andrey Titenko, a Soviet war hero who died November 22 at the age of 103. Titenko was born in the short-lived Ukrainian People’s Republic. There must be a message there at this tragic time.

The American journalist and author Colin Flaherty died in January this year, too young; he was born in 1955 and spent most of his life as a regular reporter before turning to the specialised subject of black crime. This led to his being smeared by the usual suspects, but their allegations have now become so outlandish that no one who matters believes them anymore. AK Nation was an admirer of Colin, and his work will stand the test of time. Now to some of those we will definitely not miss next year.

Thomas Loden was the last person to be executed in the United States this year. Two other executions were scheduled but will now not take place, at least for the foreseeable future. The spree killer Nikolas Cruz could have been executed, and many people were angry he was not, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, but for whatever reason, one member of the jury decided to spare this miserable wretch a trip to the gurney. Darrell Brooks is another spree killer. Because Wisconsin doesn’t have the death penalty, he was spared execution, but like Cruz he will never walk among us again. 

In Great Britain, double child killer Russell Bishop and serial killer Peter Tobin died from natural causes. Emma-Jayne Magson was convicted of murdering James Knight back in 2016 but a spurious appeal followed by a retrial then an even more spurious appeal this year failed to set her free on the public, men in particular. Although she could theoretically be released in 2033, she will hopefully remain behind bars until Halley’s Comet returns in 2061.

Two women who like Magson are still very much alive will hopefully not be seen in our media again. TV presenter Tiffany Cross was finally sacked when even her ultra-woke bosses couldn’t take her hatred of white people anymore, while after her defeat in a Virginia courtroom by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, Amber Heard is thought unlikely ever to be hired for even a toothpaste commercial much less another feature film.

There are many other individuals and organisations we would like to see the back of – starting with the World Economic Forum and the FBI, but sadly they are both likely to be around for a long time, much longer than the once free nation known as the United States, at any rate.