FIRST there was the sadness and the dignity. The announcement that our beloved Queen had died. The grief at her passing and the enormous admiration at her reign.
Watching our TVs, we joined with her family in mourning the death of perhaps Britain’s greatest ever monarch. It was truly the end of an era.
While we were still grieving The Queen, things went a bit loony
Then, after a bit, while we were still grieving, things went a bit loony.
The BBC cancelled the Last Night Of The Proms, for starters. I can’t think of a more fitting way for people to pay tribute to Liz than by singing patriotic hymns, but there we are.
Then the holiday company Center Parcs made an utterly bizarre decision.
All the people staying at its sites would be kicked out on Monday September 19, the day of the Queen’s funeral. And allowed back in the following day.
God knows what they expected holidaymakers to do on the Monday evening. Doss by the side of the road? They’ve since relented a little bit.
But people who booked their hols for September 19 will still not be allowed in until Tuesday. Utterly whacko.
Then I read this tweet from the UK Corgi Club. “Anyone else’s corgi acting differently now that Our Majesty has passed? Ours has been curled up in our laps ever since the news broke . . . almost like they know. God bless the Queen.”
God bless her indeed. And God help you, frankly. And yer weird corgis. Then all the football was cancelled — mark of respect, innit.
And yet on the night of the Queen’s death, football fans at West Ham showed that they could watch a football match AND pay respect to the Queen.
Which they did by singing the National Anthem, applauded by the Romanian away fans.
But then all the other games were cancelled — frankly, at a time when we could have done with the distraction. And building up to a very congested season later on.
Next the Met Office went doolally. It posted a tweet saying that “as a mark of respect we will only be posting daily forecasts and warnings”.
WTF? Are we supposed to assume it’s what she would have wanted, no weather forecasts? Maybe they thought the weather would stop for her.
There followed a slew of companies and institutions deciding they weren’t going to do stuff because the Queen had died. Most damagingly, no doctor appointments on September 19th.
No operations in NHS hospitals. All outpatient visits postponed. Yep, it’s what she would have wanted. People to live in pain for an extra 24 hours. And just imagine if you had a GP appointment booked for September 19 after trying to book one for three years.
It is all a kind of madness. Some of it is a consequence of that very modern thing, virtue signalling. Companies and institutions want you to know how seriously they take the death of the Queen and are happy to inflict misery on you as a consequence.
Some of it is just the usual derangement of overkill. I thought the following was a joke. There was a sign on a condom machine in a pub, reading: “No sheaths will be dispensed from this vending machine until Wednesday 21 September.”
But now I’m not so sure.
Stop me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the Queen always determined to keep calm and carry on? She managed it for 70 years. We couldn’t manage it for a weekend.
Snubbed Jong un can Kim to mine..
I FEEL a bit sorry for Kim Jong un, the porky dictator of North Korea.
He’s been left off the guest list for the Queen’s funeral.
I feel a bit sorry for Kim Jong un who was left off the guest list for the Queen’s funeral
I might invite him over myself – he can stay at my gaff and watch the funeral on telly.
I hate to see people left out.
POLICE OUT OF ORDER
NEVER much like it when the state gets all fascistic on us.
When we have to parrot the establishment views or get banged up. I don’t like choreographed knee-bending or banging saucepans together for the useless NHS. It all has an Orwellian whiff about it.
Anti-monarchy protester holds a sign outside Houses of Parliament as King Charles III receives address from both Houses of Parliament expressing their condolences
I really don’t like it when the state starts arresting people because they express anti-royalist views. This has happened far too much for my liking after the death of our Queen.
One bloke, a lecturer, (natch) was carted off in a police van simply for shouting out “Who elected him?” about King Charles. The lecturer was called Symon Hill and I don’t suppose he and I would get on.
Anyone who spells Simon like that probably deserves all they get.
Maybe you can argue that it’s a bit insensitive to make anti-monarchist statements right now. Sure. But there is no way on earth the police should be involved.
Hill was later de-arrested but told he might be charged in future.
Barrister Paul Powlesland was questioned by the police simply for holding up a blank piece of paper. I dunno what point he was trying to make. But I do know that the police overstepped the mark.
Most of us are grieving the passing of our Queen. But there’s no law forcing all of us to join in, and nor should there be.
One in four of us don’t agree with having a Royal Family – and that’s a perfectly respectable position to take.
The police need to back off, sharpish.
COLLAR KILLER
IT is shocking that Lord Ashcroft has felt the need to offer £50,000 for someone to come forward and name the killer of little Olivia Pratt-Korbel.
The poor child was shot in Liverpool three weeks ago. But lips remain very tightly sealed. Do none of the scumbags in the ganglands have even a vestige of conscience?
TREV’S HATRED IS FOUL
I REMEMBER when Trevor Sinclair was a half decent footballer rather than a confused and embittered dingbat.
His latest contribution to the great debate was about how the Queen was apparently responsible for all the racism in the world.
Trevor Sinclair debated about how the Queen was apparently responsible for all the racism in the world
Given that she ushered out the Empire and ushered in the Commonwealth, that seems a bit rich.
Sinclair’s got form, of course, for race baiting. He once called a copper a “white c”, rather than just a “c”.
I wonder how much stuff like BLM and the obnoxious critical race theory is responsible for this kind of confected resentment.
STAND BY KYIV IN WAR
THE war in Ukraine is getting dangerous.
A brilliant manoeuvre has seen the Ukrainians snatch back a vast amount of land from the Russkies in the north east of the country.
Perhaps for the first time, Putin is under real pressure.
And faced with defeat it would not surprise me if the cruise missiles rain down on Kyiv.
We have to stay firm in our support of Ukraine and make sure they have the weaponry to counter whatever the psycho throws at them.
Tuchel for Tories
I SEE that inflation is back down to single digits. Just.
I knew this would happen as soon as Goldman Sachs predicted that it would reach 22.4 per cent. I have never known those Wall Street clowns to be right about anything.
They predicted the UK would go into recession in 2017 because of Brexit. Of course, it didn’t.
They’re probably right now tipping Thomas Tuchel to win the Premier League with Chelsea and Penny Mordaunt to become leader of the Conservative Party.
