God Save The King?
I somehow feel I should record my thoughts and feelings regarding Queen Elizabeth II’s death and funeral,which I‘m conscious are likely to be those of a minority. I’m at an age when there is little point in dissembling although I try to respect the feelings of others.
First, a little personal background. When at school and the Wimbledon tennis tournament was playing I used to go to see the matches after school. The players all had their nationality noted after their names and some were described as “stateless”. I thought this was an exotic nd enviable status, in innocent ignorance of the difficulties it must have caused the players. I think I must always have been lacking in patriotic sentiment, the only nationalist remnant of my nationalist education being unwavering support for the English football team. I like and appreciate England in many ways but do not feel patriotic about it.
I have great respect for the late queen. I think she had a lousy job, albeit with very considerable compensations, aand did it extremely well. But love? How do you love someone you have never spoken to, never seen in the flesh, never met and know only through what has been written about them, much by sycophants? Her death left me sad for her family, as would the death of any other person I didn’t know,, but otherwise unmoved.
I watched part of the funeral on television and was impressed by the display of pomp and circumstance and the brilliant feat of organisation behind it. One thing you can rely on from the military is to carry out a ceremony impeccably, and Britain loves pomp. However I found parts of the BBC commentary cloying. I do not think the ceremony showed that Britain is great, as was stated. Neither do I think, as was also stated, that this will have a great, changing effect on people’s personal lives; the impact of the cost of living crisis will undoubtedly be greater.
When Charles is crowned king I suspect my thoughts and feelings will be similar. He will probably find the job difficult, in part because he will no longer be able to state publicly the views that impinged on politics that he has in the past. However, for me and my personal life the election of the French president must inevitably have more significance than who sits on the English throne.
