What is happening in the UK? The queen is dead is a four-word answer. Everything is happening here at the moment.
The country has stopped since the queen’s death. The queen is dead for breakfast, the queen is dead for lunch, and so on. There is no press except for one about the queen being dead. A public statement of grief about the queen’s death has been issued by every business in the country. The self-checkout machines at the supermarkets have been turned off to show how much they feel for the queen. The number of weather reports issued by the Met Office has been reduced as a mark of respect. An amusement park company decided to kick vacationers out of their parks for a day for the queen’s funeral, before realizing that it was crazy.
The new movie starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts is being delayed. You can go to the cinema to watch the funeral of the queen, but you can only drink water and eat nothing if your hot dog gets in the way of the mourners.
On the one hand, all of this is stupid and comical, but on the other hand, everything being shut down or in a holding pattern until the “mourning period” is over is boring. The country is in a state of limbo. It feels like it was from 1630, with headlines like “Public gather to kiss the rings of King Charles.”
This could hardly come at a worse time for thecountry.
There is more sinister going on here. On the day of the queen’s funeral, hospital appointments are canceled. The food banks are not open. The funerals of normal people are not being held. On the day the queen died, Liz Truss, our new prime minister, quietly lifted the ban on frack in this country and also announced a plan to relieve Britons of their energy bills this winter. I am not suggesting that anyone offed the queen early, but parliament will be closed for a month to honor the queen.
It’s a bad time for the country. The cost of living in the U.K. is going to get worse as the weather gets colder.
There is a new prime minister and a new monarch next week. At the moment, things are not good. The people are not happy. The post-pandemic mental health crisis is about to hit us like a freight train, and our seas and rivers are full of sewage that the Conservatives voted to dump there. A lot of people who loved the queen in a way that made them feel like republicans are now faced with King Charles, who has already been filmed snarling at an aide. It seems likely that we will see a display of elite wealth, just as the rest of the country is going through one of the worst recessions of all time.
There have been small anti-royal protests all over the country that have been met by the law with a heavy hand. The young woman was arrested in Edinburgh for holding up a sign. When King Charles was being proclaimed as the king on Sunday, a man in Oxford was arrested for shouting “who elected him?”
This response from the police and crown suggests an uneasiness. Some people have wondered if this uncertain time will provide an opportunity to question whether we want a monarchy or not, if there isn’t another way forward than just accepting another unelected head of state, another round of our “purely symbolic” monarchy that is made up of real people who
It’s possible it will. I don’t think I’m right. There is no room for other news at Buckingham Palace. People were not prepared to revolt. I don’t think there’s any hope for a cure for the British people and the monarchy.