Tomorrow’s spectacle is better understood as poetry than in the severely rational terms of democratic theorists who accept no need for religion and ritual.
Blair said that he wanted Britain “to be a young country again”. It wasn’t one then and isn’t one now. There is a fittingness in King Charles being the oldest monarch ever to take our throne.
In government, Labor have so far confined themselves to gestures such as banishing His Majesty from the banknotes whilst relegating a referendum to a second-term issue.
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, / And his righteousness unto children’s children;
To such as keep his covenant, / And to those that remember his commandments to do them.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
“Those who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and privileges are long forgotten.”
Princess Anne, and the King’s brothers, Princes Andrew and Edward, and Princes William and Harry, follow Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin.
An Ambassador told me last week that there has been no funeral like it in living memory: not that of J.F.Kennedy, nor of Nelson Mandela, nor even of Winston Churchill.
The lying in state will continue until next Monday at 6.30am. The state funeral will take place later that morning.
Currently 4.2 miles long as we post this guide,the estimated queueing time at lleast nine hours, the nearst landmark is Bermondsey Beach.
For almost a century, Labour has been a solidly monarchist party – and Labour Prime Ministers have often enjoyed better relations with the sovereign than their Tory equivalents.
Today about 2.5 billion people, including one third of the world’s young people aged 15-29, live in Commonwealth countries. This baffles American commentators.
King Charles leads the procession with members of the Royal Family to Westminster Hall ahead of the lying in state.
Not everyone understands the appeal of monarchy. It falls to those of us who do to make the case for it.
As we left the hall, the three of us hugged, found the nearest bar, had a well-deserved sit down and a beer, then jumped on the train home.