At 2:22 p.m. sharp, Beethoven’s funeral march sounds. The Band of the Scots Guards and the Grenadier Guards, the royal bands, stride through the great entrance portal, leading the procession. A breathless silence reigns on the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace. The moment has come when the Queen leaves the palace for the last time. Seeing the coffin on the carriage, slowly passing tens of thousands of people, makes the irretrievability clear.
Only when the funeral procession is over at a reasonable distance does the crowd give a respectful applause. When asked why they braved the rain, cold and darkness to see the procession to Westminster Hall or to be able to parade past the Queen’s coffin in the next few days, a common answer is that it’s the least the Brits could do now.
The Queen has always been there for her people for 70 years without ever complaining about her royal office. And it’s the awareness of how historic this moment is. Most Britons have never known any other monarch. In addition, many will not see a queen again, the next three generations with Charles, William and George are men.
There is a third reason why the kingdom pays so much homage to the Queen, why the island has been seeing and seeing the House of Windsor 24/7 on all channels since last Thursday. Because it gives a respite from what the Brits are going through. The fact that they got their fourth prime minister in six years two days before the death of Elizabeth II is the strongest evidence of the instability into which the country is not only plunged by Brexit.
When the mourning period is over next Tuesday, a merciless autumn awaits – for which the government has hardly prepared the country. For too long she was preoccupied with the constant scandals surrounding Boris Johnson.
After his resignation, there was a two-month election campaign for the successor, again nothing was done. Everything is now again for ten days because of the memory of the Queen. She, on the other hand, always did her job against all odds – even right before her death with the appointment of Liz Truss.
