Nobody does a queue better than the British! Queue for coffin is five miles long

[Fivemoreminutes1]

So the question is, would you join it? I’m just not very patient and don’t think I could do it!

news.sky.com/story/route-revealed-for-queue-to-see-the-queen-lying-in-state-and-where-you-can-take-a-break-12696584

61,000+ people streaming it now!

I’m strangely addicted.

Why has life coverage stopped ??!

Ooh what does it mean that it's stopped ?

It's 23 hours a day I think
so break time perhaps?

Both bbc and itv have their news on so maybe that

We’re back in the room folks.

I wonder if the guards would use those pikes and things, if serious trouble began.

👌

Why has life coverage stopped ??!

One of the men standing vigil fainted.

And power isn't supposed to be efficient. It is supposed to be compelling. The mere fact that people will willingly engage in an inefficient system is the point.

It isn’t an inefficient system - quite the opposite, because you have a ready supply of queuers waiting to go in, thus minimising any delays in the flow past the coffin. It may be inconvenient (especially to those oh-so-important Mumsnetters whose time is so much more precious than everyone else’s - but it’s not inefficient.

Caught changing of the guard just after 2am (up feeding baby). It all seems to me to be incredibly slow and there weren't many people in the hall. The first people to file past after the guard change didn't even look at the coffin then others stopped to bow and did the sign of the cross. The support staff (guys in tails) also do a lot of chatting and looking/moving around.

Just checked again and there's now a steady flow either side. Probably stopped letting people in earlier due to guard change. One side of the queue are incredibly close, almost touching the guards. The other is much farther back.

It's quite interesting for being so boring. Caught a guy in a union jack blazer on his own, big bow from him. Also quite a few people with mobility aids and a guy on crutches with a cast/support boot to his knee.

Back to small number with noone on stairs.

Off to bed now!

Just watching it now at six thirty - a few with children. Would they have been queuing over night? I just can’t fathom doing that. My children would have been uncomfortable and tired and eventually gotten upset. I can well imagine it all being a massive adventure until about 3am when they start saying they want to go home.

A man being interviewed in the zig zag bit just now said he started at about 11:00 last night

From the bits I’ve watched where people have younger children with them they have looked a bit bewildered by it, some even disinterested/scared.

You can imagine thinking ‘we queued hours and hours for this‘ ???
Be interesting to know what they make of it in years to come!

It's not really suitable for DC under about 12-14 to queue for hours to file past a coffin, none of the younger royal children have featured so far, youngest has been the Wessex's 14 year old yesterday.

In 90 years' time they'll be able to say they saw the coffin of Elizabeth II and their great grandchildren will be amazed! It will be like hearing in the 1990s someone tell you they saw the funeral of Queen Victoria.

It must be a bit of a hard sell. ‘ You’re not going to school today, we’re off to look at a coffin. 😬 But first we’re queuing for hours-it’ll be great and you’ll thank me in years to come!’

Will they be talking about it forever more though? Will people be ‘amazed’ that they saw a coffin but don’t really remember it. I’m not convinced TBH.

My Dad remembers the coronation of George VI, he was 6 at the time and they went to see it.
(My Mum claims she remembers the coronation flags up for her birthday on the same day, but as she was only turning 1 I'm not so convinced.)
My Granny remembered waving to 'the boys going off to war' (WWI) and she'd have been 9/10 at the time.
I remember queuing for the Tutankhmanun Exhibition when I was 5 or 6.

Not quite the same but when I was age 4 I camped out with my family and waited for a long time when Pope John Paul II visited England. Still remember it.

A Tutankhamen exhibition sounds like something a child would want to go to and actually remember.

Kate Garraway on GMB has just said that people might meet their future husband or wife in the long queue. She’s definitely looking for the positives. 😂

I saw a few images of people really struggling to hold it together and I don't think they were aware they were being streamed to the world .

Maybe some wouldn’t have gone had they known? I suppose it’s common knowledge now, and some may have left the queue on finding out last night.

I went to the Tutankhamen exhibition when I was a child. I remember being bored in the queue (4 hours) but also remember lots of shiny gold things.

I wonder what children will remember from this.