As a person of 88 I am not trying to grab any chance before I die. I am old enough to have had my first child on Coronation Day in 1953.
My granny was quite the royalist. I think a lot of her generation were. When the last coronation happened she was one of only two households on the street with a TV, and half the street went to each of those houses to watch it. The sense of togetherness and community must have been quite something. It was, however, a different time, and my granny and I had very different views on the subject. I’ve been an ardent republican since I was a teenager (and there were a lot fewer of us around then).
I loved and admired the Queen and feel that some of you fail to realise how much the Monarchy means to the majority of the population.
I’m not sure that’s necessarily the case. Republicans are almost certainly a minority, although in the last decade numbers were visibly growing. Committed royalists are likely similarly a minority – currently a bigger one than republicans in the wake of the jubilee and now funeral – but as her reign recedes further into historical background, are set to become more so. The apathetic are far the greater majority, and this is a problem for the Windsors. Britons historically have little appetite for revolution or radical change, so my guess is there will be gradual constitutional change and the ‘handover’, for want of a better word, will be evolutionary as is the British way. It will end with a whimper, not a bang. But I do now think that at some point change will come.
It is disappointing to read that so many here have little understanding of national grief.
I disagree. I think this nation understands and respects national grief – or at least a sympathetic shock, a coming together and show of respect over horrifying situations – very well. We saw it with the 2007 terrorist attacks, with Grenfell, with the Manchester Arena bombing, and with Sarah Everard. For one, particularly privileged individual whose role was unelected, the sentiment is less comprehensible. A 96-year-old woman was ill, she was expected to die and she died. I’m sorry, on a human level, that a family have lost a beloved mother and granny. The ostentatious displays afterwards are something less comprehensible.
It will all be over by next Tuesday. I do believe in free speech and have no desire to shut Republicans up, though they will not get a fair hearing in these particularly sad days. Be patient. “This too shall pass” and it is but a short time of reflection.
It’s been an odd few years, and these events signal something different from the usual news stories. Some people are probably going along out of a sense of curiosity, wanting to be ‘part of history’, ‘say I was there’, etc. I don’t doubt some are genuinely upset. This, as you say, will quickly pass; novelty soon wears off. But the questions about the future of the UK constitution are only beginning. And I don't think they will go away.