The crowds of mourners aren’t a good guide
middle-aged and old women are loitering after the end of an Anglican church service in Steeple Bumpstead, a village in Essex. All of them are feeling rather shaky. They have just sung the national anthem, with the unfamiliar line “God save the king,” and it brought them up short. Besides, the
Britain can put on a good show. But the capital pomp matters less than the provincial mood. A monarchy that has been stripped of almost all its powers is important less for what it does than for how it makes people feel. The essential thing is what floats around in the ether: the sentiments and understandings about the head of state thatIn Steeple Bumpstead many people use exactly the same words when talking about the queen: “She’s always been there.
The queen connected Britons from different backgrounds. Beverly Lindsay, a businesswoman and deputy lieutenant of the West Midlands , was taught to speak “the queen’s English” as a child in Jamaica. She describes Elizabeth II as a glue holding Britain together. Joan Hunter, who also grew up in Jamaica, took comfort from the queen’s televised speech during the covid-19 lockdown in 2020. On September 9th she brought flowers and a Jamaican flag to St Philip’s Cathedral in Birmingham.
The queen also helped bind the countries of the United Kingdom. “Scotland was special to her and she was special to Scotland,” declared Nicola Sturgeon, the country’s first minister. During the campaign for Scottish independence in 2014, the Scottish National Party that Ms Sturgeon now leads said that the queen could remain head of state if Scotland left themembers are republicans, and this position might change.
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