The Queen's Passing: An Initial Reaction.

Having just read the headline Queen Elizabeth II Has Died, I feel it incumbent upon me to make a post about it. Heaven knows the media are milking it for all it’s worth and are likely to continue to do so until at least after the funeral, but what do I say?

The fact is that I’ve long regarded the monarch and the rest of the royal family as a comfortable irrelevance. The UK’s practice of having a constitutional monarchy means that the monarch is head of state, but effectively a non-executive one. The position carries massive powers in theory, but they’re never used because there would be a constitutional crisis if they were and the monarchy would probably be dismantled.

So what of the personal angle? Well, it always appeared that Queen Elizabeth was a good person with wholesome values, and that was worth something at least. No doubt the republicans in Britain will soon be calling for the dissolution of the monarchy and the institution of a democratic system to elect a President. Well, America has that system already and look what they ended up with in 2017. Democracy does carry its own risks after all.

As for my own personal reaction, I’m prepared to admit that I did feel a certain mild sense of loss when I read the headline. The Queen was regarded as the most senior figure in British life, and therefore the most high profile, and the sense of something having been plucked out was perhaps unsurprising because she’s been there for as long as I can remember. But I mean no disrespect when I say that it was no more serious than having a tooth out.

So that’s about it for now. I’ve typed this post straight off the top of my head with no preparation and little thought, so do excuse the rambling nature of it. And if I might be flippant for a moment, I might add that the next time I watch an international game of rugby, I’ll be interested to watch the lips when the players are singing the national anthem. I’ll be curious to see whether any of them forget to adjust the lyrics because ‘God Save the Queen’ has been the order of the day since long before any of them were born.