A Queen departs
My back still wretched. Crept out of bed fairly early, after Lorraine brought up a cup of tea. Shuffled downstairs and had a meeting with Val and another colleague and took a small, but fairly unusual brief. This done, and a bit of thinking about it afterwards, and I crept downstairs to watch the Queen's coffin being conveyed into Westminster Abbey for it was a bank holiday for us all to mourn. Obviously I can't abide being told what to feel. But it was undeniably magnificent theatre, and you'd have to have a heart of stone not to feel moved by the swirl of the bagpipes as the gun carriage neared the Abbey. The UK has gone through such an epic bout of self harm lately, exemplified by the deeply unimpressive Truss who delivered a pulpit reading with all the emotional resonance of the speaking clock. Perhaps this is the post covid catharsis people are craving. Beth and James dropped by this afternoon to pick up some of Beth's bits that were still here. They were off to ...