Joe said:
Arn said:
Well that was quite the spectacle today. Fascinating in many ways to watch that play out.
Can you provide
a QE2 in 30 for those of us who missed it?
;D
I had no intention really of watching the whole thing, although I did intend to dip in and out.
The entire country shut down for the duration, including non emergency hospital appointments and pharmacies and pretty much every shop. Even some playparks were blocked off. So the hysteria was a bit OTT in many ways and I think too OTT.
But I actually ended up kind of glued to the events pretty much all day. (Possibly as there was nothing else to do
)
It started with a procession of the coffin from Westminster Palace to Westminster Abbey. The gun cart carrying the coffin was pulled by members of the Royal Navy and the band played a funeral march. Similarly when the coffin left the Abbey to travel to Windsor Castle there was a massive procession through London with a band playing funeral marches and a beat on the drum before the coffin was transferred to a hearse.
There were 2 church services, one in the Abbey which was very much a Church of England religious service then one in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle which was a bit more personalised. No real interest in these but the music and choirs were fantastic.
So the things I found kind of fascinating were just the spectacle of the marches. I'm a sucker for good music and a bit of spectacle and there was a lot of brilliant old classical music and an awful lot of spectacle.
I fully get and agree with a lot of the arguments that have been made in this thread, but I just thought as a spectacle and event it was quite a stunning thing to see. I guess more so cos we haven't seen something like it in 70 years. I don't think it'll have anywhere close to the same impact the next time which will be a much shorter timeframe away.
The post was mainly about yesterday, but in many ways the whole last couple of weeks has been kind of fascinating. I didn't think people would really still buy into something that is pretty much an ancient ritual.
There's a load of photos here that kind of give a flavour: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-2d82cfba-f5ea-4072-ba5e-32c28c749a55
And a couple of video: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-62957322
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-62929200