The friends said time flew while they spent 12 hours queuing to pay their respects.
The maximum length of the queue is 10 miles - with 6.9 miles from Westminster to Southwark, and a three-mile zigzag queue in Southwark Park.
I couldn’t resist:
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Let’s say you observe a prince at the one of the ceremonies an unusual uniform with specific decorations, and for some godawful reason you would want to know the significance. Generally, the royal website would tell you about such things.
But not today. Not until the Queen is interred,
Everything redirects to
Perhaps there is a bit of dignity in not firing up the old propaganda machine to bolster the firm, but as the bourgeoisie might lament, it’s a missed opportunity.
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Why would you need to know such things. The Royal Website is taking a dignified rest from propagandising during its period of mourning, and subcontracting it to all the broadcast and print media to propagandise for them. If you really want to know what a particular uniform means, the continual BBC coverage (or ABC, or CBC, or …) will tell you in a moment precisely what the Palace wants you to think it means.
And if you’re not in a Commonwealth country, then the Palace doesn’t really give a shit what you think in any case.
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Trivia.
The first came in a historical costuming site-- someone wanted to reproduce a jacket worn by Tsar Nicholas II (who by many accounts is a hateful little man, but I digress), and as the photograph was taken with British royals, the original is in some Royal collection.
The second was in reference to Prince Edward, apparently he had acquired four impressive medals from his short stint in the armed forces, and of course, if you know the colors of the ribbons, you can tell how piddling they were.
In both cases the definitive answers could be had, but apparently I mustn’t think of such trivialities in a time of great national mourning. And indeed, once a little prodding was applied, I thought less of them.
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No no, you misunderstand: The Palace will tell you what you need to know. Indirectly, by putting it into the media packets which must be broadcast solemnly at ten minute intervals by serious people wearing black, in between cuts to a historical piece about how wonderful the Queen was, analysis pieces about how wonderful the King is going to be, and Voxpops from the 10 mile long queue to look at a box with a flag on it.
Having a sense of curiosity goes against the Commonwealth-wide period of compulsory mourning.
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Wait, this quote isn’t from the Daily Mash?
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Stuck for something to watch on the box on whatever day it is? (it’s everyday isn’t it?)
Try this:
(actually, do try it)
ETA
State funeral is a recent film (2019 I think) created from found/archive footage from Stalin’s death by a Ukrainian film maker. It’s pretty mindblowing and intense but also for me kind of repetitive so I didn’t finish it but mean to. He had another on Soviet state killings which was similar except horrifying and depressing in the extreme.
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Hah.
This reminds me of a sad episode that took place in Brazil at the end of World War II. A group of Japanese immigrants stranded here mused that Japan won the war. Rogues spread rumors and lies about the American surrender and even forged issues of Time magazine to “prove” their hoax.
The sham quickly escalated to terrorist attacks that took the lives of dozens of people.
In addition to this tragedy, criminals took advantage of the good faith and patriotic fervor of the Japanese. These bandits sold farms on alleged lands taken by the Japanese army, Yen notes, which were worthless at the time, or simply took donations claiming they were going to help the people in Asia.
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Vulture got Scott Thompson (former ruler of Scottland, which I was an early citizen of)) to give a lovely rememberance. I love this man, regardless of his affection for a symbol of privilege, oppression, and colonization
“We would have these family reunions, and my father and his brother and sister would dress up, with my father quite often dressing as the queen”
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Now I’m interested in trying to figure out who the portrait painters were.
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He can probably make a bit of money there…
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I would criticize the U.K. government for not correcting this obvious injustice, but at least, unlike here in the U.S., all but one of their billionaires theoretically is subject to the inheritance tax. Over here we’ve been working to guarantee that massive wealth accumulates and passes uninterrupted from one generation of billionaires to the next.
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You can’t replace a president as often
It’s actually a serious drawback, maybe the single best argument for the British system
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I mean, there’s more than two systems of government in the world.
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Yes, the World’s Two Oldest Democracies are both stuck with a lot of legacy bullshit that should have been upgraded long ago 
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One bright side: The hit list didn’t include dialysis… or did it?
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The BBC keeps calling QE2 the “world’s longest serving head of state” even though Wikipedia says she’s only number three 
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