A new normal

On the day when the Royal Parks have asked mourners not to bring anymore Paddingtons and Marmalade sandwiches to Buckingham Palace – flowers are still okay (by the way, I wish more people would donate to the Queen’s favourite charities than make millionaires out of florists) – I’m more than slightly relieved that some semblance of normal life has returned. Waking up, as I always do on weekdays, to the sound of Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 Music, I was grateful to hear the usual features: ‘First in’, the Cloudbusting mix’ and ‘The people’s pinboard’, along with music from Steely Dan, The Avalanches, Gorillaz, The Cure, Boards of Canada, Elvis Presley, Empire of the Sun, Hot Chip and Q Tip, among many others. The mournful slow music from Thursday until this morning was, I suppose, deemed more appropriate by the BBC suits to a more upbeat playlist. I kind of understood it, too, because major national events like these can resonate with people in different ways. The death of the much loved person you didn’t really know, like the Queen, can bring back emotions of close relatives who have also passed. I’ll give the BBC the benefit of the doubt if that’s how their thinking went.

Given that for everyone else, life is going on as it always does on a weekday, it’s important that the media covers other important stuff. The government’s announcement on help for people with utility bills, made on the day of the Queen’s death, has not so much taken a backseat: it’s not even been in the same vehicle. But it matters. the government is forking out circa £150 billion which we the people will have to pay back over the coming decades via utility bills, while at the same time the suppliers have more money than they know what to do with. We’ve heard next to nothing about Russia’s war against Ukraine (or NATO’s war against Russia, if you are a friend of the independent MP Jeremy Corbyn) when matters have reached a crucial stage. I’ve just listened to a radio debate where the presenter asked an expert whether Russia’s reverse might be stemmed by the use of nuclear weapons. That made me sit up a bit, I can tell you.

None of this is to suggest that people should no longer mourn. Of course not. We’ve still got a week to go to the funeral and that will be the last four days on steroids, the culmination but not the end of the national mourning process, which will last for another week. I’m not totally stupid and my sense is that’s how many, perhaps most, people want it to be. And, in any event, this I believe will be the final ‘great’ funeral of my lifetime. Surely, no future royal death will be felt like this?

Am I bored with the seemingly relentless TV and radio coverage?  I am not going to lie to you: I am. We’ve been watching stuff we’ve recorded, mini-series and all that, whilst the interviews, tributes and motorcades are on live TV. That doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten what happened last week, or that I no longer care. There’s only so much disruption to my routine I can handle.

I know that this is a different kind of normal because for a number of reasons most of us don’t want to rock the mythical boat. Although I can’t understand why people are choosing to travel to Buckingham Palace and Windsor, I don’t feel like being negative or critical. While the country temporarily lost its marbles when Princess Diana was killed, this is very different. I sense that people understand that the UK will never be the same again without the Queen, who I genuinely believe held it together. This was a country in decline before she died. Without her steadying hand on the tiller and her quiet but powerful leadership keeping things just about together, I cannot help but be pessimistic. And it won’t be long before the hate media turns on King Charles as it surely will in the coming weeks and months.

The Queen was about keeping calm and carrying on. Not a bad philosophy, was it? It remains to be seen whether we will be as the cold, dark winter descends.