Let Go, Let Go....

The difference between a state funeral and a ceremonial funeral seems to be that a state funeral involves a lying in state and a ceremonial one doesn't. So, not much difference at all.

There was dancing in the streets in Brixton. A shop window was smashed. I imagine most of the revellers will have been born since her time.  The traditional enmity has been handed down. She has become a folk demon- like Guy Fawkes.

The Right is banging on about how she saved the country. From what exactly? And at what cost? I only see a legacy of division. She didn't create the class system or the north-south divide but she exacerbated them.

Usually when a person this grand dies there is nothing but eulogy. In this one special case such one-sidedness would be dishonest. I have been surprised at how measured the coverage has been. Channel 4 news pitted Louise Mensch against Alexei Sayle- a disciple against an old enemy. "Give it to 'em, Alexei!" I thought, but in fact he was incoherent- and used a bad word for which Jon Snow had to apologize.

Maybe once we've marched her through London and laid her to rest we can stop fighting the battles of 30 years ago. That would be nice, wouldn't it?

British State Funerals

I asked Wikipedia.

The difference between a state funeral and a ceremonial funeral is that a state funeral has to be voted for in parliament. There's no difference in ritual between the two (ceremonial funerals may include a lying in state) except that in a ceremonial funeral the gun carriage is drawn by horses and in a state funeral by sailors. This latter tradition dates from an incident at the funeral of Queen Victoria when the horses bolted and a bunch of naval ratings took their place.

Here's a list of all the non-royal state funerals since time began.

• Sir Philip Sidney (1586)


• Admiral Robert Blake (1657)


• Sir Isaac Newton (1727)


• The Viscount Nelson (1806)


• The Duke of Wellington (1852)


• The Viscount Palmerston (1865)


• Lord Napier of Magdala (1890)


• The Rt Hon William Gladstone (1898)


• The Earl Roberts of Kandahar (1914)


• The Earl Haig (1928)


• The Lord Carson (1935)


• The Rt Hon Sir Winston Churchill (1965)

Small Boys

A sign of Spring: A small boy knocking on the door to say, "I'm sorry but my ball has landed in your garden."

This has happened twice in as many days.

Angels

In a dream I had last night there were flights of angels carved in stone- medieval angels not Victorian ones, so full of energy not sentiment. They reminded me of schools of dolphin. 

John

He died. He has been dead a week and we hadn't been told.

We knew him before he had Alzheimer's when he was a courteous, humorous old gentleman and then afterwards when he had very little of himself left and was sometimes tetchy and sometimes sweet. The last time we saw him we took him carrot cake. He was very fond of cake.

I spoke to Keith. I asked him how he was doing. "I don't know," he said.