Friday 16 September 2022

Long live the Queue

The Queue.

It's become the talking point over the past few days.

Queen Elizabeth is currently lying in state at Westminster Hall and the British public are filing past to pay their last respects. 

And the queue of people is around five miles long.

Yes, that's right. Five miles

The current wait time if you're joining the back is anything between nine and twelve hours .

But that isn't putting people off.

That's a still image from a live tracker on YouTube (here's the link).

Meanwhile, the BBC Parliament Channel has the event running as a live stream and it's curiously hypnotic to watch.




Through night and day, rain or shine the queue goes on. 

Many social commentators have quipped about it being 'the most British thing ever' and that we love to queue. Do we? Everyone I know hates queuing - me included. However, I do believe that if they made an Olympic sport of it, we'd win all the golds. We may not like a queue but we are very, very good at them because we're patient and tolerant. To cut into a queue or jump one is to commit a crime that some Brits would insist warrants the return of the death penalty.

And this, the greatest of all queues, is no exception. People are being saintly and they are abiding by the rules. It's so refreshing to see the lack of disrespectful selfies as people of all ages, colours, races and genders stop, bow their heads in sombre silence and move on past the coffin and its attendant Guardsmen, Beefeaters and Police Officers.

It reminds me of Anthony Gormley's One and Other installation in Trafalgar Square a few years back where the British people became works of art.


That's what this looks like - a five mile long Fourth Plinth performance piece called National Grief.

I doubt we'll see its like again.


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