Farewell to Queen Elizabeth II

There is no nation in the world who does ceremonies - let alone state funerals - the way Great Britain does them. The state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II was the most perfectly organised and implemented ceremony for seven decades. And now we have the coronation of King Charles III to look forward to. For those in the world who don't believe in monarchies or who live with presidents as heads of state, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth today will still surely be a cause for wonder at the sheer majesty of the whole procedure. For us Brits today was truly a unifying moment for the country. There may be exceptions somewhere around but the vast majority of people not only respected the Queen but felt enormous affection for her and gratitude for what she achieved in her life. Her smile was mesmerising and we shall all miss her. I am sure that literally billions of people around the world will have watched the state funeral as it unfolded. The only thing that went wrong as far as I could see was when one of the senior clergy in Westminster Abbey dropped a piece of paper that fell from his service sheet. It lay there prominently for about ten minutes before being picked up away from the gaze of the television cameras. I know the royal houseold spent years preparing for the death of the Queen but it was still an awesome sight to see the cortege procession from the Abbey all the way to Buckingham Place and then on to the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park where the coffin was transferred to the royal hearse. About 3,000 members of the armed forces took part in the one-and-a-half mile procession with the key members of the royal family walking behind, keeping in perfect step to the banging of the drum and the slow funeral march music. Just totally immaculate. Many American commentators have cast doubt on whether the monarchy in this country will survive now that the Queen has died. But King Charles III looks the part to succeed his mother and the next generation of potential kings and queens were all there in the procession - Prince William, the new Prince of Wales, and his children, George, Charlotte and Louis. The monarchy, I think, will survive. Very few people in Britain, I suspect, really want to have as their head of state some politician chosen to be president.