Charles heads to Scotland to reflect as UK gets back to business

KING Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort have spent their first night out of the public limelight choosing to grieve in private in Scotland where they will later this week visit Balmoral Castle where the Queen died 13 days ago.

Members of the Royal Family have begun seven days of private mourning, with the monarch and his wife expected to spend time at Birkhall, his Scottish retreat on the Balmoral estate and later the castle. King Charles was seen flying in a private jet from RAF Northolt in west London on Tuesday local time.

New figures showed King Charles had already travelled more than 3300km in the first two weeks of his reign, traversing all four nations of the UK.

The King was said to need a break although was understood to be still receiving his “Red Box” case with daily briefs associated with the government and the realms.

On Wednesday, the flags and bunting came down across London and all flags not attached to royal households were again flown at full mast.

Prime Minister Liz Truss praised the “huge outpouring of love and affection” for the late Queen and recognised the warmth for King Charles.

“It has been a momentous period and a period of great grief and sadness in the United Kingdom, and I think you have seen a huge outpouring of love and affection for her late majesty as well as a huge amount of warmth towards King Charles III,” Ms Truss said.

But as Britons returned to the reality of their dire economic situation, the Truss government moved swiftly to cap talk the huge global 10-day event marking the passing of the Queen was a cost the nation could ill afford.

That comes ahead of a mini budget this week in which Ms Truss has warned would not be pretty.

She said she was willing to be an unpopular Prime Minister in order to bring in measures she believed would grow the economy.

There was some speculation the figure would be between A$13million and A$34 million, mostly for security.

Meanwhile it’s been revealed “around” 250,000 people paid their respects in person to the Queen by viewing her coffin as it lay in state in London from that 8km queue that made international headlines. It was 70,000 fewer than saw Prime Minister Winston Churchill lying in state.