After the mourning and the grief, we’ll still have to face our winter of discontent
Nearly half the country shed a tear following the death of the Queen, according to a poll, and I was one of them.
It wasn’t so much her passing that made me shed tears but the memories of lost loved ones that reawakened grief.
A big share of people, I imagine, were just like me, crying due to a personal bereavement rather than a woman they’d never met.
It’s been impossible to ignore the national mourning and a collective sadness but impossible now too not to feel it has been encouraged and maybe even forced upon us.
TV and radio broadcasts have ha been relentless and the non-stop no live coverage seems se never-ending. It feels like lik we’re being told how to feel fee and what we should or shouldn’t sh be doing.
Events E have been cancelled, d, football foo called off, other funerals fu and hospital appointments ap rescheduled and an food banks will close on the day of the funeral.
Out of fear of offending anyone, an hundreds of organisations or are following the th lead of others without thinking nking for themselves.
There’s a sense of duty and a balance ba to be struck but there seems to have been a distinct lack of any
diversity of thought or opinion.
We live in a democracy where freefreedom of speech must be uupheld. There are mamany voices with diffdifferent opinions on the RoyRoyal Family. We’ve been fed one point of view whicwhich is based around sorrow and sadness – not everyone feels that way.
This is the firsfirst time the death of a British monarch has been covered in this way and, for all its ills, the internet is the place I’ve turned to for more nuanced conversations
surrounding #QueenElizabeth. I suspect those voices are only going to get louder as the funeral takes place and people who have perhaps held back will feel a respectful amount of time has passed for them to speak their truths.
Only days ago we were terrified about how we were going to get through winter as heating bills soared during a cost-of-living crisis and now we’ve been bombarded with big displays of wealth, privilege and ceremony.
I wonder, after the Queen’s funeral tomorrow, when reality returns and news items swap pictures of golden thrones and the signing of ancient declarations for stories of poverty and evictions, how we will feel then.
When news pics items swap thrones of golden of for stories again, poverty we how will feel?