Strictly Personal

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In the aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, the papers are still full of the event, and probably intend to run with it for a while yet, in some form or another. Simon Kelner in today's i [Kelner's View] talks about the sound of silence that he assumes obtained in the world beyond the epicentre of all things Royal & funereal: London and Windsor. How typically metro centric, but I guess understandable, the myth-hysteria extending to the provinces and the Anglophile world beyond our shores, fuelled by a totally committed media machine pushing back against the existential threat of privatization by our rank Tory government. The Beeb did good, however, as they always do on these occasions, whether I agree with the message de jour or no.

Not so here in Rachub, though. Whilst admittedly, yesterday was generally quieted by the Bank Holiday, we, as I wrote yesterday, observed silence for someone we actually knew, rather than the essentially abstract figurehead that the late Queen represented for so many others. That we missed a large chunk of the official coverage matters not. We were actively engaged in an act of personal remembrance, somewhat less grand and other, and so much more pertinent on many, many levels. Keeping it fast and bulbous in memory of friends lost, The Mascara Snake...


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