The Queen is dead. And with her goes the last vestige of Cool Britannia. You don't have to go back the 70 years of Elizabeth II's reign to see a changed country; in my 17 years here, Britain has gone from open and confident to insular and neurotic. London has changed, too, from an important global, yet charmingly low-rise, city to one heaving with capital and gauche petro-fuelled hyper-development.
It's all feeling a bit too much. I was a fan of the Queen, but not a flag-waving Royalist by any means. Still, with her death I am feeling that bit more adrift and disconnected from these old islands that I used to love so much. And it's hard getting through each day when you feel trapped somewhere you don't want to be.
Queen Elizabeth's vision of the monarchy was that it represented "the notion that while generations of people and politicians come and go, while governments rise and fall, while great social and economic change sweeps the country—it is still the same nation". Perhaps on the surface, but not in its soul. There is nothing that Charles III, Truss or any government in at least a generation will be able to do to change that. I fear my Britain is gone forever.
Shaun
http://shaunism.blogspot.co.uk/
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