Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
The barking of politics appears to have been respectfully hushed since the death of the Queen. Parliamentarians were given a couple of days to deliver their eulogies and start swearing loyal oaths to Charles III before both chambers were shuttered. The unlucky Lib Dems felt obliged to scrub their party conference. Partisan cut and thrust has been heavily discouraged until Elizabeth II reaches her final resting place in the royal crypt at Windsor.
Yet politics has not been as absent as it may have seemed. In many ways, the days since her death have been intensely political. Start with the man who now occupies the apex of public life. Charles has been mourner-in-chief while simultaneously introducing himself to the country as its new sovereign. The solemnities, which reach their climax with tomorrow’s state funeral at Westminster Abbey, have been alternated with a whistlestop tour of gladhanding in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. His sister, his eldest son and other members of team Windsor have fanned out to other locations around the kingdom.
