Addendum

[smokingboot]

When the announcement came, I had the Beeb on ready; funnily enough, that's the nearest I can give to a mark of respect. There will be no toast, no declarations of 'God Save The...' No. But there is a way to hear these things in the life of our nation; it is the job of the national broadcaster to tell us with solemnity and dignity for those who have passed, those who remain, those who care, those who don't. And I trembled, cold for a second, because that's it, the wrap up on the UK that was. There's no way of harking back now to the Boomer days, or the Empire, or post-Empire or whatever the hell we were. All's spent, nostalgia suddenly shifts back further than Kodachrome, the old days and ways are done. And here is a strange thing; instantly, the Crown moves, like a possessing spirit, to King Charles III. And how odd and painful it must feel, one's destiny instantly fulfilled in the death of a parent!

What will the UK become now? Is anything really different?