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London Bridge Is Down
The codephrase spoken when the monarch passes away.
For a left wing kinda sorta socialist kinda sorta libertarian, it’s a very peculiar moment. On the one hand, I am not in favor of monarchy. I don’t think we should be breeding our rulers like livestock. (I’m not against some institution that fulfills the same ceremonial needs).
On the other, my Queen is dead. The only Queen I have known. I hold both U.K. and U.S. citizenship. I was born in the English Midlands, grew up in the time of Thatcher (Americans still don’t understand the degree of hatred), of union-busting, of the decline of the mining industry with no certainty. I grew up in a town where the biggest employer was the textile mill. Until one day it wasn’t. Where people chained themselves to the fence outside the army base because there was a faint rumor that there might be nuclear warheads stored there. (Were there? We never did find out for sure).
I left a Britain that had privatized the railroads, which did not improve service. A fading dowager of Empire that had a Commonwealth, but no longer, no longer did the sun fail to set. Although we still firmly believe Britannia rules the waves. The First Sea Lord (for Americans equivalent to the Joint Chief of Staff for the Navy) spoke at my high school graduation, at my semi-elite private school I got into on a scholarship. It was right about the time…