Queen Elizabeth II - RIP

 Such sad new about the passing of our Queen of over 70 years. She was a good age at 96, and continued to be active mentally albeit with limited mobility. Boris Johnson and Liz Truss must have been very touched that they were the last political figures to be received by her as Prime Minister duties were passed from one to the other.

What, though, for the rest of us. I was born in her coronation year of 1953, and my mother was of the same age as the Queen. I never knew a previous monarch, and people born after February 1971 would have never known any other face but the Queen on our coins and bank notes. That was, of course, when our pounds, shillings and pence were replaced by decimalisation. I saw her once to my knowledge at The Royal Bath and West Show in the 1960's. She may have been at sporting events I attended but I cannot be sure

I just wish they had named the new cross-rail train line The Elizabethan line rather than The Elizabeth line, it just trips off the tongue easier.

She was commander-in-chief of the armed forces and many serving and retired military people still refer to her as their boss. That responsibility now passes to King Charles III as we enter the Charline or Charleon era. I await a new train line being named as such later in the new reign.

The King has been in training for many years and should be pretty good at the job. He will have his mother's sense of humour honed during his time in the Footlights at Oxbridge. Hopefully he will be able to manage the challenge presented by Harry and Megan, and initial signs are that William and Harry are open to talking through their problems.

The one challenge he has is being fit enough for the challenge The Queen started very young and grew into the role. It is a much bigger job now than it was in 1953 and Charles is jumping straight into it in his 70's. Lets hope all the gym work pays dividends or we could be going through this pomp and circumstance all over again in the not too distant future.

So as The Queen is laid at rest in Edinburgh for 24 hours  and the Scottish public file past her coffin we can only surmise the impact it will have on the independence debate, as well as the united Ireland challenges and the Northern Ireland protocol. Our monarchy is unique in the way it reaches out across the World. Let's hope the change of the guard enhances that reputation and does not diminish it.