The Queen And I... one of her homeless citizens...

 I visited the Queen lying in state at The Palace of Westminister last night. I'd missed the funeral procession in the day but managed the three hour wait to get in through the disabled access queue due to my MECFS, so I was able to bow in front of the Queen's coffin at 10pm Wednesday 14th September 2022. 

As someone who is homeless and has been for the past 13 years, I couldn't help reflect on the dichotomy of my situation. I was fully aware that the Metropolitan Police had used their powers to move many of my community from the streets in the area to enable mourners to take their space instead. This was not something I agreed with, but I felt it had little to no bearing on the monarch I'd come to pay my respects to.

These were Council, Mayoral and Police decisions and as far as I am aware the monarch have no powers over any of these institutions to tell them what to do. 

The clash between republicans and monarchists online over the events as ever took a binary arguement and one that didn't further either sides position. No right thinking person would believe that free speech should be quelled, by arresting people with "Not My King" signs, but equally no right thinking person would see it acceptable that a family funeral should be interupted by the yelling of a single individual ruining it for the many who were stood respectfully in silence, but somehow in this "pick a side" world, nobody could agree on this. 

The usually arguemnets of colonisation reared it''s head too, but as ever, the argument felt hollow. There's an odd notion that Britain created colonisation, which of course we didn't. The first modern record of it was with the Italians and the Roman Empire. But Africa was the originator of the idea, then Asia, then Greece etc.

The thing that makes it so prevelant was that the British Empire was the biggest, the longest and the last; at least where country empires come into things. The reality, is of course in the 21st Century, the Empire builders are now corporations and they behaviour hasn't differed from the behaviour of the City Empire builders 2,000 years ago.

Slavery, as we all know, is still it's basis. Every battery of every technological device in the world is mined from the Congolese Cobalt mines, which uses child slavery to drag this valuable ore from the ground. Meta's Instagram is the new slave trading platform for all types of slaves from Sex slavery to manual labour slavery. 

So it seemed strange to me that the very platofrms people were complaining about colonisatoin on, already owned the user under colonisation, but this time, seemingly with their total compliance and unababted acquiesence.

And that uniquely 21st propersriouness was what drove me to acknowledge one of the most unique moments in British history last night. As a scout I'd met the Queen, as a receipient of the Princes Youth Business Trust with a grant for my lingerie delivery business in the 90s when I was in my early 20s  "A Touch Of Silk", my name and Prince Charles's would always be immortalised in the Sun Newspaper headline, "Charle's props up Naughty Knickers".

Just a few months ago in the Tortoise Media Newsroom, I had facilitated friend and Royal Correspondent Richard Fitzwilliams to join me to defend the monarchy following the Duchess of Sussex's Oprah Winfrey interview.

As a person that grew up in the small coal mining viallge of Ystrad Mynach in South Wales, I remembered the unity she brough to our community through the Silver Jubilee. How the Queen Mother was loved by the Working Class, she smoked, drank gin, and loved a flutter on the horses.

The Queen stood as something above politics, above division, above petty family squables. Probably the most famous person in the world, she never fawned over publicity, duty was her intent and duty was her outcome. To give one's life to her citizens is something few, if any could ever understand.

It is not a life you chose, but one you are born into, the responsibilities are immense and the job never ending, as Queen Elizabeth proved, right up to the point of her death, having acknowledged our new Prime Minister Lizz Truss just days before.

So when I was stood in front of her coffin last night and gave her my final bow (unbeknwnst to me at the time) in front tens of thousands onlookers through BBC iPlayer and Youtube. I acknowledged the passing of the only thing that had ever remained a constant in my life.

Prime Ministers had come and gone, my biological mother had left, my mother, who was born the same year as the Queen and who's Birthday was on the Queen's official one had died in 2014.  So in solace and in solitude I said goodbye to Her Royal Highness with both sadness and happiness.

The thing that I admired most about her was the ability to bring the best out of Britain and witnessing the queue afterwards, it did just that.

Rest In Peace your majesty... you deserve it.