Queen Elizabeth II dies

i heard the coffin was surrounded by four candles...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi_6SaqVQSw

I had a look at the live feed on YouTube last night of the people walking past the Queen’s coffin. One thing struck me, the U.K. doesn’t seem a racist, divided nation as portrayed by a lot of liberal media outlets. There are all walks of life going through, all faiths, all religions, people with disabilities, all ages. It’s nice to see. Social media has a lot to answer for in the way it promotes division and hate and one ‘favourable’ agenda only.

The mere presence of people from different backgrounds is not an indicator as to whether racism exists or not. Racism didn't end with segregation.

Division and hate is also fuelled by traditionsl media. It is no way purely the fault of social media.

Is your post deliberately simplistic?

I think the only thing that the Tory leadership shows is that the ruling class uses racism when needed. Anti EU racism to fuel brexit when tax transparency threatened their London money laundering operations.

I think they may have shot themselves in the foot with the excessive and lengthy coverage, less positive comments and stories of the royals and the empire are starting sleep out as the media seek to string it on.

From any bits of the stream I've seen, I would tend to partially agree with the above. There does appear to be a good mix of ethnicities, which likely reflects the high esteem the Queen was held in by all communities. I don't agree that all ages are there though - the young adult cohort is much smaller than the others imo.

Watching it is somewhat surreal though. The weeping and theatrical curtsying from members of the public feels completely alien to me.

As for the numbers attending, one can't but be impressed. Events like this can take on a momentum of their own however especially when billed as "witnessing history".

I see the media are trotting out the usual old tropes of stoicism and "best of British" as expected. I suppose after 8 days they have little else to go with.

Well obviously. A big chunk of Britain isn't bothered about the monarchy. Perhaps a quarter of the population. That's a lot of people.

The sheer volume of people queuing for hours and hours to see her coffin suggests the Brits loved their queen.

I lived in one of the most liberal state in the US for a good few years, Massachusetts.

I also spent a good deal of time working the UK

So I'd be pretty familiar with both

There is stuff you would see in UK that you'd never see in Massachusetts.

Like mixed race couples, mix race friends, people of different ethnicity in the same bar or restaurant, people of different ethnicity living in the same street or neighborhoods.

Anecdotal I know but I've always had the impression that the UK is far more integrated than even the most liberal US states.

Well this is why the comparison with Britain and America is just incorrect in so many ways.

Brexit = Trump = Racism = Brexit = Bad. This kind of stuff. They seem to be stuck in a loop about it and can't get out of it.

I do think that will be the case.

In recent years the voices of native people's of former colonies is getting much louder in the west.

These voices were always lound in their home countries but never got much traction in the west.

But with the pulling down of statues and greater debate about the slave trade things are changing.

The royals tour of the Caribbean recently was a fine example of this.

The queen because of her age, length of reign, and overall personality have prevented much upheaval in the Commonwealth realms, but that's probably at an end now.

And no bad harm.

Begs the question of why the soldiers are there. A dressed up manniquin would suffice

So it seems RTE are providing round the clock coverage for this funeral on Monday....

What an absolute disgrace of an organisation, wasting more taxpayers money......I know a lot of people dont pay the licence fee already, but this sort of carry on should increase non-compliance........RTE have a london correspondent......use him and give a 5- 10 minute highlight reel on the evening news....that is sufficient.....

If the westbrits here want to watch the funeral EVERY single brit channel will cover it for them...ad nauseum...

RTE sicken me to my core....