Queen elizabeth

When Labour blocked Andy Burnham from standing as its candidate last time around, Douglas Alexander, the Scottish Secretary, rejoiced at avoiding ‘three months of psychodrama – who’s up, who’s down, who’s getting on with who…’ But as Gareth Roberts remarked in The Spectator’s Coffee House, ‘I’m not quite sure what the difference is between psychodrama and good old-fashioned plain original-flavour drama.’ Indeed, Mr Alexander’s characterisation of psychodrama sounds like the essential lineaments of pure politics: ‘Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out,’ as King Lear puts it. King Lear itself might be a classic psychodrama, if madness is the defining feature.

‘Rearing homing pigeons was always a passion for the Queen,’ said a feature in the Daily Mail about Elizabeth II on the centenary of her birth. Yet perhaps that passion didn’t rage, hot as lava, through her veins, decade after decade. With Sir Keir, it has been football – ‘his only real passion and his one release from the tensions of office’, according to another source of the Daily Mail’s. Every young person tries to convince their chosen ‘uni’ that they are passionate about law or sport science. ‘When you can turn your hobby and passion into your profession, then that is the best thing there is,’ observed Marie-Louise Eta, the football coach, as though it were a truth universally acknowledged.

When word of the Queen’s illness spread, the House of Commons quickly emptied. Liz Truss had just announced her fuel bills bailout, one of the most expensive measures in British history. It was about to be eclipsed. The death of the Queen, who appointed Liz Truss as her 15th Prime Minister just two days ago, marks the end of what history will likely judge as one of, if not the most, successful reigns in a millennium of British history. This is where the country’s thoughts will now turn. The relationship between the country and the Queen is something quite extraordinary, something far beyond the realms or understanding of politics. The mourning will be led not by the Prime Minister but by Charles, our new king, to whom the crown passes invisibly but immediately.