“The Queen has been a constant in her reign – everything will change when she is gone” – Keir Mudie

Keir Mudie says whether she likes it or not, what she stands for or not, the whole thing will change when the Queen is gone because she was a constant for the country during her reign

There was a lot of gambling at the pub last week on how they would choreograph Prince Andrew from the current celebrations.

“Monkeypox,” someone said. “Sweat over,” said another. “The FBI” was another guess. In the end it was Covid who got him.

Strange life, I imagine, being a disgraced king. what do you do all day Strange people in general, although – as the last few days have shown – we really like them.

There was an interesting poll by IPSOS about who our favorite king is. The Queen won, of course, followed by Kate, then William.

Incredibly, Andrew is still the country’s two percent favorite. That’s the problem with anonymous surveys—we need to know exactly who that 2 percent is, where they live, and what’s going on with them.

No one ever really liked Andrew, especially after the recent allegations. He’s always come across as an unlikable man.

But either way, he’s not part of this party, which, if nothing else, has been a distraction until politics roar back into town tomorrow.

To be honest, it’s been quite nice, this little break where Parliament isn’t in session and a kind of temporary truce settles on the sack of fighting rats that is the Tory party at the moment.

However, it won’t last. Expect everything to spring into action in the morning.

It looks like the pressure will then be increased again, to be able to build it up after the upcoming by-election on the way to a big fight.

The Lib Dems are growing increasingly confident of winning the seat of Porno Tory Neil Parish in Tiverton and Honiton, Devon and the same for Labor with Wakefield.

Anyway, this is a royal week. Again and again I was encouraged to write something about “parasites” or “off with your head” or to complain about the civil list.

So I set out to dig up various stats on how more people go to Legoland Windsor than Windsor Castle, how much land do these characters own, how much money do they get etc. etc. But it feels a bit grumpy . Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and I’m getting too old to get angry at people having fun I don’t understand.

It’s really pleasant. Thursday night was all you could smell in front of my house, BBQs, no cars on the street, everyone enjoying themselves.

I know it costs a lot of money and there’s a cost of living crisis and food banks and war, but it’s nice to have a break. Back to work soon.

Also, it kind of reminds you what a constant the queen was. Whether she likes it or not, what she stands for or not, the whole thing will change when she’s gone.

I’ll leave it to the rabid Republicans among us to make the case for abolition and so forth.

Another chat outside the pub last week where two of my colleagues, my friends, were arguing about ‘would you want the life of the queen?’.

“No way,” said one. “No privacy, no time to relax, the eyes of the world on you. I wouldn’t like it, no way.”

“Yes, but,” said the other, eyes bright, “unlimited shoes.”