I do not recall all the details, but the British press frankly discussed the funeral plans earlier this year or perhaps last year.
When the Queen passes away, the new King will have a few private ceremonies in the UK. He will then board a plane and fly to as many memorial services as possible. The funeral will be on D+10, IIRC. Presume the King will be globetrotting for seven days.
How many stops could he possibly make in seven days in order to be back in London for the funeral? What would such a schedule look like?
Leave London as dusk. Arrive Bermuda at dawn. Arrive Ottawa that same evening. A morning event in Vancouver. (Skip Fiji?) Then a long leg to New Zealand. A same-day stop in Canberra. I suppose something in India as it is part of the Commonwealth. Is Pakistan? Then some stops in Africa?
The most detailed of those press reports spoke only of a tour to Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff. Which in purely logistical terms seems easy enough.
He’ll presumably visit the major Commonwealth countries fairly soon after, although I don’t suppose that that will take quite as long as the tour his parents undertook in 1953-4.
Is the Queen ill? A bit unseemly to talk about her sons trips to memorial services when she is healthy and alive. What’s to stop her from stepping down and Charles being coronated ( is this a word?) before she dies?
The word is “crowned”. There’s little practically speaking to stop her abdicating - she’d need Parliamentary consent, but that would be granted. It’s a matter of faith for her though, tied up with her deep sense of duty and what happened with her dad. She won’t abdicate, but she is winding down her duties.
Charles (and Anne, more quietly) already do a lot of the routine stuff expected of the monarch - investitures and suchlike - and of course William and Catherine, and now Harry and Meghan, are being given more and more to do. It strikes me that the young team are picking unglamorous but very important causes too eg mental health.
Good succession planning is key to any successful Firm, eh?
