'London Bridge is Down': official plans following the death of QEII

[up_the_junction]

I’m no monarchist but, wow, what a read: London Bridge is Down - what happens next …

Geidt will contact the prime minister. The last time a British monarch died, 65 years ago, the demise of George VI was conveyed in a code word, “Hyde Park Corner”, to Buckingham Palace, to prevent switchboard operators from finding out. For Elizabeth II, the plan for what happens next is known as “London Bridge.” The prime minister will be woken, if she is not already awake, and civil servants will say “London Bridge is down” on secure lines. From the Foreign Office’s Global Response Centre, at an undisclosed location in the capital, the news will go out to the 15 governments outside the UK where the Queen is also the head of state, and the 36 other nations of the Commonwealth for whom she has served as a symbolic figurehead – a face familiar in dreams and the untidy drawings of a billion schoolchildren – since the dawn of the atomic age.

For people stuck in traffic, or with Heart FM on in the background, there will only be the subtlest of indications, at first, that something is going on. Britain’s commercial radio stations have a network of blue “obit lights”, which is tested once a week and supposed to light up in the event of a national catastrophe. When the news breaks, these lights will start flashing, to alert DJs to switch to the news in the next few minutes and to play inoffensive music in the meantime. Every station, down to hospital radio, has prepared music lists made up of “Mood 2” (sad) or “Mood 1” (saddest) songs to reach for in times of sudden mourning. “If you ever hear Haunted Dancehall (Nursery Remix) by Sabres of Paradise on daytime Radio 1, turn the TV on,” wrote Chris Price, a BBC radio producer, for the Huffington Post in 2011. “Something terrible has just happened.”

… and so it goes on; it’s a long and fascinating read.

[nearwildheaven]

I just saw something about this on another website, and my first thought was that she HAD died, but nothing was being said about it on CNN.

[Musicat]

Long live the queen!

[Dewey_Finn]

I remember a big hullaballoo on the death of the Queen Mother, when one of the newsreaders on the BBC was shown not wearing a black tie. People were pissed. I also saw an interview with one of the newsreaders, who explained that on being hired, they were expected to get a black suit tailored and kept in their office, just in case it was needed for such an event.

And note that preparations are made for the funeral of the US President, while he/she is still in office.

[wolfman]

So, what do they report if London Bridge does fall down?

[leahcim]

@wolfman

So, what do they report if London Bridge does fall down?

“The Queen is Dead”

[SpoilerVirgin]

I hope that they do include the corgis in the procession. Just the other day I was looking at a slideshow of pictures of the Queen throughout her life – about a third of them included the corgis.

[Tom_Tildrum]

I like how the report specifies that the PM will only be awoken if she is not already awake. That’s very efficient.

[slash2k]

@SpoilerVirgin

I hope that they do include the corgis in the procession. Just the other day I was looking at a slideshow of pictures of the Queen throughout her life – about a third of them included the corgis.

The corgis are almost gone, though–she’s down to only one (plus two dachshund/corgi crosses)

[What_Exit]

Are we sure this Queen can die? I thought she was immortal personally. Its hard to conceive of her not being there.

[lisiate]

I wonder if they’ll follow precedent and help her a long a little to meet the news deadlines:

“The King’s life is moving peacefully towards its close,” was the final notice issued by George V’s doctor, Lord Dawson, at 9.30pm on the night of 20 January 1936. Not long afterwards, Dawson injected the king with 750mg of morphine and a gram of cocaine – enough to kill him twice over – in order to ease the monarch’s suffering, and to have him expire in time for the printing presses of the Times, which rolled at midnight.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@Tom_Tildrum

I like how the report specifies that the PM will only be awoken if she is not already awake. That’s very efficient.

And very British. Waking people who are already awake is just not done.

[Dewey_Finn]

@lisiate

I wonder if they’ll follow precedent and help her a long a little to meet the news deadlines:

“The King’s life is moving peacefully towards its close,” was the final notice issued by George V’s doctor, Lord Dawson, at 9.30pm on the night of 20 January 1936. Not long afterwards, Dawson injected the king with 750mg of morphine and a gram of cocaine – enough to kill him twice over – in order to ease the monarch’s suffering, and to have him expire in time for the printing presses of the Times, which rolled at midnight.

I’m pretty sure that today, what with 24-hour news channels and the Internet, “news deadlines” are obsolete.

[Bijou_Drains]

@Musicat

Long live the queen!

Is she a human being?

[Count_Blucher]

I hope she’s fine. She has always seemed sweet to someone on the outside. I’d like to think that she’d read all this after playing with her great grand kids and laugh.

[glee]

I’m proud to say that our Queen has a sense of humour!

[Lord_Feldon]

@Dewey_Finn

I remember a big hullaballoo on the death of the Queen Mother, when one of the newsreaders on the BBC was shown not wearing a black tie. People were pissed.

More people complained about the coverage interrupting their favorite shows, though:

In 2002, 130 people complained to the BBC about its insensitive coverage of the Queen Mother’s death; another 1,500 complained that Casualty was moved to BBC2.

[ticker]

I hate the way we are forced to affect a sombre mood when these things happen. If other people want to mourn and wail and prattle on about how wonderful the late queen was, well that is just fine with me but leave me out of it. I really don’t care all that much and object to the news telling us how “the whole country is in a state of shock and sadness…” - well that would be the whole country except me and most of the people I would call friends. I hope Liz II lives for many more years if only to avoid the sort of tedious recreational grief that followed the deaths of her mother and Princess Diana.

[Musicat]

@glee

I’m proud to say that our Queen has a sense of humour!

And…a parachute!

[Ximenean]

@ticker

I hate the way we are forced to affect a sombre mood when these things happen. If other people want to mourn and wail and prattle on about how wonderful the late queen was, well that is just fine with me but leave me out of it. I really don’t care all that much and object to the news telling us how “the whole country is in a state of shock and sadness…” - well that would be the whole country except me and most of the people I would call friends. I hope Liz II lives for many more years if only to avoid the sort of tedious recreational grief that followed the deaths of her mother and Princess Diana.

I don’t know, that article has sparked a certain ghoulish fascination in how the thing will play out. And as far as the anticipated griev-a-thon goes, will it top that of Diana? I’m not so sure. Old lady, not really celebrity gossip material… I don’t think people will be able to keep up the wailing and gnashing of teeth for seven days. At a formal, establishment level, yes, but at a Hello-magazine-reader-on-the-street level, maybe not.