queen’s funeral Isabel II Viewed from London, shows the peculiarities of British society at the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century.

The major changes in communication technology that have taken place in the last seventy years have had a global impact on this cemetery, far more than his father, George VI. One hundred heads of state and more than four hundred special guests (many of whom also lead governments), are examples of this unprecedented global impact.

A quarter of a century ago, the funeral Mrs Di causing many analysts to rush to suggest that the impact achieved by the Princess of Wales would be to destroy the British monarchy. Perhaps, it was the most difficult moment of the reign of Elizabeth II. But the combination of his patience, perseverance and skill allowed him to completely overcome it.

At 9 p.m. on Sunday, September 18, a two-minute silence was observed to commemorate his death. All the British keep it right. On the streets of London, non-British citizens volunteered and joined in the ensuing applause. It’s even revered inside bars and restaurants, and the same is repeated at 12 noon on Monday the 19th, while people gather to bid farewell to whoever has been their ruler over the years.

There are people in England who advocate the abolition of the monarchy, but they are few and they avoid any kind of demonstration, aware of the extent of society’s suffering.

Different sectors of British life joined the demonstrations. The bookstore features dozens of titles about the queen, edited and published in recent decades, as well as many others about her late husband, the Prince of Edinburgh. Fashion houses on Sloane Avenue (Chanel, Versace, Prada and others) joined in by simply displaying black dresses in their windows. On the morning of the funeral, about half of those who had gathered to see the coffin passed by were wearing some sort of black garment as a sign of mourning. On the evening of Monday the 19th, all television channels interrupt their programming every 15 minutes to display the full photo of the queen and elevate her historical dimension on the screen.

Funerals are a phenomenon that includes all social classes, but also all ethnic groups that coexist in Great Britain. Hundreds of thousands of people queued between 14 and 24 hours to bow briefly before the coffin in the burning chapel. At first glance, it can be seen that many of them are clearly not of British ethnic ancestry: India, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq, all from countries where the Empire thrived. From Africa also born in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Ghana and other countries. The Caribbean logically has a smaller presence. But others who were never members of the Empire can also be observed, such as Koreans and Chinese, mostly foreigners in Hong Kong.

Someone said that it is nothing new and is rooted in the fact that the world’s greatest empire, in the 19th century, gave special treatment to its loyalists in the colonies. In support of this, various works have been published, including one which states that African sailors from the Caribbean fought under Admiral Nelson’s orders at Trafalgar.

But the fact is that a major change has taken place in the Cabinet of the conservative party and appointed by the Prime Minister Liz Truss two days before the queen’s death. Secretary of Home Affairs and Trade; Ministry of Intergovernmental Relations; Secretary for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy; Minister of Finance and, perhaps most relevantly, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Overseas office), they are chaired by an Englishman whose parents were not born in England. This is unprecedented participation for any British government, which goes beyond what is seen on the streets regarding the ethnic diversity of British society.

Political sociology remains to explain how this Cabinet emerged from a Prime Minister elected by 170,000 Conservative Party members, of which only 4% were non-European migrants.

For some very specific specialists on the future of the monarchy, some geopolitical risks for the future have not gone unnoticed. Fourteen countries in the world recognize the British monarch as their Head of State. Canada, Australia and New Zealand join three islands in Oceania and eight island nations in the Caribbean. Four of them are members of the FTAA, which was founded by Chavez and Fidel Castro in the first decade of this century; two, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Kitts and Nevis, voted at the OAS last month against Russia’s suspension as observer in this international organization; and another, Antigua and Barbuda – which has a population of just 100,000 -, have held a referendum in 2023 to determine whether or not the move denies the authority of the British monarchy.

In the end, this is a matter related to Charles III and it will surely test his skills and expertise as the new king of Great Britain.

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