Ordinary Gweilo

Shaky is (I think) complaining that the reaction to the death of Ronald Reagan is out of proportion, especially the day’s holiday for most US civil servants this Friday. He points out that there was no holiday in the UK for the 60th anniversary of D-Day or for the Queen Mother’s funeral.

True. There was a public holiday when Charles and Diana got married, but nothing when they got divorced, or for Diana’s funeral (which was on a Saturday).

There was a public holiday for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee two years ago, but not for the Queen Mother’s funeral earlier that year. There was also a Public Holiday for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.

Oddly, Hong Kong used to have a public holiday to celebrate the Queen’s birthday every year – even though it wasn’t a public holiday in the UK. Don’t anymore!

As for the Queen Mum, I never understood what all the fuss was about. She had lived to a tremendous age, so her death was hardly a shock or surprise, her main achievement was marrying into the royal family, and she was mainly known for being old and for having a fondness for gin and tonic. Oh yes, and she owned a few race horses. Yet the newspapers in Britain wrote about nothing else for days afterwards, even though there was hardly anything to say. I am pleased to say that The Economist managed to limit itself to a single paragraph, which I thought was commendable (though possibly one paragraph more than they really needed).