If any single image epitomised the sacrifices that millions made during the pandemic, it was that of the Queen, masked, black-clad and entirely alone, in a pew at Windsor Castle on 17 April 2021, at Prince Philip’s socially distanced funeral. For those who regard Her Majesty as the exemplar of the public servant, who has done her best for her country for nearly seventy years, it was an almost heartbreakingly poignant representation of loss. Even for republicans, the image of the then-94-year old woman mourning her husband of 73 years was deeply affecting on a human, as well as a symbolic, level.
It was unsurprising that Keir Starmer invoked the distinction between the Queen’s actions that day and Boris Johnson’s parties at a recent Prime Minister’s Questions. ‘The Queen sat alone during her husband’s funeral,’ he said. ‘Does the PM think he has the moral authority to ask people to stick to the rules?’
These revelations ensure that Boris Johnson’s eventual defenestration is all but a given
Starmer was met with standard-issue bluffing and evasion.
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