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international.
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On Prince Philip’s death, the government misunderstands the national mood
By: []
Date: None
The past year has been a massacre of nonagenarians. Goaded by the right-wing press, the government has repeatedly put business balance sheets over frail lives: Eat Out to Help Out, Christmas easing and delayed lockdowns.
My colleague Mary lives in London’s ‘COVID Triangle’. Every day, her neighbours file from their East End homes, onto the overcrowded Central Line, and put their lives at risk for minimum-wage service jobs.
Many – like Mary – will have said their final goodbye to grandparents over FaceTime, and attended funerals on Zoom. Many will have felt the virus choke up their lungs. All will have heard the sirens.
This morning, their path into the Tube was narrowed: Transport for London had erected a sign, mourning the death, at 99, of Philip Mountbatten-Windsor.
At the start of the weekend, it was Prince Charles who led the tributes, hoping his mourning would obscure the memory of him taking his own COVID the length of the country so he could convalesce in his holiday home.
By Sunday night, it was Prince Andrew’s turn. I probably wouldn’t be allowing the media to broadcast my whereabouts to the world, were I wanted for questioning by US prosecutors. But what do I know?
“We’ve lost almost the grandfather of the nation,” he told us.
But the thing is, we haven’t.
[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/on-prince-philips-death-the-government-misunderstands-the-national-mood/