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Key events
Sturgeon now speaks. Here are some highlights.
Most of us simply do not remember a life without the Queen. When as Princess Elizabeth she gave a radio broadast from South Africa on her 21st birthday she was addressing an empire that still included India. When she became monarch, Winston Churchill was prime minister.
In an everchanging and turbulent world, her majesty has been our constant, she has been the anchor of our nation. Our personal recollections are often intertwined with memories of her reign. I was nine-years-old when I first saw the Queen. She visited Irvin, my hometown in July 1979 to open the magnum leisure centre, I was one of hundreds lining my streets wiht my mum, and by luck we ended up close to her car as it passed by. Nine-year-old me was absolutely convinced I had caught her eye.
That nine-year-old girl could not have imaged nearly 35 years later being in the front passenger seat of another car, this time with the Queen at the wheel, driving through the Balmoral estate. In recent days other leaders have shared stories from Balmoral, of barbeques cooked by Prince Philip as the Queen laid the table. These are memories I treasure too.
I did however experience one rather tense moment at Balmoral. My husband and I were with the Queen before dinner when the drawing room light started to flicker. To my great alarm … my husband suddenly leapt up and darted across the room. Peter had spotted the cause of the flickering light, one of the Queen’s young corgis, a beautiful pup called Sandy was eating through a lamp switch. Thankfully tragedy was adverted, not before a ticking off from his mistress.
I deeply valued the time I spent alone with the Queen. Her words of wisdom, counsel, and humour will stay in my heart for the rest of my life. However the memory I cherish most is not from Balmoral, or from audiences at Holyrood. It is from 2015, when the Queen opened the Borders Railway. I spent the journey from Edinburgh to Tweedbank with just her and Prince Philip enjoying the recollecions from times spent in Scotland.
That would have been special on any day, but it was the day where the Queen became our longest reigning monarch, allowing me to observe closely how quietly reflective she was about that historic milestone made it so much moreso. It was one of the great privileges of my life. What was obvious then and on every occasion she graced us with her presence, was the Queen’s genuine love of Scotland.
The Queen has been intrinsic to the story of modern Scotland, from the opening of the Forties oil pipeline, to the Forth bridge, the Queensferry Crossing, three commonwealth games, she was present at so many of our iconic moments. She was a true and steadfast friend of this parliament.
Our nation is in mourning today for a Queen whose loss we have not yet begun to come to terms with. We are deeply honoured by the presence today of his majesty King Charles III and the Queen Consort. Your majesty, we stand ready to support you as you continue your own life of service and build on the extraordinary legacy of your mother. Queen Elizabeth, Queen of Scots, we are grateful for her life, may she now rest in peace.
King Charles and Queen Consort arrive at Scottish parliament condolence session
King Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort have processed into the Scottish parliament in Holyrood, as trumpets played in the background.
They had met political leaders from Scotland beforehand, including first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, and leader of the Conservative party, Douglas Ross.
Presiding officer, Alison Johnstone, opened the session and paid tribute to the Queen, who was there for the assembly’s first session in 1999.
Two minutes’ silence is now being held. Sturgeon will shortly move a motion of condolence.
Two Premier League games postponed because of policing issues caused by funeral
Two of this weekend’s biggest Premier League’s matches have been called off because of policing issues related to the Queen’s funeral.
Hours after Arsenal’s Europa League tie at home to PSV on Thursday was postponed it was confirmed that Manchester United v Leeds and Chelsea v Liverpool would go the same way.
“Following extensive consultation with clubs, police, local safety advisory groups and other relevant authorities, there was no other option but to postpone the three fixtures,” the league said.
King Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort have arrived at the Scottish parliament and will attend a session where they will receive a motion of condolence.
You can watch live, below.
Severin Carrell
Scotland’s former first ministers, including Alex Salmond and Labour’s Jack McConnell, have gathered in the public gallery at Holyrood for King Charles III’s first appearance at the Scottish parliament as monarch.
The King is due to take part in a motion of condolence to commemorate his mother’s death last Thursday, led by Alison Johnstone, the parliament’s presiding officer. He will then address Holyrood for the first time as king.
In the gallery, Salmond and McConnell have been joined by former presiding officers, including Lord Steel, the parliament’s first presiding officer, George Reid, Lord McConnell, Tricia Marwick and Ken Macintosh.
The public have been told to stop leaving marmalade sandwiches in Green Park as a tribute to the Queen, as it is harming the park’s wildlife.
The Royal Parks, which runs Green Park as well as other green spaces in the capital, said it was having a “negative impact” on them.
The trend comes after a sketch filmed as part of the platinum jubilee celebrations earlier this year, where the late monarch met the much-loved children’s character, Paddington Bear.
Teddies of the bear from darkest Peru have also been left at Buckingham Palace and at the official tribute site in Green Park since her death, as well as sandwiches filled with the orange preserve, wrapped in clingfilm.
A statement said: “We are asking people not to leave marmalade sandwiches because of the negative impact on the park’s wildlife.”
They also discouraged mourners from leaving teddies, adding that while people were able to, the Royal Parks would prefer it if they did not for sustainability reasons. Wellwishers have also been asked to remove the plastic wrapping from flowers.
Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has spoken of his last audience with the Queen, two days before she died.
He met her at Balmoral, before Liz Truss arrived at the Queen’s Scottish residence and asked her to form a government.
In an interview with the BBC’s Fiona Bruce, Johnson said: “In that audience, she had been absolutely on it. She was actively focused on geopolitics, on UK politics, quoting statesmen from the 50s, it was quite extraordinary.
“She seemed very bright, very focused. She was clearly not well. I think that was the thing that I found so moving when I heard about her death on Thursday, I just thought how incredible that her sense of duty had kept her going in the way that it had, and given how ill she obviously was, she could be so bright and so focused. It was a pretty emotional time.”
Johnson gave a memorable tribute to the Queen in parliament on Friday, the day after her death. He told the broadcaster that her death was a “colossal” thing for him and that he felt a “slightly inexplicable access of emotion”.
The backbencher added that she never mentioned the Covid rule-breaking parties that were held in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral. “She was really absolutely focused on what she saw as the important issues. It’s a very trusting environment, the audience with Her Majesty. So that never came up.”
There are long queues in Edinburgh as people hope to get in to St Giles’ Cathedral to see the Queen’s coffin lying at rest. The cathedral has just opened to the public.
St Giles’ Cathedral to open for public to view Queen’s coffin
The public will be allowed in to St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh from 5pm, where the Queen’s coffin will be lying in rest until Tuesday afternoon.
A queuing system is in place, with those attending warned it will involve standing for several hours. The church is where a thanksgiving service took place on Monday afternoon.
Later this evening King Charles will travel to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where he will meet Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
He and Camilla, the Queen Consort, will then attend the Scottish parliament, where members will deliver a motion of condolence.
At 7.20pm the King will hold a vigil with other members of the royal family at St Giles’ Cathedral.
More details of how events will unfold in the next few days can be found here:
Geneva Abdul
More from London as the first people have begun to queue to see the Queen lying in state (see 16:20).
Vanessa Nanthakumaran, 56, is one of the hundreds of thousands of people who are expected to queue in London for the Queen’s lying in state at Westminster Hall. She has returned 25 years after lining up for hours to see the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.
At half past eleven, Nanthakumaran was walking past the Houses of Parliament when she learned that the line would start by the river, just south of Lambeth Bridge.
For now, she is one of two people queuing overnight to be the first to pay their respects to the Queen when her coffin lies in state inside the parliamentary grounds. “It’s worth the wait,” she said.
The Queen’s coffin will remain in Westminster Hall from Wednesday morning until next Monday, the day of the funeral. A member of security said they were expecting between 750,000 and a million people to attend.
The Queen did a great service for the country internationally, and the Commonwealth, added Nanthakumaran, who is from Sri Lanka.
Her uncle was knighted by King George VI and was invited to attend the king’s coronation, before Sri Lanka’s independence, she said.
“For their service, it is sort of like payback, if you know what I mean,” she explained.
“Whatever they did for the Commonwealth, we have to appreciate what they did, and for the independence they eventually gave back when Sri Lanka wanted the rights back.
“In that way, we have to be grateful,” she said. “I’ve never been faulting the royals at all.”
For the overnight stay, she was dressed in denim and a rain jacket and had a plastic bag with snacks and water. Her daughters were due to bring more supplies in the evening.
She said she planned to drawn on her experiences from 1997, when she waited to see Diana’s funeral.
“That was from morning until late afternoon; this is a bit longer, but I’m sure I can,” she said.
Libby Brooks
The Guardian’s Scotland correspondent, Libby Brooks, was in Edinburgh this morning, ahead of today’s thanksgiving service for the Queen. The mood she picked up was a pride that Scotland has been such a part of the events since the Queen’s death at Balmoral last Thursday.
Crowds along the Royal Mile had been gathering since 9am and by mid-afternoon the throng was deep and spilling out into cobbled side roads. The Old Town’s narrow back lanes were unusually busy as visitors attempted to find space along the route.
Some older onlookers brought fold-out chairs, while others nearer to the back of the crowd stood on step ladders and boxes borrowed from local shops. The high windows of buildings on either side of the thoroughfare were also crammed with onlookers.
Emma Smyth was watching from the top of a step ladder, positioned at the top of Blackfriars Street as it leads into the Royal Mile, that she had borrowed from the nearby cafe where she works.
Originally from New Zealand but living in Scotland for five years, she said: “It’s a momentous occasion, not just here but for the world. I came out yesterday to watch and put the photos on Facebook so that everyone at home could participate too.”
“She was such an incredible figure; the things she’s seen in her lifetime.”
As the Queen’s coffin went by, followed by the royal party, only an arms’ length away from onlookers, the good-natured chatter of the crowd quietened to a hum, as arms held aloft phones and cameras to capture the moment. And after the procession had passed, there was the release of applause, as the crowd stepped back from the metal barriers with some relief.
Wiping away tears after watching the coffin go by, Jane Anderson, a radiology manager who had travelled from Fife with her husband, said: “It was very poignant. Seeing it like this brings it into your own community.”
She was brought to the Royal Mile out of “love and respect for what [the Queen] stood for” but also to recognise the stoicism of her family in their grief.
“It must be so difficult for her children because they are still on duty, yet that’s their mum. They have no privacy. The Queen lived her life like that.”
She added that she felt lucky to be able to be present for this farewell, in a way she could not have done had the Queen died in London. “Because it happened in Scotland, we’ve been able to participate much more.”
In London, people have already begun to queue to see the Queen’s coffin lying in state.
Two women, Vanessa and Anne, have begun waiting on the path that runs alongside the Thames, opposite the Houses of Parliament. There are still more than 48 hours to go until it begins in Westminster Hall, with some queuing times expected to run to almost 20 hours.
The lying in state will begin at 5pm on Wednesday and last until 6.30am on Monday, the day of the Queen’s funeral.
Service of thanksgiving ends
The King and members of the royal family are now leaving St Giles’ Cathedral, marking an end to the service of thanksgiving to the Queen.
The national anthem was sung as the service drew to a conclusion.
King Charles led a procession behind the coffin of his mother the Queen as it was moved from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.
Addressing the congregation at the service of thanksgiving for the Queen, the Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields paid tribute to the Queen who “possessed a sharp, intelligent mind with amazing recall, a kindly heart and a gentle sense of humour”.
Most of us “cannot recall a time when she was not our monarch”, he said:
Committed to the role she assumed in 1952 upon the death of her beloved father, she has been a constant in all of our lives for over 70 years.
The Queen was “determined to see her work as a form of service to others, and she maintained that steady course until the end of her life”, he continued:
She understood the breadth of world affairs and also cared about what happened to all of her people.
He particularly noted the Queen’s “deep links” with Scotland and its people.
He said:
Her love of the Balmoral estate is well known and being there latterly brought her great comfort. There she was valued as a neighbour and friend, and there she drew strength and refreshment during the summer months.
A man has been arrested after heckling Prince Andrew during the procession to St Giles’ cathedral this afternoon, police have confirmed.
Police Scotland said a 22-year-old man had been arrested “in connection with a breach of the peace on the Royal Mile”.
A 74-year-old man who was arrested near Holyroodhouse in connection with an alleged breach of the peace has been charged.
The man is due to appear at Edinburgh sheriff court, police said.
It comes after Police Scotland said a 22-year-old woman has been charged after she was arrested after holding an anti-monarchy sign during the accession proclamation outside St Giles’ cathedral.
The service of thanksgiving for the Queen then saw Karen Matheson sing Psalm 118: 17-21 in Gaelic, accompanied by Catriona McKay on harp.
The music throughout the service incorporates material that is European, Anglican and Scottish and is drawn from composers of sacred music – Bach, Byrd, Purcell and Tallis.
It was then followed by a reading of Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15 by Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
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