In Britain, emotion runs high and pound falls to 37-year low

A London estate agent's window as Britain is gripped by a spirit of national mourning. Photo: Rashmee Roshan Lall

Much of the British media is at the races, metaphorically speaking, as it excitedly, if respectfully, shouts out the latest funeral queue tally.

“It’s now eight kilometres long,” one BBC World Service presenter said late on Friday afternoon (September 16), about the Lying-in-State queue for the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The national mourning effort — focussed on the Lying-in-State — is being coordinated as if it were a war.

British rail operators are running extra services to London all night long (probably until Saturday); some 1,000 people have stepped forward to act as stewards and volunteers, and cultural institutions and businesses along the River Thames have opened up their facilities for public use around the clock.

This DCMS live feed is handy for anyone who wants to see the length of the queue.

Many of the people queuing up seem determined to “be part of history” and the…