Popular Insite on Life in London
I Spent a Morning With the Professional Royal-Watchers Outside the Palace Gates, and Their Dedication Is Genuinely Something to Behold – Camping chairs, union jack bunting, and a level of scheduling knowledge that would put most diplomatic correspondents to shame. A dispatch from the pavement outside the railings.
The Souvenir Shops Near the Palace Are a Genuinely Fascinating Window Into What Tourists Think Britain Actually Is – Corgi tea towels, commemorative mugs for events that haven’t happened yet, and an entire economy built on a slightly exaggerated version of national identity.
Trooping the Colour Traffic Diversions Nearly Broke Me This Year, and I Say That With Genuine Affection for the Occasion Itself – An hour and forty minutes to travel what should have taken fifteen, and yet I would, if pressed, admit I’d do it all again next year.
Why Do We Still Care This Much? A Genuinely Honest Attempt to Answer My Own Question – Six years into covering this beat, I still don’t have a fully satisfying answer for why any of this continues to matter as much as it clearly does. Here’s my best attempt anyway.
The Corgi Statue Debate Outside My Local Pub Has Been Raging for Three Years and Shows No Sign of Resolution – A genuinely small, genuinely stupid, genuinely wonderful piece of ongoing local London theatre, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment.