‘London Bridge Is Down’: The Plan in Place for the Queen’s Death

The plan includes guidance on major logistical issues, and smaller details like the protocol for lowering flags.

In existing plans for the Queen's death - and there are many copies kept by Buckingham Palace, the government and the BBC - most imagine that she will die after a short illness. Her family and her doctors will be there. When the Queen Mother died on Easter Saturday afternoon in 2002, at the Royal Lodge in Windsor,

She had time to call her friends to say goodbye and give up some of her horses.

In these final hours, the Queen's chief medical officer, a gastroenterologist named Professor Hugh Thomas, will be in charge. He will take care of his patient, control access to her room and consider what information to disseminate.

The relationship between sovereigns and subjects is something strange and mostly unknown. The life of a nation becomes the life of a person, and then the thread must be broken.

There will be flyers from the palace -

Not many, but enough. Sir James Reed declared, "The Queen suffers from severe bodily prostration, accompanied by symptoms of much concern."

Queen Victoria's physician, two days before her death in 1901. The last notice issued by George V's physician, Lord Dawson, "The King's life is marching in peace to its end", was at 9:30 pm on the night of 20 January 1936. Not long after.

immediately after that,

Dawson injected the King with 750mg of morphine and a gram of cocaine—enough to kill him twice—in order to ease the King's suffering, and make his power expire in time for the Times Press, which rolled in the middle of the night.

She will close her eyes and Charles will be king. His brothers will kiss his hands.

The first official to deal with the news will be Sir Christopher Gidette, the Queen's private secretary, a former diplomat who was awarded a second knighthood in 2014, in part for planning her succession.

Ghedt will call the prime minister. The last time a British monarch died, 65 years ago, the death of George VI with a code word, "Hyde Park Corner," was moved to Buckingham Palace, to prevent console operators from finding out. For Elizabeth II, the plan for what would happen next is known as the "London Bridge". The prime minister will wake up,

If you are not awake already, civil servants will say "London Bridge is down" on safe lines. From the Foreign Office's Global Response Centre, in an undisclosed location in the capital, it will relay the news to 15 governments outside the UK where the Queen is also Head of State,

And the other 36 Commonwealth countries that it served as a token -

A familiar face in dreams and unordered drawings of a billion schoolchildren - since the dawn of the atomic age.

For some time, it will go without us knowing. The information will be transmitted like a piezo wave before the earthquake, and it can only be detected by special equipment. Governor-Generals, Ambassadors and Prime Ministers will learn first. The lockers will be opened looking for black badges three and a quarter inches wide,

To be worn on the left arm.

The rest of us will find out faster than before.

On February 6, 1952, George VI was found dead by his servant in Sandringham at 7.30 am. The BBC did not broadcast the news until 11.15am, about four hours later. When Princess Diana died at 4 a.m. local time at the Petit Salpetriere Hospital in Paris on August 31, 1997,

The journalists accompanying the former Secretary of State, Robin Cook, on a visit to the Philippines knew in 15 minutes. For many years, the BBC was told about the deaths of members of the royal family first, but its monopoly on broadcasting to the Empire is now over. When the queen dies

The announcement will be issued as a newsletter to the Syndicate of Journalists and the rest of the media in the world simultaneously.

At the same moment, a footman dressed in mourning would walk out the door of Buckingham Palace, cross the pale pink pebbles and stick a black-edged notice on the gate. while doing this,

The Palace website will turn into one dark page, displaying the same text on a dark background.

Screens will glow. There will be tweets. At the BBC, the 'Wireless Alert Transmitter System' (Mice) will be activated -

The Cold War Era Alarm is designed to withstand an attack on the country's infrastructure. rats

Sometimes referred to as a 'royal about to sniff it', it is a semi-legendary part of the intricate architecture of rituals and proofs of death of major royal figures that the BBC has preserved since the 1930s.

Most employees only saw him on auditions; Not many people have ever seen it work.

One regional reporter told me, "Whenever there's a strange noise in the newsroom, someone always asks me, 'Is these the rats?' "Because we don't know what it looks like."

All news organizations will advocate for on-air movies and online obituaries.

In The Guardian, the deputy editor-in-chief has a list of prepared stories pinned to his wall.

The Times is said to have 11 days of coverage ready to go. In Sky News and ITN, which have trained for years on the Queen's death in place of the name "Mrs Robinson", calls will be directed to royal experts who have already signed contracts to speak exclusively on those channels.

Someone told me, "I'm going to sit outside the monastery doors at an oversized perpendicular table and comment on 300 million Americans about it."

For people stuck in traffic, or with Heart FM running in the background, there will only be the most accurate indications, at first, that something is going on.

British commercial radio stations have a network of "blue lights", which are tested once a week and are supposed to light up in the event of a national disaster. When the news comes in, these lights will start flashing to alert DJs to go to the news in the next few minutes and play harmless music in the meantime. every station,

Coming to the hospital radio, make playlists of "Mood 2" or "Mood 1" songs to access in times of sudden mourning. BBC radio producer Chris Price wrote for the Huffington Post in 2011: "If you ever hear 'Haunted Dancehall (nursery remix)' by Sabers of Paradise on Daytime Radio 1, turn on the TV."

"Something terrible has just happened."

Making plans for the deaths of senior royals is a practice that makes some journalists uncomfortable. One former producer of Today complained to me, "One story is more important than another." for 30 years,

BBC news teams are called to work on a quiet Sunday morning to perform fake stories about the Queen Mother choking on a fishbone.

There was a scenario about Princess Diana dying in a car crash on an M4.

These well-laid plans didn't always help. In 2002, when the Queen Mother passed away,

The obituary lights did not come on because someone failed to press the button down properly. On the BBC, veteran broadcaster Peter Seasons was criticized for wearing a maroon tie.

Seasons was a victim of a BBC policy change, released after the September 11 attacks,

to loosen its coverage and reduce the number of "Category One" royals eligible for a full obituary. The last words in the Seasons' ear before it went live were: "Don't go overboard. She's a very old woman and she's had to go for a while."

But there will be no improvisation with the Queen.

News readers will wear black suits and black ties.

The first category was made for her. Programs will stop. Networks will be merged. BBC 1, 2 and 4 will be interrupted and will silently return to their own identities - an exercise class in a village hall, a swan waiting in a pond - before meeting together for the news. Radio 4 and Radio 5 listeners will listen live to specific wording,

“This is the BBC from London,” which, intentionally or unintentionally, will invoke the spirit of the national emergency.

The main reason for practicing is to have rough words roughly for the moment. “It is with great sadness that we make the following announcement,” said John Snage,

The BBC presenter who informed the world of the death of George VI. (The news was repeated seven times, every 15 minutes, then the BBC was silent for five hours.)

According to a former head of BBC News, a very similar set of words will be used for the Queen. Training is different for her from the rest of the family,

It is to explain. People are upset, contemplating the unimaginable strangeness of her absence. "She's the only queen most of us have ever known," he said. The Royal Standard will appear on the screen. The national anthem will be played. You will remember where you were.

When people think of the death of a contemporary monarchy in Britain, they think,

There is no escape from Diana. The Queen's departure would be enormous by comparison. It may not be entirely emotional, but its reach will be broader, and the ramifications more dramatic. “It would be very basic,” one former courtier told me.

Part of the impact will come from the sheer weight of the things that happen.

The routine of modern royal funerals is somewhat familiar (Diana based her "Ty Bridge", the Queen Mother's plan). But the death of a British monarch, and the inauguration of a new head of state, is a ritual that has faded living memory: Three of the Queen's last four prime ministers were born after she took the throne.

When you die, the Houses of Parliament will be called, people will go home from work early, and airline pilots will announce the news to their passengers. In the next nine days (in the London Bridge planning documents these are known as "D-day", "D+1" etc.) there will be ritual announcements, a tour of four countries by the new king,

Fake TV shows, and a diplomatic gathering in London not seen since Winston Churchill's death in 1965.

More difficult than anything else, however, there will be a great psychological reckoning of the kingdom you leave behind. The Queen is Britain's last living link with our former greatness - the identity of the nation,

The problem of self-esteem - which is still defined by our victory in World War II.

A prominent historian, who declined to be named like most of the people I interviewed for this article, asserted that the farewell to the longest-serving king in this country would be remarkable. "Oh, you'll get it all," he said.

"We've all been told Churchill's funeral was a requiem for Britain as a great power. But in reality it's really going to be over when you're gone."

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