State Opening

(image from The Guardian)

Yesterday was the State Opening of Parliament. Just after 11am we all piled out of the office and down to Parliament Square to see the Queen arrive in her golden carriage, flanked by guards dressed in scarlet sitting astride dark, glossy horses. Beneath the grey skies and surrounded by a sea of dark winter coats of the spectators, the royal procession stood out as though the pages of a story book had come to life to walk down Whitehall. In the middle of an otherwise ordinary Wednesday morning, another world, another era.

No-one does pomp and circumstance quite like the British.