The Queen’s passing led many across the country to suspend their duties as a mark of respect over the weekend: the Met Office stopped reporting the weather, the football was called off, and the Bank of England delayed its decision on interest rates for a week, Norwich council have stopped residents locking up their bikes, and Wetherspoons has reportedly stopped selling condoms in its loos*. All as Her Majesty would have wanted.
A few MPs are also throwing themselves into a period of mourning. Both Victoria Atkins and Alex Davies-Jones closed their offices on Friday. “Out of respect” for the sovereign…
Alex Davies-Jones made the move first, writing on Facebook:
“Due to the very sad death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, as a mark of respect my constituency office will be closed until further notice […] My staff will continue to deal with urgent casework at this sad time. However, for matters that can wait and queries on policy there will be a short delay whilst we mourn the loss of our beloved monarch.”
“At this time, out of respect for Her Majesty The Queen, I have paused in responding to non-urgent correspondence.”
This morning Davies-Jones clarified that her constituency office had “only closed on Friday out of respect for HM The Queen’s sad passing“, and is now open. If you’re a constituent of Victoria Atkins and you haven’t heard from her since Friday, though, you can probably assume your problems have been sent to the “non-urgent” pile. Presumably neither MP will be forgoing last Friday’s salary as a similar mark of respect…
*Guido remains sceptical about the truthfulness of this tweet…
