Vigil for a Mother

The Queen's four children stood vigil around her coffin today in St. Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh.  The Queen will lie in rest there until tomorrow afternoon, when the coffin will be flown to London and rest overnight in Buckingham Palace until taken to Westminster Hall on Wednesday to lie in state until the morning of her funeral next Monday.

 

Earlier today, the King, accompanied by the Queen Consort, addressed the Scottish Parliament for the first time, after hearing loyal tributes to the late Queen from the Speaker and party leaders, all of which were excellent - except that of the Greens leader, who was a bit preachy.

Earlier still, the King began his long day likewise in Westminster Hall in London, where he heard the tributes and condolences expressed by the Speakers of the Lords and the Commons, and gave in reply his first speech to the assembled members of the national Parliament.

Click here for a helpful schedule of events in the week ahead of the Queen's funeral on Monday, September 19th.

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The Queen's Last Journey

A hearse bearing the Queen's coffin, draped in the Royal Standard, heads for Edinburgh.  Click to enlarge.

The globe-trotting Queen's final journey has begun, as her coffin is brought by car from Balmoral to Edinburgh, where it will lie in state, first overnight at Holyrood Palace,  and then for 24 hours at St. Giles' Cathedral, before being flown to London on Tuesday.  Watch the journey live on Sky News:

 

The Queen's funeral has been set for Monday, September 19th, in Westminster Abbey, with the final obsequies to be held at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.  A very helpful schedule of events, complete with pictures and maps, is found on the BBC website.

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Marriage Updates: Scotland and Florida

Marriage equality came to Scotland at the stroke of midnight on December 30th:




And gay couples will start marrying in Florida on Tuesday:



The catch is, a dozen or so counties, mostly in the ultra-conservative Panhandle, are going to eliminate the problem of marrying all them filthy gays by refusing to perform weddings for anyone from here on out.

Scotland Votes

The Scots, who number 5.3 million - more than a million less than the population of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex - will decide in a referendum held today whether to destroy a 300-year-old union with England, plunging themselves into social and economic ruin, or whether to remain part of a highly successful United Kingdom which has done incalculable good for all concerned the last three centuries, not least for the Scots themselves.  The Daily Telegraph is live-blogging the vote, but final results are not expected until early Friday morning. 

The BBC explains what is at stake:




Update, 4:30 p.m., Texas time: the Telegraph has switched to an overnight feed to report the election returns as they come in.


Update, 12:30 a.m., 9/19: Scotland has voted NO to separation by 55-45 percent, your Head Trucker is glad to report.

Scottish Parliament Passes Marriage Equality Bill

By a free vote of 105 to 18, the Scottish Parliament today passed the Marriage and Civil Partership (Scotland) Bill, against opposition led by the Church of Scotland, the Roman Catholic Church, and other churches. The bill does, however, provide that no church can be forced to perform same-sex weddings. In advance of the bill, the Scottish government sought public comments on the change to the marriage laws and received more than 77,000 responses.

No date has yet been announced for the first same-sex weddings in Scotland, but they may begin in the autumn, extending marriage equality to most of the United Kingdom.  The UK Parliament last July passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in England and Wales, and the first weddings will take place on March 29. Northern Ireland, with a long history of conflict between militant Protestants and Roman Catholics, remains without marriage equality, although civil partnerships are celebrated there. The Republic of Ireland is set to hold a national referendum on same-sex marriage in 2015.