On his mother’s death, Charles will be king immediately. His siblings and children will kiss his hands. Then constitutional government will kick in.
The Prime Minister will need to be informed immediately of the passing of the head of state. That job will fall to the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, who will go to a secure telephone line and tell the PM: ‘London Bridge is down.’
Then, from the Foreign Office’s Global Response Centre in London, the news will go directly to the respective prime ministers of the 15 governments outside the UK where the Queen is also the head of state, and the 36 other nations of the Commonwealth for whom she has served as a figurehead.
For a time, her subjects will not know she is dead and that the throne has passed to her eldest son. Governors general, ambassadors and prime ministers will learn first. But in the world of 24-hour news it will not stay secret for long....read more>>>...
