MPs skip queue to see Queen lying in state – while general public wait for hours

49 comments
  1. Oh, so much for my theory that the reason they’re using this antiquated system is that it’s ‘fair’. Of course not.

    > and can also bring up to four guests

    I wonder how much Boris is selling his for.

  2. Of course they do, I’m sure there’s a whole load of seemingly VIP types who can skip the pleb queue and walk straight in.

  3. To be fair, having members of the government queuing for 4 miles is probably a security nightmare.

  4. “Shouldn’t the MP’s be sorting out this energy crisis?”

    “Sorry, they can’t, they’re stuck in a queue.”

  5. Tbh, who actually cares. I do not feel sorry for the people who are spending hours in a queue when we have other problems to deal with right now.

  6. How many of you would also complaine if MPs queued for several hours or a day, not doing work, to go pay respects?

  7. When I was in school, if someone were to skip a queue a vast majority of fellow queuers would point and shout “QUEUE JUMPER!” (Usually followed by a stream of insults).

  8. Seems like they could have spared themselves a lot of agro by giving MPs a chance to go before they opened it to the public. Nothing we hate more than a queue jumper

  9. Of course they do, as our elected representatives they’re pretty much obliged to take part in the ceremony surrounding the death of the head of state. Would anyone prefer they stood in line for 2 days rather than getting on with the jobs we’re paying them for?

  10. If they queue for 30 hours they’ll be accused of shirking their parliamentary responsibilities. If they’re allowed to bypass the queue they’ll be accused of lauding it over the general public. If they don’t go at all they’ll be accused of not being patriotic enough. No matter what they do, someone on the internet will be outraged.

  11. They are on the publics dime – so better they skip it than stand for 48 hours and claim it as an expense.. who am I kidding, they’ll do that anyway.

  12. Makes sense for a former Prime Minister. Otherwise her bodyguard would have to stand in line with her, which seems a little unfair. Your average MP and House staff should probably queue in their own time if they really want to go.

  13. That seems reasonable to me. They are, after all, representatives of their constituencies and it seems fitting that they should attend on their constituency’s behalf. The Queen was our head of state after all.

  14. To be fair they will have specific security issues that most other people won’t have. You don’t want your politicians being sitting targets any more than is necessary. It’s a danger to them and the others in line

  15. I mean, I’m fairly certain having someone that senior in parliament out and about for hours is a massive risk considering some of the nutters in the country

  16. God there is just so much bollocks at every stage of this but who can win? Of course they aren’t going to wait for hours in line, they are elected representatives so *are* more important in the process than the general public. If they did wait, it would be called performative grief or they’d be told to do some actual work instead, if they don’t visit then it would be an apparent disrespect to the Queen. Can I just time travel to about six weeks from now rather than having every single part of the process picked apart?

  17. Not a monarchist, and I can’t stand all the wall to wall coverage or the massive amount of deference… However, I really can’t see how MP’s not being made to wait in the queue is offensive.

  18. In fairness, if they queued, they’d have to pay for their security. For all them MPs, all them hours, potentially £100,000s. Forget that. Send em in, thank the Queen, thank the lord, and fuck off again.

  19. It would be a security risk to make them queue.
    Also a perk of their job? I used to work for a bus company, so I had unlimited free travel with them. I kinda see it in that way!

  20. As much as I hate MPs , i can see why as i rather see them in parliment being useless tossers pretending to give a shit then stuck in a queue whilst being useless self serving tossers.

  21. Do people honestly expect a person like Theresa May, Ex priminister to queue for hours for this? The article title would change to MP’s waste time queueing instead of working as an MP.

    Lose lose situation here

  22. I know someone (not an MP or related to MPs) who got a pass… I think it’s only fair if you’re expected to attend due to your role/position and don’t have time to queue…

  23. I’d rather they had their turn done and out of the way as quickly as possible. They’d only make the whole thing into even more of a .P.R. mess but she did her duty to us the public not them so our turn shouldn’t be longer and interrupted.

  24. I kind of understand it if you were prime minister or any other minister that had regular meetings with the queen.

  25. Guys, the Palace of Westminster is their workplace, it’s part of long standing constitutional tradition that an elected MP can come and go on the parliamentary estate as they please.

    Are we really supposed to be annoyed at this? This is what supposed to happen. If you worked somewhere, would you queue to get in?

  26. People do understand the palace of Westminster is where the houses or parliament are & MPs have offices in there too?
    I’m fairly confident that if there was a que by the public to enter my workplace I’d also be allowed to skip the que to enter. If there happened to be a dead body in aisle 2 I’d probably also walk by to have a gander before clocking in.

  27. Just read elsewhere that MP’s each get passes to skip queue, think 4!
    But to be honest, I can’t see why it’s a big deal!

  28. I don’t even understand why the public are waiting hours. Why queue up for a 60 second glance at a box covered in cloth? The BBC are live streaming it, you can watch the box do nothing 24 hours a day if that’s your thing.

  29. I don’t believe anyone other than family should be able to skip any queue here.

    The fact that we have thousands upon thousands of Britons (of all backgrounds, religions, disabled and non-disabled, young and old) out there, waiting for hours upon hours for a chance to give a final goodbye to our monarch of 70 years says a lot about our people and our country. My love grows with every gesture like this.

    God bless our country. God Bless the Queen. God Save the King.

Leave a Reply