London Bridge, what happens if the Queen dies: the protocol
Among the measures that the government must adopt with the death of the queen Elizabeth, there is also a blackout of public social media. In the classified documents of the operation ‘London Bridge’. The Buckingham Palace site will be replaced by a black page with a short statement in which the death of the sovereign is confirmed and the government website and all gov.uk social pages will have a black banner. Non-urgent content will not be published.
The coffin of the sovereign will be carried in procession by Buckingham Palace at the Palace of Westminster where it will be exposed to the public for 23 hours a day per three days. The state funeral will be held ten days after the death.
The operation has also already been prepared ‘Spring Tide’ which will regulate the modalities of the accession to the throne of Carlo, which before the funeral will be engaged in a tour of the country. The new King’s speech to the nation will be broadcast at 6 pm, after an audience with the Prime Minister, who in turn will be notified of the Queen’s death by a telephone call in which an official will pronounce the frase in codice ‘London Bridge is Down’.
The day of death will be called in internal communications to the state apparatus ‘D-Day’ and, to follow, the following days up to the funeral, D + 1, D + 2 and so on. Official emails sent along the bureaucracy’s hierarchical chain will have predetermined texts, such as “we have just been informed of your Majesty’s death” and “discretion is required”.