Queen’s Death Leaves UK Grappling With Its Sense of National Identity
Mark Landler
A figure who embodied Britain, Elizabeth cast long shadow. She leaves behind a country unsettled by domestic crises and anxiety over its place in the world.
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LONDON — No sooner had the long-anticipated news broken — Queen Elizabeth II was dead — than Britain activated Operation London Bridge, the painstakingly choreographed funeral plan that guides the country through the rituals of tribute and mourning that culminate with her burial 10 days later.

But the plan, with its metronomic precision, masks something far messier: a rupture to the national psyche. The queen’s death last week, at 96, is a genuinely traumatic event, leaving many in this stoic country anxious and unmoored. As they come to terms with the loss of a figure who embodied Britain, they are unsure of their nation’s identity, its economic and social well-being, or even its role in the world.

To some, it almost seems as if London Bridge is down.

Such trauma was not wholly unexpected: Elizabeth reigned for 70 years, making her the only monarch that most Britons ever knew. Yet the anxiety runs even deeper, scholars and commentators say, a reflection not only of the queen’s long shadow but also of the unsettled country she leaves behind.