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Britain
OpinionComment
David Dodwell
David Dodwell

Outside In | To queue is to be human. Just ask those lining up to see Queen Elizabeth’s coffin

  • The sight of hundreds of thousands of people waiting patiently to pay their respects was a reminder of some universal truths
  • Not only is queuing a shared human experience, it is also an indispensable way of managing the snarls of our lives and keeping chaos at bay

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People queue to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth in London on September 18. Queueing might seem to be a uniquely British custom, but the truth is more complex. Photo: Kyodo
David Dodwell
There were moments last week when Britain’s 67 million people seemed to be split into two groups: those in the queue to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth’s coffin in Westminster Hall, and those watching the queue. When organisers at one point had to stop people joining the queue, people started a new queue to join the queue.
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It was a reminder of Britain’s formidable reputation for forming queues. It was perhaps also a reminder of a deeper truth: to queue is to be human, and it is an indispensable way of managing the chokepoints and snarls that litter our lives.

People watching an estimated 250,000 people queue for up to 15 hours along the banks of the River Thames in central London for a glimpse of the queen’s coffin can be forgiven for thinking that queuing is a peculiarly British obsession, but they would be wrong. The urge to queue is a global phenomenon rooted deeply in our brains.

We all have horror stories about queues – whether it is watching business class passengers glide through airport check-in while we wait in the economy line, enduring a five-hour wait in a hospital accident and emergency ward or collecting ticket number 350 in our bank branch queue when the screen on the wall says the tellers are dealing with number 65.

My most recent peeve was at my local Tseung Kwan O Hospital, booking an appointment to see an ear specialist. There was no queue, and the woman behind the reservations counter found me a slot with the doctor – in May 2024.

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When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi complained a month ago that, “Eight to 10 years ago, we had to stand in lines for everything. We had to stand in line for birth certificates, to pay bills, for rations, for admissions, for exam results, for certificates, in banks”, and argued that the emergence of online services would liberate Indians from queuing, he was wrong. The queues will simply become virtual, as anyone trying to use an HSBC “hotline” in Hong Kong already knows.
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