<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/17/fanatics-descend-on-windsor-to-enliven-trumps-festival-of-nothing>
"Never in its long and august history has the No 10 bus from Windsor to Staines
(via Datchet and Wraysbury) received a welcome like this. Its passage secured
by police escort, its progress followed by the world’s media, the orange
single-decker trundles regally up Windsor’s high street, while onlookers crane
to get a glimpse of the single pensioner conveyed within. “It’s not him,” one
man mutters, a little superfluously.
It was that kind of a day on the banks of the Thames: lots of excitement over
very little, a sideshow that felt largely peripheral to the pageantry unfolding
within the sealed castle grounds. “I’m afraid nothing’s going to happen,
madam,” a police officer informed a woman filming a Facebook Live video from
the kerb as he shooed her a safe distance back towards the pavement.
Of course, certain things did happen, albeit nothing of very much consequence
in the grand scheme of things. People shouted things at each other. People
argued over Gaza. People waved flags and brandished placards. A man in a Maga
hat ate a pickled egg from the chip shop and grimaced a little. Television
runners shuttled up and down Castle Hill ferrying flat whites to the on-screen
talent. Drizzle drizzled.
But mainly Windsor was a sea of people watching other people watch things,
simultaneously reassured by their physical proximity to the main event and
dismayed by their inability to influence it. “We are ready for anything that
will happen on or around the water,” said Sgt Lyn Smith, head of a joint
operations marine unit between Thames Valley and Hampshire police. As the
presidential party neared Windsor, pretty much the only thing happening near
the water was a swan taking a dump.
Of course, this festival of nothing was partly baked into the design, the
logical consequence of a state visit whose guiding principle was to avoid any
conceivable contact with actual people. While Trump and King Charles inspected
the guard, the crowd outside was left entirely to its own devices. Little tip:
if you tell a Maga supporter that his huge flag only has 49 stars on it, he’ll
still be counting them half an hour later."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
