Since last week, countless flowers for Queen Elizabeth have been placed across the UK, including at Buckingham Palace, Windsor and Sandringham, as well as Balmoral, where she died on September 8. Aerial photographs of the queen's royal residences show row after row of colours dotting peripheries of her estates and castles. Public spaces and parks too have been similarly festooned. The sight of so many bouquets is a manifestation of the sense of loss that Britons, and so many other people in the UK, have felt.
Naturally, the demand for florists is through the roof. One London branch of the high street retailer Marks and Spencer ran out of flowers. The poor manager is bending over backwards to find more.
One wholesale florist I spoke with in the Netherlands, who supplies to the UK and has been in the business for 22 years, says the last time he saw a comparable demand for flowers was in 2012, during the London Summer Olympics. Ahmad Al Mughrabi usually sends €10-15,000 ($15,000) worth of flowers per week to his four customers across the UK, who then supply to a string of florists and supermarket shops. In the week after the Queen's death, his business shot up to €65,000 ($65,000). Going by the size of his pre-orders for the funeral on September 19, Mr Al Mughrabi is anticipating revenue to "double that" by Monday. "For people who are buying flowers, price does not matter at this time," he says.
As is often the case, naysayers – whether non-monarchists, leftists, or plain cynics – have expressed dismay at the waste of resources. Some say that instead of the few pounds spent on a bouquet, homeless people could have been fed, or that the money could have been donated to charity.
Laying flowers does not mean people are against conserving resources or that they cannot also make a difference in 'more meaningful ways'
While perfectly well-meaning, such sentiments are pragmatic to a fault; people do not have to choose. Academics would call it a false dichotomy. Flowers can be placed and good deeds can be done. If the added lever of UK's ever-rising cost of living must be brought in, the price of a few lilies, steeper than usual though it may be, can be evened out by mourners forgoing some other little indulgence of the month. People coming together in grief, using the prop of a flower, does not mean that they are against conserving resources or that they cannot also make a difference in "more meaningful ways".
For florists across the UK, it is an unexpected bump in business but they are accustomed to the rise and fall in demand for flowers, in keeping with holidays and the seasons. And this week has been anything but a lull. Across the country, more police officers have been deployed, according to the BBC, and Transport for London is estimating an extra one million people on the network to central London to pay their respects, a scale they say is greater than, again, the Olympics in 2012.
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And then things will quiet down, Mr Al Mughrabi told me. Business prospects in the flower trade for the year 2023 don't look good, he says, considering the litany of political and environmental crises and related commodity prices in the world. The full impact of Brexit on the flower business (tulips tend to grow in Amsterdam) is another story.
Mr Al Mughrabi can't know just yet exactly how much his supplies of orchids, roses and seasonal blooms such as dahlias and hydrangeas to the UK will fall next year. For the moment though, it is a busy time. While it is also an economically difficult time in the UK – with inflation in August only slightly better than July's a 40-year high, or rather, increasing at a lesser rate – perhaps there is solace to be taken in that at least some businesses, such as the flower trade, are doing well, even if temporarily.
At such a consequential page turn in a chapter of history, buying or picking flowers from the garden or from the shop down the road to leave at designated spots, is a gesture that at its best can unite people. This could be seen in London on Sunday, at Green Park, when people who were gathered around the tributes for the Queen came together in an act of spontaneous community service. They set about to remove the plastic wrapping from bouquets, numbering by then in the hundreds, and disposed the cellophane paper, leaving the site that much nicer. Children pitched in, forming an efficient little chain to dispose plastic responsibly and prevent littering. It was glimpse of humanity among strangers, co-operating out of respect and a common need to improve a site of tribute.
Britons in their lifetimes are likely to know just the one queen, and possibly live through the death of just the one queen. Seen in that light, a child being guided by a watchful parent to place a few long stemmed gerberas at a spot has symbolic meaning. For the young and older, this forms a memory and the basis of a story likely to be retold over the years. Saying farewell with flowers is undeniable commercial fodder for the horticulture industry that is charging higher prices for a single yellow bud. But even so, the gesture of buying that flower, and navigating unrivalled queues to lay it down should not be seen as a waste.
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Scoreline:
Everton 4
Richarlison 13'), Sigurdsson 28', Digne 56', Walcott 64'
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Gylfi Sigurdsson (Everton)
UAE%20PREMIERSHIP
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFinal%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%20Hurricanes%20v%20Jebel%20Ali%20Dragons%0D%3Cbr%3E%0DSaturday%2C%208.15pm%2C%20Al%20Ain%20Amblers%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ESemi-final%20results%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EDubai%20Exiles%2020-26%20Dubai%20Hurricanes%0D%3Cbr%3EDubai%20Tigers%2032-43%20Jebel%20Ali%20Dragons%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ETable%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E1%20Dubai%20Tigers%2C%2033%20points%0D%3Cbr%3E2%20Dubai%20Exiles%2C%2024%20points%0D%3Cbr%3E3%20Dubai%20Hurricanes%2C%2018%20points%0D%3Cbr%3E4%20Jebel%20Ali%20Dragons%2C%2014%20points%0D%3Cbr%3E5%20Abu%20Dhabi%20Harlequins%2C%2014%20points%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
PAKISTAN SQUAD
Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (test captain), Babar Azam (T20 captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah.
The specs: 2019 Jeep Wrangler
Price, base: Dh132,000
Engine: 3.6-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 285hp @ 6,400rpm
Torque: 347Nm @ 4,100rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.6L to 10.3L / 100km
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
UAE v Zimbabwe A
Results
Match 1 – UAE won by 4 wickets
Match 2 – UAE won by 5 wickets
Match 3 – UAE won by 25 runs
Match 4 – UAE won by 77 runs
Fixture
Match 5, Saturday, 9.30am start, ICC Academy, Dubai
Best Foreign Language Film nominees
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
Your Guide to the Home
- Level 1 has a valet service if you choose not to park in the basement level. This level houses all the kitchenware, including covetable brand French Bull, along with a wide array of outdoor furnishings, lamps and lighting solutions, textiles like curtains, towels, cushions and bedding, and plenty of other home accessories.
- Level 2 features curated inspiration zones and solutions for bedrooms, living rooms and dining spaces. This is also where you’d go to customise your sofas and beds, and pick and choose from more than a dozen mattress options.
- Level 3 features The Home’s “man cave” set-up and a display of industrial and rustic furnishings. This level also has a mother’s room, a play area for children with staff to watch over the kids, furniture for nurseries and children’s rooms, and the store’s design studio.
MATCH INFO
Norwich 0
Watford 2 (Deulofeu 2', Gray 52')
Red card: Christian Kabasele (WatforD)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
INDIA SQUAD
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Siraj and Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper)
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
