It’s the news that Britain has been dreading. Buckingham Palace has put out this statement:
Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen's doctors are concerned for Her Majesty's health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision. The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral.
This is British understatement. The seriousness of the Queen’s condition can be gleaned first from the fact that a statement has been issued at all, and second — most ominously— that her close family have dropped everything to assemble at Balmoral, where the Queen has remained due to her “mobility problems” since her customary summer sojourn there.
Suddenly, everything else that’s happening seems diminished. It seems that the tipping point for the nation so many have feared may have arrived. Britain must now brace itself.