The Queen’s trip to Northern Ireland was cancelled this Oct. 19, for medical reasons; she was to have been Wednesday and today in County Down, for the centenary of Northern Ireland’s formation. No word yet on whether the same may happen for the queen not attending the COP26 Halloween Summit in Glasgow. The official report is that doctors want her to get more rest. Meanwhile, India’s Environment Minister claimed today that Prime Minister Modi will attend. Stay tuned.
Glasgow functions are now in the process of shutdown to give way for the expected 20,000 attendees next week. Schools are closing. Roads will be shut. Still, thousands of potential attendees won’t come, because of the cost-shock. The COP26 organizers are scrambling to, still, make it all happen. This month the UK government scrapped quarantine requirements for 47 countries, including South Africa and India, to spare delegates the $3,200 quarantine cost of a 10-day hotel stay.
The original semi-official estimates of COP26 attendance were as high as 30,000, then dropped to 25,000, and now trend toward 20,000.
Not only the Queen last week bemoaned how more heads of state aren’t coming—"It’s really irritating when they talk, but they don’t do,” she said. But Charles, the Prince of Darkness, complained last week to the BBC, “They just talk; the problem is to get action on the ground, which is what I’ve been trying to do for the last 40 years.”
