The FT News Briefing is supported by Equinole, the UK's energy partner.

Learn more at equinole.co.uk

Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Friday September 9th.

In London, mourners gathered in front of Buckingham Palace to pay respects to Britain's

longest reigning monarch. Queen Elizabeth II died yesterday. She was 96 years old.

70 of those years were spent on the throne. Here are some of the people we spoke to on Thursday

outside the palace. I'm 26 years old and all I've known is Queen Elizabeth and you spend your

life thinking she's never going to die. She's never going to move on and then it happens.

It's just quite a shock. She's been such a constant in our lives and she was just a fantastic

woman and so very sad. You know she's to me the epitome of public service and I felt it was my

it's my duty to come down here after work and pay my respects. I read somewhere someone said

this is an impossible act to follow and I thought that's that's the perfect way to phrase this.

She is an impossible act to follow. To talk more about Queen Elizabeth II and this moment for

Britain I'm joined by the FT's deputy opinion editor Miranda Greene. Hi Miranda. Hi Mark.

Are are people ready for this? Well it's going to be a very difficult moment for the UK because

Queen Elizabeth II fulfilled the function of this very strange role of constitutional monarch

so ahead of state that separate from politics above politics and designed to kind of unify

the country in a way that politicians never can. She fulfilled that role just about as brilliantly as

it's possible to fulfill that role and during a period of immense societal change where she really

has been one of the only constants holding the whole thing together as it's evolved and of course

we we've only had a new political head of government for two days. You know Liz Truss was appointed

Queen Elizabeth II's 15th serving Prime Minister only a matter of hours ago

...