Joe Biden Arrives Late At Queen’s Funeral, Waits For Seat

He may be the world’s most powerful man but the apparent late arrival of the United States (US) President, Joe Biden, and his wife, Jill, was not allowed to disrupt the finely tuned choreography of the late Queen’s funeral.

Rather than being ushered immediately to their seats on their arrival at Westminster Abbey, the first couple, aged 79 and 71, had to be gently told they would need to stand and wait as a procession of George and Victoria Cross-holders went ahead of them down the nave of the abbey.

After an awkward period of small talk at the main entrance, as those awarded the highest decorations of military valour went ahead, the Bidens finally followed in the wake of Victoria Cross-holder CSgt Johnson Beharry, pushing the wheelchair of Keith Payne VC, 89.

The US President had been given a dispensation to make his journey to the Abbey in “the Beast”, a heavily armoured limousine used by US Presidents for security reasons, rather than be bussed to the Abbey with the other Heads of State and government.

Camera footage shared on social media showed that the Bidens had made slow progress through central London, even being momentarily forced to stop outside a Pret a Manger on Oxford Street.

After arriving hand in hand, the Bidens finally sat down in their places in the abbey at 10.05 am. The schedule published by Buckingham Palace suggested the 500 invited dignitaries should have been seated between 9.35 am and 9.55 am.

Perhaps as a consequence of opting out of the buses taking other leaders from the assembly point at Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Bidens also got seats 14 rows back in the south transept of the abbey.

The US President took his seat behind Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland, and in front of Petr Fiala, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Sitting to her husband’s left, Jill Biden sat next to Ignazio Cassis, the President of Switzerland.

The special treatment demanded by the White House was however not the most significant diplomatic difficulty facing the earl marshal, the Duke of Norfolk, who was in charge of planning the funeral.

While the decision of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to not attend avoided some damaging headlines, a decision to invite Spain’s disgraced former King Juan Carlos and to then seat him next to his son King Felipe VI and his wife, Queen Letizia, appears likely to make things difficult for the Spanish royal family back home. – With the Guardian reports