BREXIT and beyond ....: April 2021

Friday, 30 April 2021

30 Apr 21 Eurozone driven into double-dip recession as Covid takes toll

GDP in the 19 economies sharing the euro shrank by 0.6% between January and March

Fri 30 Apr 2021 15.02 BST

Chairs and tables outside a closed restaurant in Germany. Germany’s economy shrank by 1.7%, Spain’s contracted by 0.5% and Italy’s GDP fell by 0.4%. Photograph: Focke Strangmann/EPA

The eurozone fell back into recession in the first three months of the year, as a slow vaccination drive and tougher restrictions to stem a third coronavirus wave damaged the region’s economies.

GDP in the 19 economies sharing the euro shrank by 0.6% between January and March compared with the previous quarter, according to figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.

The decline came after a 0.7% drop in the fourth quarter of 2020, when the strong rebound seen over the summer – with third-quarter growth of 12.5% – faded as a new wave of Covid-19 hit Europe.

This means that the eurozone is in a technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, for the second time since the pandemic began, a so-called double dip recession. The UK has not reported first-quarter GDP yet; it shrank in January but grew in February. The US has posted a rise of 1.6% while China recorded 0.6% growth.

Three of the eurozone’s largest economies were in decline. The main negative surprise came from Germany, which shrank by 1.7%, while Spain contracted by 0.5% and Italy’s GDP fell by 0.4% – which put the Italian economy into a technical recession. France grew 0.4%, having delayed its lockdown until the end of March when a surge in infections forced president Emmanuel Macron to act.

Things are starting to look brighter: economists are expecting the eurozone to bounce back in the current quarter, as Covid vaccinations have picked up.

The EU has also approved a €750m (£653m) rescue package dubbed NextGenerationEU to help repair the immediate economic and social damage wrought by the pandemic. Coupled with the EU’s long-term budget, it will be the EU’s largest stimulus package to date, a total of €1.8tn to rebuild a post-Covid Europe.

Maddalena Martini, a Milan-based economist for Oxford Economics, said: “We see the economy posting decent growth in the second quarter, before rebounding even more strongly in the second half.

“Indeed, the gradual removal of restrictions across the economies and herd immunity reached by the summer will boost the eurozone recovery. Moreover, incoming NGEU funds will start playing a major role in the recovery profile in some countries.”

The wider EU of 27 countries also went into recession in the first quarter when GDP fell by 0.4%, following a 0.5% contraction in the previous quarter.

Topics

Eurozone

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/30/eurozone-driven-into-double-dip-recession-as-covid-takes-toll

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Eurozone falls into double-dip recession amid pandemic – as it happened

Graeme Wearden

The Feldherrnhalle at Odeonsplatz in downtown Munich, Bavaria, Germany, last month — The Feldherrnhalle at Odeonsplatz in downtown Munich, Bavaria, Germany, in March Photograph: Lukas Barth-Tuttas/EPA

Graeme Wearden

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Latest: Eurozone shrank 0.6% in January-March, meaning double-dip recession
Germany shrank 1.7% in Q1
Italian GDP down 0.4%
Spain’s GDP fell 0.5% in January-March
Intro: French GDP grew 0.4% in first quarter of 2021
Yesterday, US GDP grew by 1.6% (6.4% annualised)

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2021/apr/30/eurozone-gdp-france-germany-italy-covid-19-pandemic-recession-unemployment-inflation-business-live

30 Apr 21 UK heading for biggest economic boom since 1948 – Barclays chief

Jes Staley says bank continues to take ‘cautious view’ of impact of Covid-19 pandemic

Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent

@kalyeena

Fri 30 Apr 2021 10.33 BST

Jes Staley made an upbeat assessment as Barclays published first-quarter results showing profits more than doubled to £2.4bn. Photograph: Debra Hurford Brown/Barclays/PA

The UK economy is on course for its biggest economic boom since 1948 as the country’s coronavirus vaccination programme allows consumers to go out and spend, according to the chief executive of Barclays.

Jes Staley predicted the strongest year for economic growth since the aftermath of the second world war, at 6.5% this year, as “tremendous pent-up demand” built up during the pandemic is released.

“So we see – just like you’re starting to see in the US as well – quite a robust economic recovery in 2021,” Staley said. “We think that will carry through into 2022.”

He added that Europe “may have a little bit of a tougher time” in comparison because of its slower vaccine rollout. “The UK has done so well around the vaccination process, basically 50% of the population is now vaccinated. I think that’s going to allow the economy to open up sooner than what you might see in other countries.”

He made the upbeat assessment of the outlook for the UK economy as Barclays published its first-quarter results, which showed profits at the bank more than doubled over the period to £2.4bn.

While the bank recorded a drop in consumer spending at the start of the year, Staley said the trend was already reversing, helped by the “extraordinary success” of the UK’s vaccination programme.

He said spending was already up 70% during the first two weeks of April, compared with a year earlier.

The upbeat forecast meant the lender was able to put aside a smaller sum to cover customer defaults linked to the pandemic. It logged a £55m charge to cover bad debts, a fraction of the £2.1bn set aside during the same period last year.

It meant Barclays, which put aside a total £4.8bn to cover potential customer defaults in 2020, easily beat analyst estimates for a £503m charge in the first quarter.

It helped the lender to a 162% jump in profits to £2.4bn, up from £913m a year earlier, having also been buoyed up by strong mortgage demand and a jump in profits from its investment banking arm, as trading and deal-making helped support earnings.

The bank easily beat average City forecasts for profits of £1.8bn.

However, illustrating the uneven recovery from the pandemic, Staley confirmed the bank had temporarily shifted some of its Indian operations back to the UK as the south Asian country struggled with a devastating increase in Covid-19 cases.

The chief executive said the outbreak, which has overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums, had put pressure on its approximate 20,000 local staff, some of whom had to take time off work to take care of family and loved ones.

“We are very focused on India right now. That’s our second employee location,” he said, adding that the bank had donated £1m to charities distributing medical supplies across the country in last week alone. “We all want to be focused on trying to help India come out of this pandemic”.

UK workers have picked up back-office work and call centre shifts that in some cases meant working overtime. “We have a huge amount of capacity and they’re sympathetic to what’s going on,” the chief executive added.

Despite the upbeat view on the UK economy, the banking boss said Barclays was still taking a “cautious view” of the impact of the pandemic, especially as government support measures are wound down.

While Barclays’ took a smaller charge to deal with bad debts in the first quarter, it contrasts with moves by UK competitors, including NatWest, Lloyds and HSBC, which released hundreds of billions of pounds from their bad debt reserves in light of their own upbeat economic forecasts.

Barclays expects the full-year bad debt charge would be “materially below” 2020 levels.

Barclays was the worst-performing stock on the FTSE 100 on Friday afternoon, falling 6% to 177p a share.

Topics

Barclays

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/30/uk-heading-for-biggest-economic-boom-since-1948-barclays-chief

Friday, 23 April 2021

Beijing’s diplomacy more effective than its vaccines

China may be behind on the science battle, but it’s still winning the narrative war.

BY SARAH WHEATON AND ASHLEIGH FURLONG

April 23, 2021 5:40 pm

A temporary vaccination site in Kunming, China, on April 15, 2021 | Liu Ranyang/China News Service via Getty Images

China may not have fully mastered the science of vaccine development — but it’s turned out to be an expert at the expectations game.

Growing evidence that the Sinopharm and Sinovac immunizations don’t work as well as most Western counterparts show few signs of denting Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy efforts.

With Hungary, Turkey and Serbia leaning heavily on Chinese jabs, political backlash has been minimal, even as a top Chinese official acknowledged that they don’t measure up.

By selling shots to willing takers — before regulatory approval and without prioritizing its own population — China cemented its position as the go-to country for urgent supplies, experts say. China won the race by being first; no one really expected it to be the best.

“The geopolitical dimension is to some extent decoupled from the efficiency of the vaccine,” said Moritz Rudolf, who has been tracking China’s health diplomacy for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

Neither Sinopharm nor Sinovac has been approved by top regulators; the World Health Organization plans to decide whether to grant them emergency use listing in the coming weeks. Based on available data, they both appear to meet or exceed the WHO’s efficacy threshold of 50 percent. (The European Medicines Agency has not yet begun reviewing the Chinese jabs.)

Yet a rare acknowledgment of the vaccines’ disappointing performance came earlier this month, when the head of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control said the country should consider tweaks to “solve the problem that the efficacy of the existing vaccines is not high.” He quickly backtracked, but his comments stood in stark contrast to the Chinese social media campaign to deride Western vaccines.

Brazil and Chile are essentially testing Sinovac in the real world — and studies emerging from those countries and others in recent weeks show a range of 51 to 82 percent efficacy.

Beijing Biological Products Institute hasn’t released trial data for the Sinopharm vaccine — a major component of Hungary’s campaign. Yet the developers claim it’s 79.3 percent effective, even as the United Arab Emirates has started offering a “very small number” of people third doses due to low immune response.

In Hungary, the public relations for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — who said on Facebook he received the Sinopharm jab — couldn’t be better. While much of the political provocation around Europe has centered on Russia’s Sputnik V, it’s the Sinopharm jab that’s helped Budapest race to the top of the EU rankings on vaccinations, with some 30 percent having received a first dose.

And you don’t have to take Orbán's word for it: On April 21, WHO European Regional Director Hans Kluge stood next to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó as he praised Budapest and declared at the end of his visit: “Vaccination rates are testament to planning, collaboration and resourcefulness.” Hungary used a loophole in EU rules to green-light the Chinese and Russian jabs at national level.

Meanwhile, while long-stalled EU donations of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine to the Western Balkans are only scheduled to start flowing in May, Albania and Bosnia were able to substantially expand their vaccination campaigns in late March thanks to Sinovac orders, with some doses acquired from Turkey.

Prompt delivery of more than 1 million Sinopharm jabs helped Serbia become a global leader on vaccinations. President Aleksandar Vučić received the Chinese jab on live TV in early April, just as concerns that a third shot would be necessary started cropping up.

Dueling narratives

“It’s mostly just a fight about the narrative,” said Rudolf.

Given Beijing’s lack of transparency, the underwhelming efficacy results are “not that surprising,” Rudolf said. It’s a missed opportunity for China to assert some R&D prowess; however, the Western narrative that Beijing can’t deliver on its promises isn’t likely to resonate in places where there are no alternatives.

The playbook looks similar to China’s face-mask diplomacy efforts earlier in the pandemic. Desperate countries were grateful to have supplies quickly, even if some PPE ultimately malfunctioned.

Beijing has also mastered on-the-ground optics. It’s mostly selling these vaccines, not donating them, noted Agatha Kratz, who leads research on EU-China relations at the Rhodium Group. Yet those sales are bilateral, rather than through some international effort like COVAX. “Every single country that they deal with will issue a statement ... saying, ‘We received Chinese vaccines,’” she said.

It’s similar to the situation with development assistance, said Kratz. The EU gives more of it, but because the Belt and Road Initiative is done on a bilateral basis with extensive press coverage, it looks like China is “doing much more.”

While subpar efficacy may be shrugged off by many, Kratz said, the emergence of severe side effects — like the blood clots under investigation in the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines — could be a bigger problem.

So China’s advantage may be a combination of luck and timing: They supplied the shots well ahead of major regulatory scrutiny, and so far, there don’t seem to be major side effects.

China’s vaccine customers seem more concerned about quantity than quality. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly scolded China’s foreign minister last month over delays fulfilling a 100 million-dose Sinovac order. Ankara “may be more cautious” in the future “if China overpromises,” a Turkish official told the Washington Post.

Political science

As with the Russian vaccine, backlash against China’s vaccines has been more about politics, both foreign and domestic.

Uyghurs in Turkey have accused Ankara of staying mum on persecution of the Muslim minority in China in exchange for Sinovac shipments. Paraguay is reportedly reconsidering its relationship with Taiwan in hopes of buying Chinese shots. And in North Macedonia, negotiations with Sinopharm fell apart amid allegations that Health Minister Venko Filipče was using a dodgy shell company to buy them.

Orbán also faces questions about purchasing Sinopharm through a murky middleman. In a radio interview earlier this month, he excoriated opposition parties in parliament for pushing a ban on the Chinese jab, saying Hungary’s vaccination rate would be halved without the Russian and Chinese shots.

He also addressed an expected shortfall of 580,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines, paused amid safety reviews. Those doses will likely be replaced, Orbán said, “with others from elsewhere, mainly from China.”

Lili Bayer contributed reporting.

https://www.politico.eu/article/china-diplomacy-effective-sinopharm-sinovac-coronavirus-vaccine/

Saturday, 17 April 2021

17 Apr 21 Funeral: Prince Philip - Guardian and Daily Mail

Royal family say farewell to Prince Philip at Windsor Castle funeral

Social distancing, face masks and only 30 mourners at service for the Duke of Edinburgh

Caroline Davies

Sat 17 Apr 2021 16.40 BST

Pallbearers carry the Duke of Edinburgh’s coffin into St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle

02:00

Prince Philip funeral: key moments as royal family bids farewell – video

When future historians come to retell the story of the pandemic, the image of the Queen sitting alone, masked and in mourning, will surely rank among the most poignant.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s final farewell at St George’s Chapel was like no other royal funeral. And though not a family like any other, with mourners limited to 30 and only the pallbearers not socially distanced, it was in no small way symbolic.

There was as much military pageantry as could be safely mustered in Windsor Castle’s quadrangle, ablaze in crisp sunshine with ceremonial uniforms and richly embroidered guidons and colours, the flags of regimental units, all draped in black crepe. There were television cameras instead of impersonal Zoom links.

But the royal family was not spared the brutal impact of restrictions the virus has inflicted on the hundreds of thousands of grieving Britons who also have been forced to say goodbye to loved ones in a manner not of their choosing.

The Queen takes her seat for Prince Philip’s funeral service. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/AP

The sense of sparseness was inescapable. A coffin borne through a chapel nave emptied of seats and housing a tiny choir of four, the sounding of bugles and trumpets and bagpipes echoing off its bare stone walls and fan-vaulted roof. It was not the sendoff long planned for 99-year-old duke, who died on 9 April.

The Queen, in black and wearing Queen Mary’s eye-catching Richmond brooch, arrived in the state Bentley, other senior royals in a fleet of Rolls-Royce Phantoms. Stripped of the ceremonial carapace of military uniforms, those who walked behind the coffin, in step and in silence, somehow appeared more vulnerable in morning and day dress with medals.

Eyes, inevitably, were on the grandsons, Princes William and Harry, amid reports of their rift. Physically separated in the procession by their cousin, Peter Phillips, their eyes remained front-facing throughout, betraying nothing.

The siblings were seated apart and directly opposite on different sides of the 15th-century quire aisle, William with Kate, Harry alone. He had not seen his family for a year. The Duchess of Sussex, who is pregnant and was advised not to fly, was said have watched the service on television at home in California.

Princes William and Harry follow the Duke of Edinburgh’s coffin through the parade ground. Photograph: Reuters

At the end of the service, however, William and Harry chatted as they walked with Kate up the hill towards the castle.

Prince Andrew also sat alone, two seats away from his mother. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were on the opposite side of the aisle to the Queen.

Inside the Gothic splendour of the chapel, a Royal Marines bearer party carried the coffin to the catafalque draped in purple velvet in front of the altar, on which were placed nine cushions bearing his insignia.

The Queen and senior royals, all masked, were seated beneath the banners of Garter knights and ladies, in the home of the most ancient British order of chivalry, to which Philip was installed in 1948 by George VI. The duke’s own banner, emblazoned with his coat of arms, was removed on his death, along with the heraldic accoutrements of his sword, helm and crest. His Garter stall plate will remain, and a traditional Garter laurel wreath was placed in his stall.

Pared back, the service focused on the essence of a man who was essentially self-deprecating and who, the Queen once said, “doesn’t take easily to compliments”. There was no eulogy, and no sermon.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, speaks at the funeral service. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Tributes were left to the two clergy present. The dean of Windsor, David Conner, praised his “kindness, humour and humanity” and said the nation was “ inspired by his unwavering loyalty to our Queen”. The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, gave thanks for “ his resolute faith and loyalty” and his “high sense of duty and integrity”.

The Garter King of Arms read the duke’s 15 styles and titles aloud, not a bad tally for a man born a penniless royal with the worthless title of Prince Philip of Greece almost a century ago.

Prince Philip: royal family releases photo montage set to elegy by Simon Armitage – video

Tightly stitched with sailors’ deft throughout the service was the thread of a Royal Navy man. His Admiral of the Fleet naval cap and the sword gifted on his wedding by George VI, surmounted the oak coffin, which was covered in his personal standard and the Queen’s wreath of white flowers – lilies, roses, freesia, wax flower, sweet peas and jasmine.

A piping party on boatswain’s whistles piped nautical gangway custom, the Still used to call crew to attention as the duke’s modified Land Rover hearse stopped at the chapel door; and the Side, used to welcome senior officers aboard, as pallbearers carried the coffin on to the west steps and paused for a national minute’s silence; and the Carry On, the call for crew to resume duties, as the coffin was slowly borne inside, the chapel doors closing behind it.

Members of the Royal Navy bow their heads outside St George’s Chapel. Photograph: Hannah McKay/PA

Though scaled-back, 730 armed forces personnel still took part, among them, representatives of HMS Magpie. The latest addition to the Royal Navy’s hydrographic squadron, it is named after Philip’s only command on the anti-submarine frigate HMS Magpie from 1950-51.

Minute guns were fired from the castle’s east lawn, and the castle’s Curfew Tower bell tolled during the eight-minute procession. A national minute’s silence began and ended with guns fired from saluting stations around the UK and in Gibraltar.

Headed by the band of the Grenadier Guards, their drums draped in black, the procession was led by senior military figures, including the chief of defence staff, General Sir Nick Carter, as befitting a decorated second world war veteran and accomplished commander before marriage demanded he sacrifice his career. “We all have a huge regard for him,” Carter said before the service. “We have a huge regard for his wartime record and the care that he showed for veterans and for those still serving, and it’ll be a sombre moment for us, but it will also be a celebratory moment, I think, because it was a special life and a life that was well-lived.”

Dismounted detachments from the Household Cavalry’s Life Guards and Blues and Royals stood to attention outside the chapel, and serving personnel from the Marines, the RAF, the Highlanders, ceremonial bodyguards and the Military Knights of Windsor all lined the procession route. The Windsor Castle Guards turned out on the parade ground.

The life of Prince Philip, the Queen’s ‘strength and stay’ – video obituary

A piped lament, The last post, and the reveille all sounded as the service came to a close. Then Action Stations, a seven-second bugle call to scramble warship crew to battle positions, was played at Philip’s request. The catafalque, last used for George VI’s funeral in 1952, sank slowly through the chapel floor to the royal vault below, transported on a lift installed by George III.

Ultimately the duke will be laid to rest next to the Queen in the George VI memorial chapel. For now, though, he rests alongside kings, queens and 24 other royals in the royal vault, to become an indelible and colourful footnote in the nation’s history.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/17/royal-family-say-farewell-to-prince-philip-duke-of-edinburgh-at-windsor-castle-funeral

Now at rest with Tudors and Stuarts: Prince Philip joins 24 other Royals in the vault under St George's Chapel before he moves to a side chapel with the Queen when she dies

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

PUBLISHED: 22:00 BST, 17 April 2021 | UPDATED: 01:46 BST, 18 April 2021

Prince Philip joins 24 other Royals in the vault under St George's Chapel

Prince Philip has joined 24 other members of the Royal Family lying in the vault under St George's Chapel. His body will remain there until transferred by lift upstairs to a side chapel when the Queen dies. Then the devoted couple can be laid together - in the same final resting place as her father, George VI, her mother and with the ashes of the Queen's sister, Princess Margaret.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9482763/Prince-Philip-joins-24-Royals-vault-St-Georges-Chapel.html

Then the devoted couple can be laid together – in the same final resting place as her father, George VI, her mother and with the ashes of the Queen's sister, Princess Margaret.

A vault with enough room for 44 royals

The Royal Vault is 70ft long and 28ft wide – with space for 32 bodies along two sides and 12 in the middle.

The vault was built in 1810 and George III was the first king to be interred there, in 1820.

Many Royals were placed elsewhere in the chapel before the vault was created, and many have lain to rest here since, before being moved.

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Coffin lowered underground by an electric lift

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Massed military bands stood still as the Duke of Edinburgh's coffin past by in a Land Rover that he had built himself

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The Foot Guards Band are seen marching ahead of the funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle

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Members of the military march ahead of the funeral service at Prince Philip's Windsor home

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The detachments of service personnel from the military units the duke had a special relationship assembled on the green of the castle's quadrangle - while lining its edge are troops from the Household Cavalry and the Foot Guards

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Pall bearers carrying Prince Philip's coffin of the Duke of Edinburgh into St George's Chapel

The Chapel's black and white marble floor tiles have a rectangular section in front of the communion table which opens up to allow an electric lift to lower funeral plinths into the Royal Vault.

Yesterday's procedure was a repeat of what happened at George V's 1936 funeral – attended by the nine-year-old future Queen.

She held her mother's hand during the funeral procession up the Chapel steps, before watching her grandfather's coffin descend 16ft to the vault.

England's only executed monarch

After his execution in 1649, Charles I's remains were hastily placed in a previously built Windsor vault. The hope was to make it more difficult for pilgrims to pay homage at the 'martyred' king's grave.

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The duke's coffin could be seen draped with his personal standard, which pays tribute to his birth heritage as a Prince of Greece and Denmark, his family name and his Edinburgh title

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Prince Philip's coffin has emerged from Windsor Castle as the Royal Family joined the Queen in mourning her husband at his funeral

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The Duke of Edinburgh's casket was covered in his personal standard and carried his sword, naval cap and a wreath of flowers as masked pallbearers carried his coffin onto his extraordinary self-designed Land Rover hearse

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Prince Philip's coffin is loaded onto the Land Rover during his funeral service at Windsor Castle this afternoon

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Prince Charles looked griefstricken as he followed his father on the final journey to church

Give me a light into the unknown

Engraved on a plaque on the gates of a side chapel are the words of a poem quoted by the Queen's father, George VI, in his 1939 Christmas Day broadcast.

As encouragement to a country at war with Nazi Germany, he read: 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'

Site Henry VIII chose for his third wife

Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's only wife to give birth to a legitimate male heir, was buried here in 1537, followed by the king himself, ten years later in 1547.

His body had lain in state in Whitehall – embalmed with spices, encased in lead (weighing more than half a ton) and surrounded by burning tapers.

Poignant advice: Live and die well

In the Chapel Library is a 16th Century book titled The Craft To Live Well And To Die Well – a medieval 'how to' on leading a good Christian life and ensuring the fate of your soul after your death.

It could have been written especially for Prince Philip, and says:

A man's life is but a blast of wind

And in a thought departed and gone

Wife, child and goods you must leave behind

Today a man, tomorrow none.

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The Duke of Edinburgh's coffin, covered with his Personal Standard, is carried on the purpose built Land Rover Defender followed by the Princess Royal, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex, the Duke of Cambridge, Peter Phillips, the Duke of Sussex, the Earl of Snowdon and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence

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The Duke of Edinburgh's coffin, covered with his Personal Standard, is carried into St George's Chapel

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Pallbearers of the Royal Marines carry the coffin at the West Steps of St George's Chapel

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Members of the Royal Family walk behind the Land Rover hearse carrying Prince Philip's coffin

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Prince Philip's coffin carried by pallbearers from the armed forces on an extraordinary day of pomp and ceremony

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The coffin is carried up the world famous steps of St George's Chapel on its final journey

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St George's Chapel, the scene of Harry and Meghan's wedding and other happier occasions, contained only 30 guests for the Duke's funeral

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Philip's coffin had his standard, navy cap and a sword given to him by the Queen's father when they married 73 years ago

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Philip's coffin was carried on a custom-built Land Rover Defender hearse designed by the duke and modified over 16 years

Moment Prince Philip's coffin is lowered into 200-year-old vault below St George's Chapel before he is moved to King George VI Memorial Chapel when the Queen dies

Prince Philip's coffin was lowered into the Royal Vault at the end of his televised funeral service today.

The Duke of Edinburgh's coffin was interred by electric motor beneath the floor of the quire at St George's Chapel in Windsor as the Dean of Windsor delivered his commendation.

While the lowering of the coffin normally takes place in private, the poignant moment was broadcast in front of millions of viewers in a historic first for the royal family.

The duke is now the 25th Royal in the 200-year-old vault hidden beneath St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Prince Philip's coffin is lowered through the chapel floor

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The Dean of Windsor delivered the Duke of Edinburgh's commendation as his coffin was lowered into the Royal Vault

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Members of the royal family watched as Prince Philip's coffin was interred by electric motor beneath the floor of the quire at St George's Chapel in Windsor

As his coffin was lowered beneath the chapel floor on a catafalque, the duke's styles and titles were read out in full - including His Royal Highness, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich.

Royal Marine buglers sounded 'Action Stations,' an alarm that alerts sailors to prepare for battle, as Prince Philip's coffin, which was draped in his personal standard and carried his sword and naval cap, was lowered into the Royal Vault.

The inclusion of the naval call to arms, after the traditional bugle call of 'The Last Post,' was a personal request from the duke.

Ahead of Prince Philip's funeral, Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine, said the televised moment would be a 'unique in British royal history'.

He said: 'I think it will be unique in British royal history if the public get to see this on television.

'Clearly it's an intimate moment, usually only witnessed by the royal family.

'I think it will be regarded as too private. I think it is the sort of thing you might see at funerals in European countries, but not in Britain.'

The Duke of Edinburgh, who died last Friday aged 99, will join a range of kings and queens behind a set of iron gates around 16ft underground.

Among the notables already there include George III, George IV, George V of Hanover and William IV.

Others who are also buried there are Queen Victoria's father Prince Edward, George III's wife Queen Charlotte and Queen Mary's grandfather Prince Adolphus.

His coffin was lowered into the Royal Vault at around 3pm and will stay there until the Queen dies.

When Her Majesty's time comes, they will join George VI and Queen Elizabeth in the King George VI Memorial Chapel.

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The Duke of Edinburgh, who died last Friday aged 99, will join a range of kings and queens behind a set of iron gates around 16ft underground

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Others who are also buried there are Queen Victoria's father Prince Edward, George III's wife Queen Charlotte and Queen Mary's grandfather Prince Adolphus

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When Her Majesty's time comes, they will join George VI and Queen Elizabeth in the King George VI Memorial Chapel (pictured)

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The Duke of Edinburgh (pictured in 2014) was buried on Saturday afternoon at around 3pm

Action Stations played by Royal Marines at Prince Philip's funeral

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Who are the other 24 buried in the royal vault below St George's Chapel?

Princess Amelia, daughter of George III (d.1810)
Princess Augusta, Duchess of Brunswick, sister of George III (d.1813)
Stillborn son of Princess Charlotte(d. 1817)
Princess Charlotte (daughter of George IV) (d.1817)
Queen Charlotte, wife of George III (d.1818)
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria (d.1820)
King George III (d.1820)
Prince Alfred, son of George III (d.1782, placed in vault 1820)
Prince Octavius, son of George III (d.1783, placed in vault 1820)
Princess Elizabeth, daughter of William IV (d.1821)
Prince Frederick, Duke of York (d.1827)
King George IV (d.1830)
Still-born daughter of Prince Ernest Augustus, son of George III (d.1818)
King William IV (d.1837)
Princess Sophia, daughter of George III (d.1840)
Queen Adelaide, wife of William IV (d.1849)
Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein, son of Princess Christian (d.1876)
King George V of Hanover (d.1878)
Victoria von Pawel Rammingen, daughter of Princess Frederica of Hanover (d.1881)
Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, mother of Queen Mary (d.1897)
Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, father of Queen Mary (d.1900)
Princess Frederika of Hanover (d.1926)
Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, grandfather of Queen Mary (d.1850, placed in vault 1930)
Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, grandmother of Queen Mary (d.1889, placed in vault 1930)

This was erected between 1968 and 1969 and is situated next to the north quire aisle in the building.

Near there is a slab of black-and-white diamond-shaped stones which is taken away for funerals to gain access to a lift.

Royals' coffins are taken down the shaft for about 16ft before going down a corridor and set down in the vault behind iron gates.

Earlier monarchs were laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, where they still lie in a royal vault under the Henry VII Chapel.

But it quickly filled up and George III was forced to commission a new one under the Albert Memorial Chapel in Windsor in 1810.

His daughter Princess Amelia, who died aged 27 that year, was placed in a temporary vault until the new one was ready.

She was followed seven years later by Princess Charlotte and her child before George III and his son the Duke of Kent joined them in 1820.

By this time there were 12 low tombs in the vault that were around 18 inches high and a few feet across.

Monarchs and their wives went in the centre and there was more shelving for others on York stone.

Next came George IV in 1830, then William IV in 1937, Queen Adelaide in 1849 and George V of Hanover in 1878.

The latter was Queen Victoria's cousin and ended up in the vault because Hanover did not want him.

Some royals chose to spend time in the vault to reflect on the life of their loved one.

After George III's daughter Princess Augusta Sophia was put there in 1840, it was reported: 'We understand that in the course of yesterday His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge and his son Prince George descended into the royal vault, and stayed there some time contemplating the remains of their deceased relatives.'

This process was eased when a stone staircase was put in behind the altar in about 1837.

Victoria is understood to have frequently gone in after the Duke of Albany died in 1884 - and was followed by others.

He stayed there until he was transferred to the Albert Memorial Chapel in the summer of 1885.

After he brother prince Francis of Teck died in 1911, Queen Mary said: ''The vault looks very nice now, and is well lighted and arranged.

'The King [Edward VII] lies on the stone in the centre for the present.'

But the storage problem reemerged in towards the end of the 1920s, with only about 24 slots left.

Queen Elizabeth's grandfather George V used land next to Victoria's Mausoleum at Frogmore in Windsor to build the Royal Burial Ground in 1928.

This has become the main place to bury royals, with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester among those there.

George V, George VI and Queen Mary went in the royal vault while George VI placed in his special chapel in 1969.

Prince Philip's mother Princess Alice of Battenberg, who was born at Windsor Castle in 1885, also went in when she died in 1969.

The Duke of Edinburgh will join them all on Saturday afternoon before being moved to the King George VI Memorial Chapel when the Queen dies.

The bodies of her parents, George VI and the Queen Mother, as well as the ashes of her sister, Princess Margaret, are interred here.