Just days after the death of Cambridge professor Jason Arday, apparently by suicide, a huge crowd met in Trafalgar Square to hold a vigil in his memory.
If I was bereaved in a similar fashion, would I want someone I loved commemorated in this way? No, absolutely not.
Vigils seem to have become popular over the last couple of decades. People are invited to attend by word of mouth and social media. There was one for murder victim Sarah Everard, during which the police got involved because it was in defiance of the social distancing rules due to COVID.
I've been told that it means people are showing respect, but why?
On reflecion, it seems to be a newly fashionable expression of recreational mourning.
Jason attracted the wrong sort of attention during his life and now it seems to me he's attracting the wrong sort in his death.
