All very good points. I liked the irony of Kubrick using that song as theme for the end of the world. But I’m sure it strikes many differently. Dame Vera is the last of a generation of British patriots and should rest, when the time comes, in Westminster Cathedral.
That use of the song was significant in another way. Having a ready-made pop recording playing over a scene in a movie that is not coming from anything happening on screen (someone singing or a playing a recording) was not done at the time. It was believed that having some disembodied voice singing on the soundtrack would break the ilusion of what’s onscreen. Also in 1964, “A Hard Day’s Night” did the same thing: Beatles records were playing on the soundtrack when the band wasn’t performing. It paved the way for a new form of musical...the “pop”-sicle. Saturday Night Fever, Flashdance etc. Today, virtually every other film has pop tunes playing on the soundtrack.