Our apolitical Queen unites this nation
Who would wish a republic on Britain at this moment? We have enough partisan politics as it is. As both sides of the EU referendum fire accusations at each other, it is reassuring to know that one aspect of the state remains above the fray. The Queen’s official birthday weekend is an opportunity to give thanks not just for an individual but an entire institution.
This year, in fact, we should think not only of Her Majesty, who has turned 90, but also of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, who is now 95. Born on a dining room table in Corfu in 1921, he was driven out of Greece by war and evacuated in a cot made from a fruit box. From such exotic, sometimes tragic beginnings, the Duke became the steadfast model of fatherhood and duty. One of the longest and most glorious reigns in British history has been, at its heart, a partnership. The Queen has described the Duke of Edinburgh as “my strength and stay all these years”.
In a way, the nation might say exactly the same about Her Majesty. She has served the nation by providing counsel to 12 prime ministers, fulfilling her ceremonial duties, and by acting as an ambassador for Great Britain. As monarch she has undertaken almost 300 official visits to more than 120 countries. She is the sun at the heart of the Commonwealth.
The Queen is the patron of more than 600 charities and organisations, and has conferred hundreds of thousands of honours and awards in her lifetime. She believes in tradition and is always ready to fulfil it. She has taken the salute at every Trooping the Colour ceremony since the start of her reign. The only exception was 1955, when a rail strike forced a cancellation. But in Britain, one might argue, strikes are part of the national tradition, too.
Republicans insist that the present popularity of the monarchy is down largely to the character of its incumbent. They misunderstand the resilience of this institution. Named in this year’s honours list is philosopher Roger Scruton, one of the great thinkers on the subject of tradition, who argues that the monarchy persists because it offers a focal point for national pride that is apolitical.
It is, he once wrote, “the light above politics, which shines down on the human bustle from a calmer and more exalted sphere”. As the bitter EU referendum attests, nations are often divided against themselves by such politics.
How lucky the British are, then, that they have a head of state who – because he or she is hereditary – can never be touched by concern for the legislative detail of the present, but instead embodies an ancient constitution that has lasted because it has worked.
The monarch is not elected: they rule by chance, much the same as a parent is appointed by fate, not by democratic ballot. And it is when one thinks of the monarchy as fundamentally familial in design, rather than political, that the penny drops and the whole system really starts to make sense. The royals are the nation’s first family – looking at them, we see visions of ourselves. Standing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace yesterday afternoon were four generations of human life lived in the public eye. The most captivating of them all was the smallest – Princess Charlotte, who covered her ears as the planes roared past. Each generation of royal is different from the last, reflecting changing styles and fresh ideas about how best to serve a changing country. But down through that family is passed a living tradition of responsibility.
The theme of continuity was most obvious in the flotilla that floated up the Thames, led by the golden Gloriana, the barge which was constructed for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Behind it came the Havengore – the vessel which carried the coffin of Winston Churchill at his funeral procession. These flotillas are another ancient tradition. The standard was set in 1487 at the coronation of Elizabeth of York. Alongside the royal barrage that year floated a boat containing a model of a giant red dragon, which bellowed fired into the Thames. It symbolised the triumph of a new dynasty with Welsh blood, the Tudors, which would lead to England’s emergence in the Middle Ages as a major European power.
Britain is a very different nation now, of course. There is a temptation to fret about present difficulties, worrisome though they undoubtedly are, while losing sight of the enormous advantages that modernity has brought in wealth, health and human freedom. But the British are blessed also by having a clear, historical sense of who they are, or aspire to be, as represented in Queen Elizabeth II: loyal, compassionate, modest and enduring.
‘How lucky to have a head of state who embodies an ancient constitution that has lasted because it works’ ‘The royals are the nation’s first family – looking at them, we see visions of ourselves’