Queen's Jubilee: Let's celebrate Britain itself

The Platinum Jubilee is at hand. For four days, Britons will celebrate the 70 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth as only they can.

Streets are bedecked with the Union Jack and shops are crammed with commemorative trinkets and baubles. Marks & Spencer, for example, offers the “Limited Edition Platinum Jubilee Biscuit Tin.” Long after the all-butter shortbread vanishes, it can safely host pins and needles until a successor appears on Her Majesty's 100th Jubilee.

This anniversary offers a chance for Britain to reflect on itself. It celebrates the endurance of the longest-serving monarch in its history, but what about the nation itself? Where is Britain today, post-brexit?

At first blush, not much different. If all those Poles, French and others have gone home since Britain left the European Union, it isn't apparent on the streets of London.

In fact, the variety of languages, especially Russian, is greater than at any time in my memory. It is striking in second cities such as Manchester and Liverpool, as well, just how many speak a language other than English. (Interestingly, Manchester claims the fastest-growing Jewish community in the world. Jews are coming from France, among other places, amid rising anti- Semitism.)

The national economy is strong. Growth was 7.5 per cent in 2021. Unemployment is the lowest since 1974, while inflation is the highest since 1982. Sound familiar?

The wealth of London is misleading. Britain has deep social problems. Child poverty is a national disgrace. Homelessness, alcoholism and drug abuse are unsettling. The population is aging, and many as so isolated Britain has a “Minister of Loneliness.”

These and other social maladies make the quality of life here lower than in other European nations.

Whatever its poverty, income inequity, racial tensions and challenges of climate change, this country does many things right. Among them are culture, public transit, libraries, historical preservation and international assistance.

Britain understands moving around its people on intercity transport. London-manchester in two hours on a fast and frequent train; there's a network of good buses. Imagine, Canada, a country that does that.

In London, the dazzling Elizabeth Line links the suburbs, Heathrow Airport and downtown. It expands significantly the reach of the venerable London Underground. In Manchester, some buses are free. In Portsmouth and other cities, they run like clockwork, offering internet and USB ports.

Britain understands the civic importance of museums and galleries. National institutions in London have branches in the northwest, such as Tate Liverpool and Imperial War Museum North in Manchester. Most institutions are free. A proud people shares its story.

Britain also understands its historic heritage in old houses, archeological discoveries, ancient forts and churches. In London, the home of Benjamin Franklin is explained with an arresting theatrical commentary. In Chester, a Roman town, walls and half-timbered shops are preserved beautifully.

Because language matters, so do bookstores. In sprawling Waterstones in London's Piccadilly — the largest of its kind in Europe — books don't compete with candles and soaps as they do in Canada. A bookstore is a temple.

Libraries, too, are cathedrals of curiosity. Other conceits? The National Health Service, despite its flaws and missteps in COVID-19, serves Britons well. The Royal Mail delivers on Saturday. Britain's program of international assistance is serious; it's the only country in the G7 to meet the UN annual target of aid as 0.7 per cent of GDP. The work of the British Council is renowned.

Character, character. This is the country that spawned the Industrial Revolution and held out against the Nazis in 1940 when Britain could not win the war but well could have lost it. A country that rebuilt itself and expanded social democracy. That has, in Cambridge, Oxford and King's College, among the finest universities in the world.

Britain remains vibrant, imaginative, moderate, democratic and delightfully quirky. In an unsettled world, that's something to celebrate.