A diamond rule
Huge crowds for Queen’s jubilee
QUEEN Elizabeth will celebrate 60 years on the throne next month with huge crowds expected for a pop concert at Buckingham Palace, a grand procession through the streets of London and a 1000-strong flotilla along the River Thames.
The Diamond Jubilee comes just over a year after the royal wedding of Prince William, the Queen’s grandson, to Kate Middleton, a spectacular display of pomp and pageantry which has boosted the monarchy’s popularity at home and abroad.
While international media attention has focused on the young Duke and Duchess of Cambridge since their marriage in early June, it is the Queen who will be in the limelight as she becomes only the second British monarch to mark the milestone.
Queen Victoria also made it to 60 years in 1897, although the vast British Empire she reigned over at that time has all but vanished and royalty has become a largely symbolic institution with few real powers.
The Queen has less than four years to go to become the longest serving British monarch but she trails Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej as the longest-serving living head of state.
Despite her age, courtiers and many commentators believe that 86-year-old Elizabeth remains an important figurehead in Britain and beyond, a symbol of stability and service that has taken on added weight during straitened economic times. Support for the Queen is at a record high, a recent poll showed.