But my thoughts are with the Queen
our future and a republican debate, if we were up for it, would allow us to use our heads to fashion a modern New Zealand that respects foundations at the same time as building upon them.
So, republican ambition notwithstanding, I’ve developed a real soft spot for the Queen. Look at her history. She has sat down with 14 British prime ministers since her coronation. Winston Churchill was her first. It’s a toss-up who was worst. Take your pick from James Callaghan, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron or Theresa May.
With Prince Philip gone, the Queen now stands alone. She is the monarchy and the monarchy is her.
Two famous predecessors, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, came to so embody their age, during long reigns, that those epochs were named after them.
Elizabeth I saw off the Spanish Armada and heralded a long period of relative stability that allowed her country to flourish, to produce Shakespeare and Marlowe, while laying the seeds of future empire through her charter of the East India Company in 1600.
Victoria reigned over that empire, the greatest the world had then seen, powered by global ambition, maritime supremacy, and an industrial revolution. At its peak, ‘‘Pax Britannica’’ was hubristically described as the empire on which the sun never set.
Elizabeth II’s 68-year reign has outstripped her predecessors, but one doubts future historians will talk of a second Elizabethan era. When Elizabeth II became Queen in 1953 the sun was already setting on the British empire, with Indian independence occurring six years prior to her coronation. Suez diminished the empire in the Middle-East early in her reign, the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 lost Britain its last significant overseas territory, and decolonisation had swept across former British territories elsewhere in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.
In 2021, the sun is setting on Scotland’s attachment to a United Kingdom, and post-Brexit England is divided between city and country and north and south.
Given this historical trajectory, Elizabeth II has, more’s the pity, been the enduring witness to Britain’s arch-decline, its twilight. One wonders what she makes of it all. But she has faced her historical, constitutional and family roles with formidable dignity and stoicism. She is a remarkable woman.
I’ve discovered much to my own surprise that respect for the Queen’s lifelong poise and deep sympathy for her loss has momentarily dulled my republican fervour. Time is on the side of a New Zealand republic, so I’m content to wait because the Queen deserves to see out her reign in peace.
Elizabeth II has been the enduring witness to Britain’s arch-decline, its twilight. One wonders what she makes of it all.