Ma’am, you are going to be a tough act to follow

TOMORROW MARKS 70 YEARS OF A QUEEN WHO HAS WON HEARTS AND RESPECT. BUT WHAT IS THE MONARCHY’S FUTURE?

ON February 6, 1952, while the 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth was on a visit to Kenya, she learned of the death of her father. Promptly, she flew home where she was proclaimed Queen. An extraordinary 70 years on, that date will be marked as the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations begin. It’s a time not just for looking back over the decades, but for assessing where we are at now in this journey with the British monarchy, and peering into its future.

Is the monarchy secure, or does it have vulnerabilities? How can it continue to be meaningful for the people of Scotland and the UK? Here, historians, experts and commentators share their predictions. Words, as told in interview to Vicky Allan.

PROFESSOR EMERITUS SIR TOM DEVINE University of Edinburgh, historian

There are many Scottish blood connections between the current British monarchy and Scotland. If you look, for example, at the Queen’s mother and father, both could trace their lineage back to Robert II of Scotland in the Medieval period. Her father is a direct descendant of James VI of Scotland and her mother was a Scottish aristocrat.

There’s also the famous statement she made in the Scottish parliament of her enduring affection and that of her late husband for Scotland. That’s not a myth. In other words, in relation to Scotland there are positives, but there are also threats and negatives and difficulties for the monarchy going on into the future.

Amongst the positives is that Scots are aware that there is no evidence whatsoever of the royal family marginalising Scotland of the sort we do see from the current prime minister and his government.

Their behaviour to some extent has highlighted the interest and concern and affection that the royal family have for Scotland. The Queen’s position is armourplated, and perhaps particularly so because she is a hereditary monarch.

People look at governments around the world, elected governments and elected presidents, such as Trump and Putin, and they think maybe a blood inheritance, though it seems odd in the modern world, might have something for it.

The constitutional monarch cannot have any particular political axe to grind, must stay above the fray, and, of course, everyone has been so impressed by the way the current Queen has comported herself throughout her long reign. There has