The desire of the country to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee is entirely to do with the personality of the Queen.
There are a great number of people who question intelligently whether the monarchy should head Britain in the way it does – I don’t mean wild revolutionaries but people who are intelligently republican. I understand why they do, yet it is also clear to me the Queen makes the whole monarchy worthwhile.
She works very hard and has always put the country’s interests first, and it is that work ethic and endurance that people are so interested in, particularly during this celebration.
The Queen sacrificed a huge amount, and while I am glad she had a happy marriage and found someone like Prince Philip to share such an extraordinary role with, it can’t have been easy all these years.
As the country marks her 70th year on the throne, I feel so glad she reigned this long, as it would have been tragic if she had abdicated.
And so what of the future? Her Majesty has done a very sensible thing in saying that Camilla will be the next queen because that has put an end to any possible questions.
You only have to look at the way, after the sad death of the Duke of Edinburgh, that she has picked herself up from that point of grief, and managed to be on the balcony on Thursday – twice.
The comparison between Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria is also interesting because Queen Victoria really retired when she became a widow, and I don’t believe she showed the same courage the Queen Elizabeth has shown throughout her time on the throne. Our Queen has done everything she was meant to, and more.
I am profoundly pro-monarchy, because, in the words of poet Hilaire Belloc, “always keep a-hold of Nurse, for fear of finding something worse.”
When I look around various other countries and see their presidents, I realise how much I don’t want to have a president, I want to have a head of the country who will inspire charities, which is very important, and our Royal Family does that. And then I want to have an elected government, a system that seems to work very well for us.
The Queen has given the country a focus in difficult times, and I do believe she works very hard.
To celebrate this weekend, my daughter is coming round and we are going to “padge”, which is our nickname for watching the pageant. I might have a glass of champagne, too – I think that would be a very good idea.
As told to Kasia Delgado
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