The Platinum Jubilee and the secret of the British monarchy
"In days of disillusion, however low we've been, to fire us and inspire us, God gave to us our Queen […] From that look of dedication, in those eyes profoundly blue, we know her coronation, as a sacrament and true ".
So said the poet Sir John Betjeman in 1977, on the occasion of the twenty-five year reign of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary.
When Elizabeth Windsor became queen on February 6, 1952, the tenant of Downing Street was Sir Winston Churchill, the four Beatles members were still in school and the James Bond epic had not begun. As if that weren't enough, the UK was still trying to see itself as an empire. Hers therefore seems to be an infinite kingdom, which began in a world completely different from the one we live in today. But although Elizabeth II belongs to another era, now that she is about to celebrate the seventy years of her reign, the coveted Platinum Jubilee , we can only underline how much her presence is still today, after some time, one of ( few) sources of stability on which his subjects can rely.
Elizabeth II ascended to the throne in the moment of passage for Great Britain from imperial nation to island between Europe and the Atlantic. A gradual change that has certainly redesigned the connotations of the Kingdom after centuries of global dominance. From the Suez crisis to Swinging London, from Thatcherism to Tony Blair's Cool Britannia , up to the recent Brexit: the queen has perennially watched over the nation, seeing changes, crises and rebirths, which is why it would be impossible to summarize in a few words the traits of his figure.
The people closest to her, like her husband Philip or her sister Margaret, have left one after the other, but she still remains there, flawless and venerated as never before. She broke all records, even that of great-great-grandmother Victoria, whose reign lasted only 64 years.
To those who ask if the now elderly sovereign is thinking of leaving the throne, we can say that Elizabeth, in all probability, will not succeed in abdicating. It is not in her order of ideas, given what royal renunciation has meant for her and her life. In fact, if in 1936 uncle Edward VIII had not abdicated in the absence of heirs, Elizabeth would probably never have become queen, by virtue of the birthright that still exists in the Windsor hierarchy. She would have lived surrounded by dogs and horses, her great passions, without the weight of a destiny from which one cannot escape. The monarchy is first of all duty , and Elizabeth has always placed duty before everything: to motherhood, to affections, to passions, to personal ideas.
It has overcome scandals and turmoil not without difficulty, as evidenced by the collapse of popularity in the late 90s in conjunction with the death of Lady Diana, or the current scandal involving Prince Andrew. Following similar vicissitudes, the queen has always tried not to betray the sense of the role she covers, aware that the cracks and fractures within the family in her should never transpire, and that the entire moral framework on which the monarchy was not affected by the human events related to it.
We often wonder what lies behind the protocol smiles of the queen, who first of all is a woman, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. The mother of the nation in every sense, especially since in 2002, with the disappearance of the queen mother, she became the most authoritative and revered member of the Windsors. He is the heir to a family that never abandoned his people, not even when the Nazi bombs hit the royal palace in 1940, and that would certainly have prevented any totalitarian regime from arising. It is the symbol of an apparently anachronistic institution but strongly rooted in the constitutional tradition of the United Kingdom and which will undoubtedly go into crisis after Lilibet 's departure. Current polls suggest that the future of the monarchy will be in the hands of William and Kate, and it is on them that Elizabeth is strongly focusing.
It takes much more than the simple mantra " to be consulted, to encourage and to warn ", indicated by Walter Bagehot, to outline the prominence that Elizabeth II still holds after seventy years.
Its presence is a guarantee of that freedom that the British never stop giving up, even in the most dramatic moments. Simply describing her as head of state is perhaps an understatement, also in light of the historical disputes that have led the Crown to have today's appearance. She answers only and exclusively to her people and she is on the throne because her subjects want her to be there, even though they have never elected her. Every institution and every governmental body is formally headed by you, or they operate on behalf of Her Majesty. In essence, however, these are autonomous entities, since Elisabetta has no right to interfere in the decision-making process. However, it should be remembered that the sovereign holds the so-called royal prerogatives that Bagehot described as “ powers which waver between reality and desuetude ”.
It therefore does not have the power to govern, but has the duty to ensure that there is a healthy, stable and legitimate government in office. That legitimacy is popular, and His Majesty must really care that it remains and is respected, without the elected rulers abusing their functions. This is because the sovereign is literally impartial and above the parliamentary politics of Westminster, unlike many Republican heads of state who, with due exceptions, can hardly keep their neutrality intact. Furthermore, if some glimmer of excessive interference transpires from His Majesty, albeit subtly, many in the ruling class and in public opinion would be ready to remember what are the boundaries within which the monarchy must be, as indeed it has been for several centuries. .
In this regard, it is impossible to forget the communication incident between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street in 1986, when the Sunday Times had insinuated from sources close to the palace that the sovereign was openly annoyed by the inflexibility of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, sparking the disdain of the government. At the center of the dispute were sanctions against apartheid South Africa; after all, the health of the Commonwealth has always been one of Elizabeth's major concerns.
In the light of episodes of this type and weekly talks with as many as 15 prime ministers, attempts have often been made to decipher her political positions, but without great results: there are those who see her closest to Labor and those who recognize her as conservatism. pre-Thatcherian and therefore “ one-nation ”.
It seems obvious, but its longevity in the hearts of its subjects is due to perfect neutrality and the great ability to adapt to change when this is necessary, and not for the sake of progress . As Antonio Caprarica often reminds us, the subjection of the British to the monarchical institution is almost formal, therefore different from the almost substantial subjection with which many continental citizens are often at the mercy of an oppressive and bureaucratic state that makes us more subjects than they are. the inhabitants of the perfidious Albion, and we Italians know something about it.
Nothing can unite the British more than Elizabeth, so much so that the disturbances and despair that will arise during and after her passing will be innumerable. And what unites them is also reverence for the mystery that irremediably hovers around the institution it embodies. That secret, incomprehensible to us, is the very essence of the British monarchy, made up of the said and the unspoken, of symbolism and formality, of national unity and profound devotion. Seeking an exhaustive explanation of the very nature of the monarchy would only dissolve its essence, as Bagehot recalls in his The English Constitution :
“Above all things our royalty is to be reverenced, and if you begin to poke about it, you cannot reverence it. When there is a select committee on the Queen, the charm of royalty will be gone. Its mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic. We must not bring the Queen into the combat of politics, or she will cease to be reverenced by all combatants; she will become one combatant among many ".
As head of the Anglican Church, Elizabeth is also characterized by a strong religiosity. But after all, God, in Great Britain, has from time immemorial been engaged in a mission that has become a top priority on the island: to protect His Majesty. Even today, after seventy years, for these and many other reasons, it is appropriate to say God save the Queen.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL https://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/il-platinum-jubilee-e-il-segreto-della-monarchia-britannica/ on Sun, 06 Feb 2022 03:57:00 +0000.