Melanie Phillips
The Daily Mail [UK]
3 June 2012
What a fantastic, glorious, emotional, quite overwhelming spectacle. It wasn’t just that it was flawlessly executed. It wasn’t just that, as billed in advance, it would provide a sight that people would never have seen before.
It was also a triumphant restatement and reaffirmation of a Britain that people love so deeply but which so many fear may have been lost for ever.
Well, here it was still, in all its touching magnificence.
Once again, the monarchy allowed people to connect through powerful symbolism to their collective history and their identity as a nation. And what a stroke of genius it was to use the river to make that visceral connection.
An estimated one million people packed onto the banks of the Thames to cheer the Queen as the pageant of some 1,000 boats proceeded in perfect formation past the great landmarks of the city.
The monarch being rowed in pomp and grandeur up the river is an image which goes straight back to the Middle Ages…
Then and now: The pageant yesterday bore a striking resemblance to the Canaletto painting "London: The Thames on Lord Mayor's Day". Click on the image to enlarge.
The grand row-barge that led the procession was called Gloriana, the name given to the first great Queen Elizabeth who presided over a triumphant period in English history.
The barge which carried the present Queen was called the Spirit of Chartwell, conjuring up the home of Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister who saved Britain from tyranny and who welcomed back the new Queen from Kenya after the death of her father, King George Vl — and whose own body after his death was borne in state on the very same river….
…How very British, after all, that the whole thing was carried off with such aplomb yesterday in the pouring rain, with the stoical British — in their macs, cagoules and even camping out overnight under their umbrellas — refusing to allow the weather to dampen their enjoyment and determination to celebrate.
And what they are celebrating, they say, is their Queen and their country. For through such an opportunity to express their pride in their monarch, they are able to express their pride in their country…
Millions on the street: Crowds turned out in full force today despite the weather to watch the Queen pass on the Royal barge on the Thames today. Click on the image to enlarge.
…Through a number of ways — such as her Christmas broadcasts, and what she says and does on her numerous walkabouts and at her garden parties and the like — she shows over and over again how deeply she feels for and cares for the people.
Politicians don’t care for the people. They merely want something from them — their vote. The Queen wants nothing from anyone. Her life really is devoted to serving the public.
In addition, people feel that the Queen is grounded. She is a country woman, rooted in the unchanging landscape of Britain and its natural rhythms.
Look at what she wears — practical clothes that never change. She demonstrably does not, and would never, bow to fashion.
She is therefore utterly, totally, eternally reliable. She embodies authenticity in an age of charlatanry and spin. Which all goes to show how all the talk of ‘toffs’ being out of touch is so very wide of the mark.
The deeper reason people love her — and they do love her — is that she represents a steadfast point in a tumultuously changing, often disturbing or terrifying world. People feel that so much of Britain’s identity and culture is being lost or trampled underfoot…
…The Queen stands above all of that. She embodies characteristics that never change and that the people deeply admire.
She stands for steadfast Christian belief, duty and self-discipline. And as the embodiment of the nation, she reflects these virtues back to the nation and makes it feel better about itself.
In an era of deepening flux and chaos, to have such a ‘rock in a stormy sea’ becomes ever more important to people…
…The people see other virtues in her with which they closely identify. She is stoical, she never makes a fuss, but just gets on with it…
…The Queen is a person of cast-iron faith — not just religious faith, but faith in her people and her country. She therefore stands for hope in the future.
It is perhaps that characteristic most of all that not just her heirs but all who aspire to rule us should learn from her majestic example…
The complete article, with many more photographs, is at The Daily Mail
At The Telegraph :
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee: On a night of colour and noise, the Queen’s resolve stands out
She has spent 60 years putting duty above all else, and tonight the Queen stoically pressed on with her Jubilee engagements despite the Duke of Edinburgh being taken to hospital just hours earlier.
For those who wish to follow the week’s complete schedule of events, The Telegraph has the details.
CAJ note: Yesterday’s celebration lasted for four and a half hours and the Royal Family remained standing throughout. It poured rain and the wind was cold, according to BBC America’s commentators. The Queen is 86 and Prince Philip, who had heart surgery last summer, will turn 91 on Sunday. This is stamina we certainly admire (though the Prince was hospitalized earlier today, probably due to the day’s events according to news reports). We congratulate the Queen at her Diamond Jubilee and honor her 60 years of service to the people of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Update: Setting up for the Diamond Jubilee at An American Housewife in London
