Like many I will be celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee this week-end. She is an important source of stability and continuity in a ceaselessly changing world. She has many well wishers. She commands respect by staying above the political debate. As a constitutional monarch in a democracy she leaves her Ministers to govern as they wish. She acts as a focus for state occasions, sounds a voice for unity and acts as a very distinguished and regal representative of the United Kingdom at home and abroad. She is the UK’s greatest Ambassador.
Many of us wish to show our appreciation of her public service. These royal occasions allow us to come together to show our love of country. It gives us a sense of belonging to a country with a great past and a future full of opportunity.
June 3, 2012
Indeed, long live the Queen and let us home Charles and his issue have much more time, to learn from her wisdom, in keeping herself above and out of politics.
June 3, 2012
On this day not only we here in Great Britain are celebrating – millions of people in the Commonwealth countries across the globe are celebrating with us, as are people in other countries.
There can be no Monarch, no Head of State anywhere who is held in such esteem by so many people in so many different nations as our Queen Elizabeth II.
God Save The Queen!
June 3, 2012
“hear, hear!”
June 3, 2012
Hear, hear, I wholeheartedly second your sentiments!
June 3, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4aMGY9SkbE
June 3, 2012
I should have explained the YouTube.
It offers three cheers to Her Majesty The Queen.
(It’s very brief John so if you could allow it that would be lovely).
June 3, 2012
I have taught my students at my English class to use “The Queen, God Bless Her!” instead of “na zdrowie!” Yesterday two Lithuanians came down our suburban street shouting “God Save the Queen” in very Vodkaik tones!
Hey – what a wonderful achievement of loyalty and sheer hard work she is to all of us, isn’t she! And it is all based on her Coronation Service too,which she took seriously!
June 3, 2012
How diplomatic your Vodkaik Lithuanians are. I can remember being the worse for wear in Ludwigshafen and singing ‘We’ll hang out our washing on the Siegfried line’ along the High Street, with my fiance (now wife) desperately trying to drag me back to the flat. Luckily, the Germans are very tolerant people – or at least they were 38 years ago.
June 3, 2012
The sixty years’ reign of the Queen has been truly remarkable and should be celebrated. She has continually shown selfless dedication to her royal duties and thankfully shows no sign of allowing the years in any way to diminish her role.
The alternative of an elected politician as President is quite unthinkable.
Long Live the Queen!
June 3, 2012
John, I totally agree. I am a Cavalier not a Roundhead. God Save the Queen and I hope she has a lovely day. As conservatives we need to preserve the best of our constitution and institutions as we go into the 21st Century.
On the other hand, what we no longer need is an over promoted upper class elite to oversee the Conservative Party. It is now high time that: the nouveau riche, the provincial middle class and the aspiring working class took the party back and then we can start the long hard work of rebuilding our country.
God Save the Queen! May she long reign over this great nation of shopkeepers.
June 3, 2012
Most shopkeeper have boarded up alas.
June 3, 2012
God save the Queen, and give us better politicians in the two Houses of Parliament.
June 3, 2012
She is very fortunate to have such loyal people to pay for her party!
Zorro
June 3, 2012
Good for her. Absolutely dedicated to her role for so many years. She shows the dignity and gravitas that is so sadly missing from our politicians. God save the Queen!!
June 3, 2012
Long live the monarchy. And long live what goes with it:
– No Executive President to descend, deus ex machina, to give us a ‘State of the Union Address’
– The senior politician in the land, the Prime Minister, being regularly called to account for his government’s actions at the dispatch box.
June 3, 2012
Sixty years of amazing dedication to duty.
Long may she reign.
I’m a great fan of Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh too.
June 3, 2012
Indeed good old non PC, Prince Philip – at least he has seen through the fake wind energy religion (and the information only got out through his being over heard, not because he chose to take a political stance).
June 3, 2012
Her Majesty is greatly undervalued by her detractors.
Without her would Britain be able to hold on to its veneer of stability and continuity and retain its economic ‘safe haven’ status ?
Would we still have our AAA rating and London housing market ?
GOD save The Queen
And GOD help us !
June 3, 2012
“Would we still have our AAA rating and London housing market ?”
Er, yes, we would.
The French haven’t lost triple AAA because of a lack of a hereditary monarchy, it is ludicrous to suggest that this is a factor.
Too all the contributors, stay on your knees and embrace feudalism if you will, I prefer freedom. No it doesn’t mean President Blair, it means no head of state at all. The third option they never mention.
Do any of you need a leader? I don’t.
June 4, 2012
“Er, yes, we would.”
Why the hesitation?
“…I prefer freedom.”
Well, call me old-fashioned! (I expect most loyal subjects would agree with those three words.)
June 4, 2012
The hesitation was to signify incredulity at the initial remark.
“I expect most loyal subjects would agree with those three words”
Yet their status as subjects rather undermines any preference they may wish to express.
June 4, 2012
Hear hear!
zorro
June 4, 2012
Single Acts – Her Majesty is the least leaderish leader ever to have existed. That’s what we love about her.
In her own quietly indominitable way she has thwarted many a Leftist republican and they can but seeth at the sidelines – for the moment.
Polly Toynbee has her nickers in a right twist and likens the adoration of our Monarch to that of the Koreans of theirs. Her Maj has – through good grace -caused PT to make a right prat of herself with no effort on her part at all.
You’re telling me that The Queen, along with Mary Poppins and the good old cuppa cha, has nothing to do with property speculators viewing London as an English idil rather than the gangsta infested dump that it is ?
You’re telling me that “I promise to pay the bearer…” carries no weight ?
And all she costs you is 57p a week.
What’s not to like ?
June 4, 2012
Single Acts –
All the Royal pomp and ceremony goes with our bulls**t economy.
Can you not see that without the Queen we have no clothes ?
June 5, 2012
I recall a story of royalty (an emperor if memory serves) and clothes. When people worked it out they realised the clothes did not exist.
June 6, 2012
France and Austria lose triple A rating Standard and Poor anyway.
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-01-13/markets/30876320_1_junk-grade-austria-standard-poor
June 6, 2012
And that was before the retire at 62 rule and 50% women by diktat everywhere and tax until the pips squeak president took over.
June 3, 2012
HM the Queen stands head and shoulders in every respect over every politician who ever drew breath over the past 60 years (sorry, John!) as a shining example of devotion to duty, truth, faith and loyalty to our nation.
As ‘Mr Vice’ will no doubt be doing in many an Officers’ and SNCO Mess around the world, “Ladies and Gentlemen, be upstanding (unless they are RN!) for the loyal toast – the Queen, God bless her!”
June 3, 2012
Dear Mr Redwood,
Your point about continuity is well made. I still have a tattered Union Jack on a five foot pole, so old and faded that it is gray and pink rather than red white and blue. I kept it because I was told that it had flown above my great grandfather’s shop in Oxford Street to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. That was the 1897 one. Everything has changed and so much good has been swept away but this one element in our country has kept the thread alive. Let’s hope this Jubilee is not just Britain’s last hurrah.
June 3, 2012
Yes. How much more tawdry public life would become if we had had a dissolute monarch.
June 4, 2012
Its about time we gave Her Majesty Britannia back.
June 4, 2012
It would be about 20 years late, but yes there should be a new royal yacht.
June 4, 2012
Then do it by subscription not coercion. Those who wish to chip in can do so. Just set up one of those ‘just giving’ type websites and see if the gun-in-the-room of coercive taxation is required or not.
June 4, 2012
I watched most of the proceedings during the pageant and was impressed by the high quality of the planning which went into this most complex affair.
The Queen, as ever, was impeccable and a source of pride for us all.
However, the BBC presentation was positively embarrassing with a crowd of uninformed airheads making fatuous and sometimes improper comments. I wonder how the rest of the world, doubtless anticipating high quality, which has been typified by such masters as the late Richard Dimbleby, have made of this pathetic performance.
June 4, 2012
I agree completely – the BBC coverage was a disgrace. I have sent them an official complaint about it. Nothing will happen of course except that they will keep taking our money.
June 4, 2012
It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of the Queen’s achievement.Without real power,and in very difficult times ,she has remained a focus of unity,and retained the affection of her peoples,including a great many outside the UK.
In a period when the political class is very generally suspected or despised,again in her ‘other realms and dominions’,as well as in the UK,she is one of the sustaining bulwarks of constitutional democracy.It would be in a much worse plight without the respect she has earned,and the legitimacy she confers on a system much abused by many of its political operators.
June 4, 2012
Congratulations indeed.
Here be to the Platinum ? Jubilee – the best of send-offs.
Then ? – Republic !
June 4, 2012
I wonder what it is about the republican minority which renders them so obsessive?Distant hope is better than none,I suppose.But why not let this week belong to the great majority and the monarch?Why not a moment or two of inspired silence?
June 5, 2012
Absolutely. This weekend should celebrated for what it is – an extended weekend / holiday !
Those Republican demonstrators were there to be made a mockery of – as they were – “God save the Queen” – could be heard drowning out their chanting !
Sensible Republicans need to look to the future and begin a public debate – What comes next ?
June 5, 2012
Do me a favour. A Politician wishing the Queen well on her Jubilee after Parliament fought a Civil War which ended in the beheading of King Charles I. Roundheads funded by Bankers to oust the Royal Family and get control over the money system.
If you really wished the Queen well you’d be supporting a return to a debt free money system which King Henry I created, providing this Country with a truly efficient accounting tool for measuring transfer of goods and services instead of supporting a money system which syphons off the; work, effort, skills, goods and services of the people of this Country.
King Henry I went up against the money changers and won. So did Britain for seven hundred years. Queen Elizabeth I created gold and silver coins inorder to get some control back from the Banks. King Charles I was an opportunity for the Banks to take over the money system, and they won – and Britain lost.
So spare us your congratulations for the Royal Jubilee because it means nothing.
Explain this:
“The first ever government bond was issued by the Bank of England in 1693 to raise money to fund a war against France”
So how on earth did the UK economy survive before 1693 ?
Before this point, if the UK wanted to fight a War overseas, Taxes would have to be raised. Treasury Bonds were invented to give the Government a means of fighting Wars without asking anyone for Taxes and keeping us in perpetual debt.
June 5, 2012
You forget the international borrowing that took place. A few examples: Edward III defaulted against the Florentine banks in 1345. Elizabeth I benefitted from the activities of pirates. Here’s a brief account of finances under James I:
http://www.feltonfleet.co.uk/departments/history/Resources/James%20I%20and%20Finance.pdf
Cromwell borrowed extensively from Dutch bankers.
June 5, 2012
Excellent website Mark, thank you.
“Elizabeth I and Her War with Spain”
“Success or Failure?
• Elizabeth I carried out wars in Ireland, France and Netherlands despite having
very little money.
• She maintained a well-equipped fleet.
• Soldiers were regularly paid.
• Ventures were paid for by investors who got a share of the booty along with
Elizabeth I.
• She ignored pleas to always attack Spanish treasure ships, preferring to protect England.
• England was independent and could now be classed as a ‘Sovereign Nation State’.
Her father’s dream had been achieved.
• England’s Anglican Church was secure from Catholic interference.
• Spain remained a major power, but Europe regarded both Elizabeth’s and England’s achievements little short of remarkable.”
http://www.feltonfleet.co.uk/departments/history/Resources/Elizabeth%20I%20and%20Her%20War%20with%20Spain.pdf
Now we just bend over backwards for the Europeans and hand over our money while at the same time, the Government says we shouldn’t be spending so much and are forced to have public services cut and taxes rasied.
“King Henry I”
“There was a suspicion that some English coins had been forged. Henry had every moneyer called in, and had their right hands chopped off as a warning to others.”
http://www.feltonfleet.co.uk/departments/history/Resources/Henry%20I-%20Lion%20of%20Justice.pdf
Now that’s what I call “Monetary Stability” – I wonder what
King Henry 1st would do to Mervyn King with regard to the diminishing value of the Pound?
June 5, 2012
We’ve been so busy celebrating that we haven’t looked at your blog for days!
Anyway, haven’t they all done well? And not one of them elected. (Apart, that is, from the BBC. What a national embarrassment they are.)