The Jubilee is a time to look back and to recognise our own personal journeys and how they are interwoven with the evolving life of the nation. Like most people I have never know another monarch. Queen Elizabeth has always been there. Her accent, way of doing the job and attitudes have evolved as the nation has changed.The nation expects complete political neutrality, visibility, but a little reserve and mystery.
I remember as a young child asking my parents to explain the rubble and overgrown weeds of a bomb site that still survived in my home city of Canterbury. We had a new shopping centre that had emerged from the rubble. I had never asked why the shopping centre was new. It never occurred to my child mind it could have been  blown up by enemies. Beyond the city walls there was still a little lingering evidence of war that I had not understood.  I remember the sense of shock I felt when my parents gave me a sanitised short simplified explanation of bombing. My naivety that adults were protective of children was dented by this new information as I saw it meant everyone had been bombed.
As the war receded in the rear view mirror prosperity spread more widely through the country as we picked the fruits of peace.  The 1960s and 1980s for all their struggles were years of great progress in advancing a consumer revolution. The revelation of the Mini brought small cars to many more families. The mass production of affordable fridges, washing machines and driers greatly improved meal preparation and transformed washday. Cheaper package holidays allowed many more to go abroad for sun and sights. Central heating delivered new standards of winter comfort banishing the frozen windows and cold bedrooms. Tvs made their way into most homes and were adapted to coloured photography. Later the ubiquitous home computers and mobile phones morphed us into a digital age, providing us each with computing power that the state alone had developed and owned to help win the world war.
I remember as a young child having to visit an ageing old man. He lived in a Victorian terrace house which was little changed from how it must have been all those years before when first constructed. The house was still lit by gas lamps. The water for the tea slow boiled on a coal fired range. Just the one room  was  properly heated by the coal burner. The front room was forbidden territory only used for funerals or other unexplained and infrequent important functions. I was not allowed in it. We were entertained in the all purpose back dark living room . There was a large general purpose table and hard chairs to sit on. Like all adult chairs I had to mountaineer to get on one. As an only child in a world of adults I got used to living in rooms furnished for giants.  There were heavy brocade cloths and house plants as decoration.  I was delighted when we returned home to a more modern world. Much has got a lot better over the last seventy years.
When I talk to my young grandsons I think how the generations can stretch understandings of time. I can try to tell them what the world must have been like in the early twentieth  century from relatives who told me and they may in due course be able to look back from the early years of the twenty second century on how we live now.If a new generation will stand on the shoulders of an older generation it will see further and understand more.
The monarch provides such a living thread through our national story. Monarchs no longer make the laws, impose the taxes or spend the public money, but they are in regular contact with those who do. They are part of the public memory of things in history, part of the continuities of national life. The street parties taking place are very similar to those of long gone royal events in centuries past. The royal family itself has within it the tragedies, conflicts and disasters that befall others played out for all to see. It reminds us regularly of the strength of some family ties and the problems they can bring as the royal family has its share of divorces, family feuds, and inappropriate behaviours.
June 5, 2022
Good morning.
Shared wisdom.
Yesterday there were comments made here by those that debated the differences between a Constitutional Monarchy we have and Republican Presidencies elsewhere. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, both the nation and its people.
One such problem I see with a Presidential system is that it can lack wisdom that time only can offer. Whilst it can offer a nation a fresh new start and direction it is not always certain that such a direction is for the better. One could argue that the current Monarch has fulfilled the ancient position of a village elder, offering advice to a new government that wants promote and implement new policies and direction. Well at least one hopes that this is the case. But that requires that a government and its PM seeks such advice and indeed support. Currently, I am given to believe that this may not be the case right now a the Queen seems to be taking a reduced role leaving others to filled the void.
There is no getting away from this but, this Jubilee more than any brings into focus that this may be Her Majesty’s last and, with her gone an unsettling time may lay a head with what appears to be a more activist Monarch interfering in both the governments business and, more importantly, our lives. Her Majesty reign and influence always appeared to be light touch and suggestive seeking gradual change over time, but I cannot help but feeling that her heirs and successors will be radically different.
The past and an era is slowly fading away.
June 5, 2022
+1
I heard a bit of a young royalâs speech last night.
Dripping with wokery, greencr*p and globalism.
June 5, 2022
Yes, I watched the Party at the Palace and thought it was beautifully produced and staged. Although not all the music was to my taste, the performers were all thoroughly professional; the light shows were spectacular and the Queen’s opening sequence with Paddington Bear was charming and very funny.
And then we got the (obligatory because of Charles’ presence?) lecture about the environment, delivered this time by William. They couldn’t even give us one day off from the propaganda. And this, I’m afraid, is the future.
June 5, 2022
+1
There was absolutely no need for it.
June 5, 2022
Donna
Well said.
They want to learn from the boss.
Keep mouth firmly shut and keep out of politics never get sucked into emotional stuff as it is a no win situation.
June 5, 2022
+1
June 5, 2022
Donna. Like you, some of the music wasn’t to my taste and after 25 mins I was bored. Thank God I switched off before the lecture. If this is going to be the future of our monarchy then I’ll not be a fan.
June 5, 2022
Agreed. I used to enjoy nature programs with David Attenborough until I discovered he lied (sometimes by omission) about polar bears and other things, in order to push the ‘climate religion’. If climate religion is real, then why the need to lie?
These days, it is difficult to know who can be trusted!
June 5, 2022
They have to lie to keep the fraud going. For example the climate related death rate over the last 100 years has decreased to 1/50 of what it was 100 years ago. When do you hear this on the BBC or from Government Ministers?
June 5, 2022
Just stop trying to get onto my site with the same message every day.
June 5, 2022
Indeed they are idiotic get the princes out of politics as:-
1. they should never be in politics.
2. They are on the wrong unscientific side of argument anyway.
3. With their private jets, helicopters, vast air miles, Astons, many huge and heated houses⊠it makes them into complete hypocrites – do as I say not as I do you plebs and slaves!
June 5, 2022
I thought the Paddington Bear thing was surreal. Still, itâs all a fairytale so I guess a talking bear is not out of place.
June 6, 2022
Would Padington not make a better PM?
June 5, 2022
@Everhopeful
Yep….from the comments here it seems the wokery, greencr*p and globalism is likely to divide this nation. Not a good plan for the monarchy.
June 5, 2022
+1
Agree 100%
June 5, 2022
I missed that but the whole of government is dripping with wokery and green crap climate alarmism. P. Charles and the Duke of Cambridge should keep well out of all politics especially green crap & wokery where they are not even on the right side of the argument but even if they were. Politicians inevitable alienate people with their views and actions. The huge advantage of having a sensible queen is that she does not need to. So why are the dim Charles and the daft P. William squandering this advantage.
I am in Cambridge his dukedom this weekend as it happens (to help out an elderly ex Girton spinster relative). Ex schools inspector, she reminds me slightly me of that spider women judge pleasant, bright & amusing but no science, little experience of the real world, no children & politically wrong on most things .
Idiotic ugly large wheely bins blocking narrow pavements (three per house)! Endless road blocking & not just bus lanes for the largely empty busses, but actual roads specially built for them & so roads used only by mainly empty busses with only about three an hour. What a complete waste of an expensive road perhaps 20 people and three drivers using it an hour tops! Certainly not environmental. Endless ugly and pointless road blocks, pointless islands, anti car lights, motorist mugging and street signs too. We are governed by complete idiots.
Also passed two Teslas on rapid charge. Both made a racket with cooling fans like small jet engines. Great plan waste 50%+ of the energy as heat at the gas or coal/wood power stations, more in transmission to the car, more in heating up the batteries and even more in fans to cool them again. The heat all wasted energy. Plus the batteries devalue even more on rapid charging so new expensive batteries will render that car almost worthless in little time at all. Saves no CO2 either compared to keeping your old car. So why are gov. pushing them?
June 5, 2022
He is 39 so one might have thought he would have grown up a bit by now, but alas no. No science beyond GCSEs unless you count Geography? Then a degree in history of art. Is it any wonder he falls for the Carbon devil gas religion?
The World is now far more fragile he says – so how on earth does he come to this moronic conclusion? True over reaction to this fake devil gas religion (that he & Charles seems to have fallen for) is a danger to humanity.
Perhaps if he & Charlie really believes in the drivel they come out with they should clearly live in a small terraced house, never fly in private jets or helicopters nor drive Aston Martins?
June 5, 2022
To those who don’t like immigration, just think.
If the UK had never had an empire and commonwealth then there would have been almost none of it.
June 5, 2022
Twaddle NHL
Just one example of many:- 600,000 came from Poland.
June 5, 2022
NLH. Oh you mean like the EU who have loads
June 6, 2022
From the respective countries’ ex-empires, just like the UK’s are.
June 5, 2022
The lad exaggerates somewhat (as usual) but he’s not far wrong. The 2011 census figures say that 14% of the population was Black and Asian origin 4.4% ‘other European’. Since then the ‘other European contingent’ has undoubtedly declined thanks to Brexit – a lot of those Poles have gone home, Peter. While the Black and Asian-origin percentage will have risen by a lot. Just how much, the ONS won’t tell us till 2023, though.
June 5, 2022
Have a lot of Poles gone home Hat Man?
I did say it was just one example of many.
What still stands is is that NHL’s assertion is twaddle.
June 5, 2022
@NLH
I’m not sure you are right. For example, the many individuals who have floated across the channel to the UK probably don’t give a fig about the UKs colonial history.
What makes you think that, without our colonial history, there would have been almost no (normal ?) immigration ?
June 5, 2022
and most of those countries would still be scratching a living, the masses uneducated, unworldly wise, suffering tribal horrors (some still going on), zero prospects for the future, hopeless medicare relying on wicked witchdoctors. The bigger more westernised helped advance the world and join in to defeat monsters in wartime. And ‘Great’ Britain an out of date term would be even more class conscious and suffering the worst of privilege than it does today ….private schools, clubs, polo, Civil service, the Church and Military. So, not all bad then.
June 5, 2022
MT, some chap, I believe from Papua New Guinea, was reported as saying that if it wasn’t for western nations they might well still be headhunters.
June 5, 2022
Drivel NLH!
June 6, 2022
Tell that to the Swedes.
June 5, 2022
Face it, a hereditary monarchy is much more likely to lumber you with an unwise fool than an elected president. Mind you, the Yanks did vote for Trump. History has provided many idiots as kings and, of course, child kings.
June 5, 2022
My life mirrors much of that described here .I remember bomb sites in South London ,without understanding the catastophe they represented .I had to explain them to my own grandsons .I remember horsedrawn milk floats/dreys and I had relatives who lived in a terraced house in Derby with an outside toilet . I can still recall the acrid smell of the air ,even without fog/smog , before the Clean Air Act . We lived in a 2nd floor flat where the bathroom,toliet and kitchen were one. The bath had a wooden cover over it when not in use to act as a work surface .The only appliances were a gas cooker and a water heater
June 5, 2022
David. My memories include all those and mum with her little clothes boiler for the nappies, mangle and big sink for hand washing for a family of 6. Women had a tough life in the home then. No tumble dryer and no central heating to help dry all that washing either.
June 5, 2022
Indeed these women should perhaps be rather more grateful for men (in the main) inventing and building washing machines, fridge/freezers , gas & electric cookers, central heating, cars and the likes to lighten the load for them.
June 5, 2022
Indeed L/L. I am grateful but can you tell me if it’s a man or woman that decided it was a good idea to put a tap in the middle of the bathroom basin? When I want to rinse my face it’s in the way! The vast majority of basins are like this.
June 5, 2022
I do not know had a fiend who married an Italian lass who demanded that he change all the sinks in his two houses to mixer taps. The sinks never looked right after that.
June 6, 2022
Or the bath with the taps at the end. If sharing, it always seemed to be me that got the tap end. Maybe too much information?
June 6, 2022
OMG .. to lighten the load for women !..what about men!
June 5, 2022
David.
Indeed lived and bought up in a rented house in west London, gas lighting until I was 4 years old, outside toilet, and as you describe, bath in the so called kitchen, entertainment was simply a rechargeable radio until I was 11 years old, Mum stayed at home until I went to junior school, before then going to work part time and then full time only when I went to Secondary School.
No need to lock the doors as no one in the street had anything of any value to steal, and all residents looked out for each other.
Few cars on the streets so that was our playground when very young, as I got older made regular visits to the local parks (immaculately maintained by the employed gardeners), father got to work on his old bike, as did thousands of others.
Indeed even when I eventually got married, neither my, or my wife’s parents had a phone or a car, and both still lived in private rented accommodation.
Simple life in those days, we did not feel poor/hard up/deprived, rules were clear, you got what you worked for, and if you wanted more you worked harder, longer or smarter, no benefits available to be given out by the Local Council, instead they maintained and swept the roads, paths, street lights, cleaned out the drains and ditches, and kept the trees lopped.
Different World now, far more complicated in every way imaginable, and certainly not for the better in many ways.
June 5, 2022
Regarding the journey of one particular part of the United Kingdom, JR, just keeping calm and carrying on as if there is no growing doubt that Boris Johnson will continue to be Prime Minister and Liz Truss will continue to be Foreign Secretary and that she will actually go ahead with proposals for legislation to empower ministers to disapply the more damaging parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, would it not be very useful if a parliamentarian in either House put in a formal question to the government about the breakdown of the goods leaving Northern Ireland for the Irish Republic across the open land border according to the territories from which they have originated? Along these lines:
“What proportion of the goods leaving Northern Ireland by crossing the land border into the Irish Republic have been produced in:
a) Northern Ireland itself;
b) Great Britain;
c) The Irish Republic;
d) Other EU (or EEA) member states;
e) The rest of the world.”
Because if a large proportion of the goods have actually been produced in Northern Ireland, already inside that “hard border” which has been erected to defend the province and the Republic and the rest of the EU and its Single Market from defective goods attempting to enter from Great Britain, then clearly carrying out EU checks on incoming goods at that hard border is going to be both inefficient and ineffective.
I don’t intend to even ask my own MP Theresa May to put in that or any other question.
June 5, 2022
It seems that Lord Frost and the Irish Times have had sight of a new Policy Exchange report which is not yet available on its website:
https://www.irishtimes.com/world/uk/2022/06/05/problems-of-ni-protocol-stem-from-uk-weakness-says-frost/
“The report by the Policy Exchangeâs chief economic adviser Dr Graham Gudgin said that, despite the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998, there was little integration between Northern Ireland and the Republic and that they remained âtwo distinct economiesâ.
Only 4 per cent of the goods and services produced in Northern Ireland cross the border to the Republic while 16 per cent go to Britain, and 31 per cent of imports to Northern Ireland are from the rest of the UK, the report said.”
As the goods carried across the border into the Republic were worth 7% of the Northern Ireland GDP in 2019 that sets a maximum of 57% for the answer to part a) of the question I posed above.
So it would probably not be far off the truth to say that half of the goods crossing the land border into the Republic have been brought into the province from Great Britain, and in principle any which did not comply with EU standards might be intercepted by checks at the points of entry, but in an inefficient and costly way since they will make up just a 15% element in the stream of imports from Great Britain.
While the other half have been produced in the province and so will not pass through the checks at the points of entry, meaning that those checks are not just inefficient but also ineffective for the purpose of preventing non-compliant goods being carried across the open land border into the Republic and the rest of the EU Single Market.
Of course at present under the protocol all the goods produced in Northern Ireland are supposed to meet EU standards, but that will need to be enforced and that will inevitably involve checks at various sites dispersed across the length and breadth of the province, despite the barmy claim from Irish politicians that this would amount to a “hard border” and so could trigger a renewal of republican terrorism.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0930/1079268-reaction-non-paper/
“Politicians have condemned the UK “non-paper” which has proposed the creation of a string of customs posts along both sides of the Irish border as part of its effort to replace the backstop.”
“Labour leader Brendan Howlin described the plan as “entirely unacceptable”, adding: “that’s been the position since the beginning of these negotiations.”
He said: “I don’t think anyone would table such proposals with a view to securing an agreement. No matter where you locate check sites – they amount to a hard border.””
Boris Johnson made a huge, historic, mistake by going along with that nonsense for the sake of his pathetic little “super Canada” free trade deal, worth maybe 0.75% of UK GDP.
I think it is now four and half years since my first comment here arguing for a system of export licences:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2017/12/06/comments-to-this-site/#comment-905832
“… a system to licence UK exporters to the EU which would force them to meet EU requirements or suffer penalties under UK law, with the possibility of EU officials being invited to assist in investigations.”
June 5, 2022
This chart, “Gross domestic product of the United Kingdom from 1948 to 2021”, reflects part of our journey:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/281744/gdp-of-the-united-kingdom/
As I have once again tried to persuade an EU enthusiast in a letter to our local paper:
“The rise from ÂŁ384,083 million in 1948 to ÂŁ2,255,283 million in 2019 was by a factor of 5.9 and with a compound growth rate of 2.5 percent a year, in which context a Brexit impact of maybe one or two percent plus or minus will not signify.
In fact on that chart of UK GDP essentially over my lifetime the only noticeable impacts of our historically brief dalliance with the European federal project have been negative, small dips for the 1992 ERM crisis and the 2008 euro crisis.”
Reply Our growth rate was slower in the EU than before we entered. Clear big hit to manufacturing in first 10 years of membership
June 5, 2022
+1
And to think that the EU was formed with the idea of ending war!
The time we wasted dallying with unicorns and fairies.
June 5, 2022
It has worked with 100% perfection in that aim between its members.
June 5, 2022
I’m sure Libyans, Afghans and Serbs find that a really comforting thought, lad.
June 5, 2022
Because certain members win their will without firing a shot.
June 5, 2022
Goodness me!
Surely you canât be suggesting that EU members could ever possibly fight each other?
Perish the thought.
They do however have Mutual and Collective defence agreements.
So war has never been far from their minds.
June 5, 2022
I’m still chuckling…
June 5, 2022
The recent crash was not really caused by Covid but mainly by this governments idiotic over reaction to it which did not even save lives or the economy. Also by very significant adverse reactions to the vaccine it seems. A vaccine that now seems to be very ineffective and not remotely safe. A vaccine that the young and children never even needed anyway.
What really matters to most people is GDP per cap in purchasing power parity.
June 5, 2022
The bomb sites, the anti tank blocks taken and dumped on the lower downs.
Few vehicles, horse drawn milk floats and coal wagons. Children all walking to school under control off elder siblings.
Few houses with television, families making their own entertainment . The village copper on his bike keeping you safe. Very few foreign people, a few left over PoWs who decided to stay working on the land and in horticulture. To coin the phrase in those days we were all in it together. The streets would echo to the sound of children’s laughter.
Parents would come out and organise rounders and big skipping ropes for all the kids to skip together. Poverty was not so noticeable as everyone on the council estates were in work of some sort and families all pulled together.
OMG how things have changed.
June 5, 2022
Turbo terrier:
You have just described my childhood to a T.
We had nothing to speak of, but I recall they were happy times. We didn’t know we were poor, there was such a sense of community. Neighbors often looked after each other, and each others children.
It may seem strange, but I consider that I was lucky to have lived through those times,
June 5, 2022
Poor but free, having won that freedom by collective effort. And now they dare say âyou will own nothing but be happyâ living under a technocratic tyranny.
June 5, 2022
Cheshire Girl
We were lucky, but sweet are a dying breed.
Now it’s all me, me, me, money , money, money.
The other evening with neighbours trawling through old home videos was interrupted by an uninvited visitor down from the city. Within 5 nano seconds the moment was gone. All we heard about was buying second homes renting them out, not giving a stuff about the impact on potential new neighbours. “I won’t have to live there” and more in the same vein. It will be the banks that will drive ICEs off of the road not the politicians they know nothing.
Great world the youngsters are heading for. They will never experience what we did that helped formulate our behavior and principles.
June 5, 2022
@Cheshire Girl
As a child of the 50s I too believe that we were happier than children today. We had little material stuff (and no social media) but we used to get away with soooooo much without getting caught.
June 5, 2022
oldwulf
Indeed, out all day and as long as we were back home for tea/dinner no problem.
June 5, 2022
Things certainly have changed ⊠especially the peopleâŠ. Those days described by a number of you on this blog were somehow more innocent days. People looked out for each other and didnât look to the state to put things right.
Has anyone watched Neil Oliver on GB News on a Saturday evening at 6pm? What he describes from his research, is quite a terrifying future. Last night, he was talking to Jasmine Birtle, and Laura Dodsworth with a zoom call to a politician from the Netherlands. What they discussed was a communist world run by unelected bureaucrats from UN, WHO etc. Worth a watch.
June 5, 2022
What the UK was doing overseas – e.g. in Kenya, was far, far from innocent.
June 5, 2022
NLH – you actually hate your Country donât you. You keep mentioning Kenya it is your current hobby horse so I looked up a little. Kenya harbours many refugees fleeing civil wars in neighbouring countries. Civil wars in Africa seem quite prominent even today, yet the UK was considered Kenya’s most significant ally in the West. The UK provided economic and military assistance to Kenya. Training their army. It is not all negative yet you only concentrate on running the UK down. There are Chevening scholarships, billions and billions of pounds worth of investment, military co-operation, unemployed Kenyan health professionals and health managers will benefit from a special route to work in the UK, before returning to work in Kenyaâs health service. Since independence in 1963, Kenya has maintained remarkable stability, despite changes in its political system and crises in neighbouring countries (do you think they would have done that without the UKâs co-operation or would it be more like its neighbours?).
June 5, 2022
Great reply A-Tracy. We were told the same thing in Sri Lanka. How many wished we were still there bringing stability and progression. We weren’t all bad.
June 5, 2022
Excellent post a-tracy
Thank you.
June 5, 2022
Sharon – Yes, always watch or record his show for later. As one of the guests stated, the monologue was in some respects quite dark but for a very many who are increasingly aware of what is happening, he hits the nail on the head.
June 5, 2022
Yes, Sharon, it was magnificent and I emailed him to say how much I thought that.
It was a view which must be taken seriously. As he said if we want to protect our lives and retain our freedoms we must stand up against the dangers posed by the present corrupt state organisation and its participants and leaders.
We must have backbone and say ‘No’,
We need to develop an alternative society. Compromise with and appeasment of the existing cannot work.
June 5, 2022
Going on from that, but off topic from the jubilee.
I just followed a gov.Uk link to a job being advertised for a deputy director (permanent role) for the Covid Pass. [????]
It says, â On 21st February the Prime Minister announced the living with Covid Strategy,
which sets out to remove certification requirements in England, but that the NHS COVID Pass would be required to access venues and events in the UK and for International Travel Purposes for the foreseeable future.â
I donât remember Johnson saying that second part of his statementâŠ.?
Apparently, the âCovid Pass is an award-winning DHSC programme undertaking a complex transition whilst continuing to deliver a vital citizen service in a changing health landscape.
âWeâre building capacity in a team which has delivered award-winning services to the public during the Covid-19 pandemic.
â You will have oversight for the further development, iteration and implementation of the programme delivery roadmap and for supporting teams to deliver successfully against agreed milestones on time and to quality standards. â
What the heck? So the plans are still very much going on!!! Unbelievable!
https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi?jcode=1791653
June 5, 2022
I suppose it’s one way to force ID cards on the population, without calling them ID cards. “To save granny, all for your safety etc etc”.
June 6, 2022
Sharon
Thought I would just view your link out of interest, not for the job, but to see what it involved and the criteria required.
No wonder this Country is going down the drain, anyone with actual real life commercial or business experience is unlikely to get anywhere near this job given the selection process !
What a waste of time and money, when proof of vaccination is already possible at the click of a button.
June 5, 2022
The first general election I can remember, vaguely, was in 1959. The Conservatives won it because they were given credit for the rising prosperity at the time, and the prospect of more to come. How different things are now! Johnson’s policies on climate and sanctions go from unaffordable to economically suicidal. At this rate, Michael Gove has no chance of delivering on ‘levelling up’ before the next GE.
June 5, 2022
Indeed the war on CO2 is insane, but Gove has little chance of doing anything sensible he even wanted 20% VAT on private schools fees to rig the market even more against good schools. This making people pay four times over to go private should they want to. The exact reverse of what is required which is fair level playing field competition. Vouchers or tax breaks you can use as you wish for you childrenâs education. Same applies to the dire monopoly and totally unfair competition NHS. Here we have 12% Insurance IPT tax thanks to that fool Osborne who also gave us unsustainable 100%+ taxation for many landlords this hitting tenants. The socialist tax borrow and piss down the drain Sunak still retains this absurdity.
June 5, 2022
Materially, there is no doubt that most people in the country now have far more affluent and comfortable lives than in the early decades of the Queen’s reign.
But along the way, many less tangible things have been lost: national stability; the sense of community and cohesion; a recognisable British culture (now we are Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish and the nation which must not be allowed a culture of its own, England). The traditional British qualities of self/family reliance; personal resilience, strength of character and “keeping calm and carrying on” have fallen by the wayside.
Prosperity makes life comfortable, but money doesn’t buy happiness. Funnily enough one of the few things I thought Prime Minister Cameron got right was recognising that along with GDP the Government needed to pay attention to Gross Domestic Happiness. It’s a tragedy that Johnson didn’t consider that when he decided to remove our Civil Liberties to “save the NHS” and in the process wrecked so many people’s lives.
I have no doubt that the country was far happier in the early decades of the Queen’s reign than it is now. And that is largely the fault of the Establishment.
June 5, 2022
And now we have a government intent on delivering a devastation far worse than any war could muster.
At the moment it is busily removing all the so-called post war âadvancesâ ( many of which actually disempowered us but the removal of which will hurt).
And the monarchy, desperate to hold on to its wealth and power will toe the party line. It too remembers Charles First.
Donât want the blood line cancelling trick again do they?
June 5, 2022
Everhopeful, you say âthe monarchy is desperate to hold on to its wealthâ (who wouldnât be), but what âpowerâ do you think they have? I mean serious power, they canât declare war, they canât change taxes, instruct parliament, what power do you think they have over the everyday British public. I see them as a stable definition of British culture, what makes us different, what makes us British, a figurehead, would you prefer a Macron or a Trump, Putin or a Biden even. You think someone like Biden would be preferable.
I wish the Queen did have power and she could make Boris keep his promises when elected on a manifesto he has betrayed.
June 5, 2022
I believe that the Queen has more real power in Australia than here – Or so my sister who lives there tells me đ€
June 5, 2022
desperate to hang on to it?
They just gave some woman who nobody remembers, supposedly a friend of Prnce Andrew, about ÂŁ12m.
uber generous, I’d say.
June 5, 2022
This weekend’s celebrations feel almost like a goodbye party to a world lost. It’s all downhill from here into a place many in time will seek to escape
June 5, 2022
I’m afraid you might be right Dom but hopefully it won’t be all bad. đ
I was born in my Grandparents house in S/W London and lived there as a child. I remember the outside toilet and Grandad having the ‘last turn’ in the tin bath (in the kitchen) before dragging it to the back door and emptying it into the yard. I also remember going to Brixton when Mum wanted something ‘special’. I liked Brixton back then because it was where I saw Peter Pan (at the theatre) and where we also got the charabanc to the seaside once a year (for a day out). Later (parents having moved to Surrey) I vividly remember getting changed for bed under the blankets and scrapping the ice off the inside of the window in the morning – no central heating back then! I rode in my first car aged 10 (it was our local doctor’s) and we finally moved to a house with central heating when I was 11.
My children have never known any life like this and have enjoyed a standard of living that most could only dream of in those early post-war days. Personally, I had a wonderful childhood, full of many happy memories but I’m glad my grandchildren have a more comfortable upbringing these days. I only wish people would understand how fortunate they really are and stop all the moaning that seems so common these days.
I think we should all really count our blessings.
June 5, 2022
IanT part of the problem is that these children donât know any different from their parentâs centrally heated homes, with internet and mobile phones and heating that comes on at 6am so the bedroom is warm when they wake up. They donât have to work for pocket money as many did from the age of 11. They donât take responsibility they are children now until the age of 18 (the government doesnât even get the thanks for paid education for an extra 2-3 years) and even then 50% of them go on to University to say dependent for another 3-4 years.
My parents told me you donât get anything given to you, you have to work for every penny, stand on your own two feet as soon as possible, save for a rainy day, live within your means, donât borrow too much, and donât lend more than you can afford to lose.
June 5, 2022
Silver Jubilee: marks 25 years on the throne.
Ruby Jubilee: 40 years.
Golden Jubilee: 50 years.
Diamond Jubilee: 60 years.
Sapphire Jubilee: 65 years.
Platinum Jubilee: 70 years.
I guess in Britain 75 years will be coal, oil or gas.
June 5, 2022
Rust might be more appropriate.
June 5, 2022
âThe nation expects complete political neutrality, visibility, but a little reserve and mystery.â
I think the Prince of Wales and disappointingly his son, Prince William, are making a very big mistake nailing their colours to the âsave the planetâ mast.
This issue is destined to become very political indeed when the Net Zero Strategyâs plans for expensive and intermittent energy, restrictions and rationing of travel, heating and food start to take effect.
June 5, 2022
JR
And the reason for the improvements?
Affordable energy in the form of fossil fuels, and youâre arguing the case for Net Zero!
As for the Wokefest on TV last nightâŠ. God help us
June 5, 2022
Off topic
A good illustration of how bent and twisted the BBC’s news department is.
On ”Sunday morning” Raworth tried to totally blame the Transport Sec’ for the air travel chaos at the weekend. She then went on to the PM’s reception at St Pauls and then brought up ‘Partygate’ yet again.
Her last interview was the mayor of London giving him the opportunity to also blame the government for the air travel problem and leading him on to include Brexit as the root of the problem.
The one question she should have asked was ‘what was he doing about the Monday morning tube strike’ as that is directly the mayor’s responsibility. But ‘no’ not a mention!!!!!
June 5, 2022
I remember the smog, thick and in the 60’s , men could drink and drive, many were giving up smoking ,Olivier.. a popular brand. .gardens were being changed to garages, the local pub was a place for many to congregate, cherry b and babycham until the Beer Keller hardened us off .The teen clubs for dancing and then the all nighters were a grown up challenge.
As an only child I went to visit an old man in his one roomed house , open fire.. Mr Poulton who played the trumpet ..’ Drink to me only with thine eyes’. spittle everywhere.. We got a car MCH744 , a Ford Anglia and went on holiday to St Ives , We got up at 4.0am to avoid the traffic.What traffic? and ate fresh ham muffins on the AAA route way dodging the early morning rabbits.
Politics were not talked about , they caused arguments and dad couldn’t see beyond Churchill.
June 5, 2022
Dad worked many hours overtime to pay for our holiday in Cornwall. There were 4 children under 7. One still in proper nappies. Our accommodation was an old army fly tent with no ground sheet. Our transport was a little Robin Reliant with no seat belts and no rear seats. My father built in length ways bench seats and the carrycot went in the middle on the floor. Happy times with pictures of us on the beach, raining with plastic sunglasses on!
June 5, 2022
The car also had no reversing gears either.
June 6, 2022
Yes me and my ex husband got a 3 wheeler ..a reliant ..I learned to drive in this without the reverse gear.. we had many happy camping times .
June 5, 2022
GB, the Transport Secretary said that a number of procedures were being changed which infers that there is some culpability by government even though he suggested it was all the fault of the airlines.
June 5, 2022
Nice post.
I was born and lived in my Nans Council tin house, she was so proud of that house with itâs indoor bathroom upstairs and downstairs toilet in the outdoor cubby hole next to the coal cupboard, and radiators that worked from the coal fire, it was quite an improvement from the terraced housing my aunts lived in with an outdoor toilet and this was in the early 1970s, the bath was tin hanging in a cupboard next to the kitchen and my uncle was a miner, like you the parlour was kept for best, a visit from the vicar, a death in the family to lay out the dead. It saved on heating costs as it was always cold in there, all the best china like a museum, it seems strange nowadays when they had so little space that they wasted so much of it.
June 5, 2022
Her Majesty is very very special, the remainder well, as you say, some are/have been dreadful role models and let our Queen (& us) down very badly, but like many under-performing civil servants, no real consequences.
June 5, 2022
We moved to Dover after the war to a terraced house belonging to Dover Marine; many of those houses had been destroyed during the war and these bombed out houses were my playground. One bomb site contained a canister from which a purplish powder with a metallic smell trickled. I was intrigued by this and resolved to research its properties. I therefore performed my first chemical experiment by applying a small amount of water from a Ministry of Food orange juice bottle to it. It immediately gave off acrid smoke and the cannister began to heat alarmingly. I decided to report back immediately to my mother, shortly after which an enormous policeman appeared at our front door. I took them to view the canister following which a police car arrived which conveyed the canister and both my parents, but despite pleading, without me, to the harbour where it was thrown in precipitating an enormous explosion.
June 5, 2022
I was born and brought up in the same conditions frequently described, outside toilet, a coal fire to provide the only heating for the whole house etc.,
The houses were built in blocks of ten and I would just add that all had long straight narrow gardens. At the bottom of every one originally there was a pigsty. Even in the late 1950’s at least one house still kept a pig, and not as a pet. I won’t descibe its life after death on the premises.
June 5, 2022
I was brought up in very busy part of East London, on a main road and close to shops and a station.
One of my most significant memories is that even at the age of 5 (in 1950), my mother thought it was safe for me to go to shops nearby on my own, including having a wander round Woolworths. Every other person, it seemed to me then, knew whose daughter and granddaughter I was and said hallo: can you imagine any responsible parent allowing that to happen in a major city today?
June 6, 2022
Do not forget the Bilderberg group meeting took place about the same time. Who attended? Here are some names besides MANY others that will interest you? Michael Gove, David Lammy, Tom Tugendhat, Jens Stoltenberg NATO, King of Netherlands. All discussing YOUR future or lack of it!!!!!!!
June 6, 2022
The event that stuck in my mind in the early years of Queen Elizabeth was Jim Laker taking an incredible 19 wickets in the Old Trafford test vs Australia. My father was well off and we owned an upright black and white TV. The picture kept going on the blink and it was forever necessary to go to the back of the TV and twiddle the horizontal or vertical hold. I spent most of two days watching that test.