A NOTABLE 80th BIRTHDAY

by RAY FLEMING
STRICTLY speaking, one should offer anniversary greetings to Queen Elizabeth only on her official birthday or to mark a milestone in her years on the throne. Yet it is a particular aspect of this Queen's reign that she has contrived to live among the British people as an individual person as well as a national figurehead. For that reason it is entirely appropriate to extend congratulations and best wishes to her today, her 80th birthday. Amid all the unavoidable pomp and circumstance of her role as monarch, Queen Elizabeth has managed to be recognisable also as a wife and mother, a sensible woman with her own special interests and a keen appreciation of her duties. Her achievement has been to keep her two roles separate but related; unlike the Scandanvian monarchs who are sometimes held up as an example of modern monarchy, she has not found it necessary to cycle to her public engagements but when she uses the State Coach to drive to the Opening of Parliament no one supposes that she is putting on airs; she is simply endorsing tradition that has served her country well. It would be surprising if during more than half a century on the throne there had not been mistakes and anxious moments.
Constitutionally speaking she has hardly put a foot wrong and in her determination to play an active role as Head of the Commonwealth, she has undoubtedly helped that by now amorphous collection of nations to maintain its common interests. However, the task of making the monarchy less remote from the British people than it was in her father's time has proved more difficult, especially in a period of rapid social change whose unsettling effects not even the walls of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle could withstand. At times during the 1990s, and especially over the death of Princess Diana, the monarchy seemed momentarily vulnerable but it is now as strong as ever, greatly helped by the demonstrations of loyalty and affection seen during the Jubilee celebrations.
IN 1960 I made a television film for the United States about the constitutional role of the British monarchy and included in it a sequence about the weekly meetings the Queen holds with her prime minister and her “three rights”, to be informed, to advise and to warn. In the commentary, I floated the idea that if Queen Elizabeth were to remain on the throne for, say, forty years, she would have an unrivalled knowledge of UK and international affairs and that her advice and perhaps warnings to the prime minister of the day would be informed and invaluable. I did not imagine that this theoretical situation would come to pass, but it has. The Queen has survived nine prime ministers! This 80th birthday has inevitably provided republicans with the opportunity to argue their case, sometimes in unpleasantly offensive language, as with Mary Riddell in last Sunday's Observer. However, their cause is a losing one for so long as Queen Elizabeth remains on the throne. Those in line to succeed her should use the time still available to them to learn the lessons of her astonishingly successful reign.