When Isabel II dispatched Winston Churchill in 1952, a parade of prime ministers began that has lasted until today. The young queen rose to greet the prime minister, and Churchill reminded her with a nod that the queen or king had never risen when receiving the head of government.
Yesterday the splendor of the seventieth anniversary of the reign of Elizabeth II began and Parliament approved that on this long weekend bars, pubs and clubs may serve alcohol until one in the morning. The entire country pays homage to a queen who has known everything, has suffered a lot, has always been silent and has maintained the institutional role of the monarchy serving as an umbrella for all the family miseries that have been known throughout her reign. .
He is the richest person in England and also the most loved. A republican Englishman is almost a contradiction, an anomaly. He has received all the American presidents and world leaders who have passed through London in his long reign.
The color, the fanfare, the parades and parties of these days are a great monument to the nostalgia of a country that has been installed for a century in the art of placid and pleasant, long and priceless decadence. The language and theater of Shakespeare are the seal of quality and the showcase of a country that can eternalize itself in the art of decadence because it feels comfortable sliding down the slope, without jostling, savoring the glories of a past that the monarchy represents in what has sumptuous appearances. The old and the ancient can coexist with the new and modernity.
Isabel II has interpreted her role with a very high note. She has understood Admiral Nelson's motto at the top of his column in Trafalgar Square: "England expects all the world to do her duty." She has taken it from the understated majesty of her palaces, her castles in Scotland and her priceless picture gallery that decorates her royal apartments. Boris Johnson will soon be the past because the Conservatives don't want to fall off the cliff. Others and others will come. But the English monarchy will endure as long as it is useful to the stability of a country that is more in favor of the evolution that marks the facts than of dramatic ruptures.
