The jubilee of Elizabeth II: celebration of wealth and poverty

The biggest national holiday in several decades in the midst of the most serious economic crisis since the eighties.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
02 June 2022 Thursday 15:53
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The jubilee of Elizabeth II: celebration of wealth and poverty

The biggest national holiday in several decades in the midst of the most serious economic crisis since the eighties. Sumptuous costumes, pageantry, crowns, pageants and a golden float on the Mall of London, while in the suburbs of Manchester and Birmingham queues never before form at church food banks, and the poorest families have to choose between whether to have dinner or have the heating on. But deep down that has always been classist Britain.

Thousands of people gathered yesterday in the center of the capital to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's platinum jubilee (seventy years on the throne), some from the most remote former colonies such as Australia and New Zealand, others after spending the night in tents to be in the front line of the majestic parade or see the royal staff on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Many others celebrated the occasion, commemorated with an unprecedented four-day bridge in these parts, with neighborhood parties in gardens and streets.

Isabel, 96, with mobility problems, made an appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, in the middle of a family photo in which Carlos and Camilla, Ana and Eduardo with their spouses and children, and Guillermo and Catalina with her little ones. The hard core of the Windsors, from which Andrés has been excluded due to his sexual scandals (yesterday he also tested positive for covid after having been with the queen), and from which Enrique and Meghan have been exiled, dissatisfied with a secondary role.

The four days of festivities (reviewing the troops, lighting 1,500 torches throughout the kingdom, service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral, the Epsom Downs horse derby, a music concert at the of Buckingham, Sunday lunches and the epilogue of the tour of the golden carriage through the Mall) are highly symbolic. How the country has changed from 1952 when the queen came to the throne in post-war hardship to the crisis of the present, until today, with a faltering prime minister, discredited institutions, a Scotland where half the population wants independence and economic problems reminiscent of the "winter of discontent" of the seventies.

But also symbolic because the platinum jubilee could also be called the transition jubilee. Logical at her age, Isabel II has practically disappeared from the stage in recent months, delegating even the inauguration of the legislature to Carlos, and other functions to Guillermo, Catalina, Camilla, Eduardo and Sofía.

That the step to the side is necessary is shown by the indisposition that the sovereign suffered yesterday after the splendor in Buckingham, and that will prevent her from attending today the mass that will be celebrated in her honor in Saint Paul's Cathedral. "The Queen enjoyed the parade very much," they explained from the palace, "but she experienced some discomfort."

In the parade that will close the events on Sunday, the traditional four-ton carriage covered in gold, two and a half centuries old and an image of what the British Empire was, pulled by eight horses, will make the usual journey from the palace from Buckingham. But this time it will be empty.

Isabel is the most popular figure of the Windsors, followed far behind by Guillermo, Catalina, Eduardo, and with Carlos only in fifth place. Six out of ten Britons are in favor of continuing the kingship, but it will soon be seen how many of them are really monarchists, and how many simply Elizabethans. The queen has been on the throne for more years than any monarch except Louis XIV. Her Platinum jubilee has an atmosphere of the end of the era, but it is not unreasonable that in ten years she will celebrate the oak. She would be, after all, a 106-year-old girl...