The Queen is Dead; God Save the King

Queen Elizabeth II: Doctors "Concerned" as Family Gathers

Something close to alarm is spreading in the UK as the Royal Family is reported to be gathering at the Queen's scottish residence. Statements by senior governement officals and clergy are elevating a sense of crisis.

Concerns for the Queen's Health

The Queen may miss the annual New Year's Day church service at Sandringham, with a decision expected to be taken on Sunday morning on whether she is well enough to attend.

The 90-year-old monarch has not been seen in public for 11 days since she and Prince Philip fell ill with what was officially described as "heavy colds".

The illness forced the Queen to miss the Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene church in Sandringham for the first time in 28 years.

Philip, 95, who is known for his robust health, was well enough to attend and walked briskly to the church as usual on Christmas morning with Prince Charles, Prince Harry and other family members.

But a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said she was unable to confirm or deny if the Queen would be going to the 16th century church today on New Year's Day, adding: "The Queen is continuing to recover from her heavy cold and is still in residence at Sandringham."

"We probably will not know what is happening until the morning."

Read the rest here.

A Royal Snub

When President Obama hits Europe next week for the 65th anniversary of D-day, he will land smack in the middle of a tempest in a very appropriate, diplomatic teapot.

The American president is among the dignitaries set to commemorate the June 6 invasion of France by the Allies as they began the final act in the liberation of Fortress Europa from Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Somehow, the French didn’t invite Queen Elizabeth II to this year’s ceremony, though the popular British monarch was a participant in the 50th and 60th anniversaries. In a special twist of Gallic logic, the French invited British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose popularity is at a low point amid scandals and a poor economy, rather than the comforting figure of the British monarch.

Elizabeth, then a princess, was a plucky volunteer on the beleaguered British home front during the worst of World War II. After the war, she married Prince Philip, who served with distinction in the Royal Navy during the fighting but had family connections to Nazis and had earlier expressed sympathy for Germany under Hitler.

In their typical backhanded way, the French have sort of apologized for snubbing the queen and have said that she is welcome to attend.

But when it comes to huffiness, the aristocracy knows no peer. Buckingham Palace has huffily responded that the queen is not amused and that no royal is available to attend the ceremony.

Explaining why the queen was skipped over, the French said the celebration was a “Franco-American affair,” which has strange echoes of a favorite pasta dish rather than political nuance.

The White House has been mum.

Source.

Maybe the next time the French President is in London the Queen will send her regrets with the explanation that she is dining with the Duke of Anjou. Of course the British really only need one word to put the impertinent French in their place.

Waterloo.

Some reflections on the occasion of the birthday of Her Majesty the Queen

Queen Elizabeth: A stranger in her own country

By A.N WILSON

Next month, she will become Britain's oldest monarch. But in this provocative essay a historian argues that while her reign has seen more social advances than even Victoria's, it is also the age in which Britain stopped being British

As an historic milestone, it will merit little fanfare.

Yet it is an astonishing truth that in a few weeks' time, Her Majesty the Queen will have outlived even her most illustrious regal forebear, Queen Victoria, making her the oldest monarch in our nation's history.

In fact, it will be on December 22 that Queen Elizabeth II passes the age at which Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, aged 81 years, seven months, four weeks and one day.

True, Victoria is still - thus far - our longest-reigning monarch. (She came to the throne younger and reigned for more than 63 years, whereas our Queen has not yet managed 56 years.)

But already, the reign of Elizabeth II has encompassed so much change and has witnessed so many remarkable achievements that it makes her seem almost a time-traveller, spanning not just six decades, but whole centuries.

The Britain of the early Fifties is so utterly different from Britain in 2007 that it is bizarre to think that we have the same head of state as we did when rationing was still in force and Churchill was Prime Minister.

But has this Queen's reign, like that of Victoria, been a time of British success, or of failure?

Will this, the second Elizabethan era, compare favourably with that of her great-great-grandmother?

Read the rest here.
Hat tip to Bill (aka The Godfather)