The Queen by A. N. Wilson

Author:A. N. Wilson [Wilson, A. N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786490698
Publisher: Atlantic Books

In times when nothing stood

But worsened, or grew strange,

There was one constant good:

She did not change.75

Philip Larkin’s quatrain for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 neatly encapsulated two contrasting phenomena. First, for conservatives such as Larkin, the great thing about the monarchy was its permanence, its unchangeability. Against this fact, there lay the uncomfortable truth that, although the monarchy did not change, the times had changed.

The Silver Jubilee itself surprised the pundits, both the republicans who believed, and the monarchists who feared, that the game was up for crowns and thrones. It was an outburst of collective merriment. It was not a celebration which specifically focused on the Queen’s character, still less on the charms of her family.

In the earlier part of that year, there had seemed every reason to suppose that the Silver Jubilee would be a muted celebration, if not an actual flop. There was talk of planned street parties being cancelled for lack of enthusiasm. A political row had blown up following the passage of the 1976 Companies Act, which enabled companies to require disclosure of the true owners behind nominees’ holdings in their capital. Section 27 (9) of the Act provided that a person exempted by the Secretary of State for Trade would not be obliged to comply with a notice from a company requiring disclosure.76 An unintended consequence of the Act was that it could apply to the Queen, whose vast personal holdings could now be revealed. That is to say, the Queen’s wealth – a bone of contention for many – threatened to cloud the sky. ‘The exemption widens still further the gap between the Head of State and her poorest subjects,’ said the director of the Child Poverty Action Group, Frank Field.77

The issue of poverty in Britain was a real one. So was the issue of the monarch’s ‘image’, in particular the extravagance of her family. These would undoubtedly be matters which have remained throughout her reign, and which had to be addressed.

In 1977, however, something much simpler was demonstrated. Did the British public want, or not want, a monarchy?

It happened to be a spectacularly bright summer in 1977, after a cold, miserable spring. Soon, the street parties, which were rumoured to have been cancelled, were rescheduled. Bunting was hung from lamp-posts all over England. All over the United Kingdom, people prepared for a beano. Tony Benn attended Parliament to hear the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Speech ‘to remind myself of how totally undemocratic British democracy is’.78 But what does democracy mean if it does not include in its definition – a system of government which people actually want?

On 6 June, the Queen climbed Snow Hill near Windsor Castle, and lit a fire as a signal for the lighting of a hundred such fires at beacons all over the kingdom. The next day, she rode in a state coach with her husband for a service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral. More people flooded into the Mall than at the time of the Coronation. Over a million.

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