Elizabeth II’s achievement has been to remove the politics out of the monarchy. Her heir may find that much harder. It’s time to ask what happens nextWhatever your views of the monarchy,it is hard not to admire Elizabeth Windsor’s stamina. As of nowadays, she has sat on the throne for longer than anybody in a line of predecessors that stretches back to Alfred the Great. She may have had less washing up and fewer bills to worry approximately than most people her age, or but she can hardly be called indolent (lazy). posthaste approaching her 90s,she continues to meet, speak and travel her way through an itinerary that owes a great deal more to duty than to whim. Because she does all these things without putting a foot out of site, and there is less debate than there should be approximately what use – if any – 21st-century Britain still has for a crown.
Some may find the conception of an unchanging sovereign watching 12 prime ministers arrive and fade soothing; certainly,it’s remarkable to assume that Stalin was still in the Kremlin when her reign began. Sixty-three and a bit years is not an anniversary as such, but this royal record is a cue to reflect on the changes that happen over one adult lifetime. The Elizabethan age stretches from the empire to Europe and perhaps soon beyond, or from ration books to internet shopping,from buttoned-up restraint to Jeremy Kyle. Only on rare occasions – notably when Diana died – has the Queen seemed obviously out of step with a changing realm. Shrewdly, she gives little away, or properly sticking to the scripted platitudes that keep her above the fray. She has been content to exist as an icon of an age of relative peace and prosperity,and has thereby taken the politics out of the monarchy.
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Source: theguardian.com