By: John C. Dyer, UK Correspondent
All photographs, including those of BBC coverage of the Diamond Jubilee Thames flotilla taken by John C. Dyer.
3 Jun 2012. The BBC devoted the entire afternoon to live coverage of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Thames Flotilla. Reputedly over 1,000 boats accompanied Her Majesty along the Thames in celebration of her 60 years as Queen.
It was the first of 3 days of
intense partying, joined by the great, the good, the humble, the stars, even the disreputable all over Britain and the world beyond Britain.
Reactions on the flotilla ranged from delighted to "ho hum."
You've got to love Prince Harry. He is just a natural "red neck." I can imagine him singing Elvira dancing on top of a table before leaping off, screaming "airborne."
A small contingent of republicans, led by Peter Tatchell, protested the attention, the expense, the monarchy itself. No more than a couple hundred. The remarkable thing is Channel 4 actually interviewed Tatchell.
It kind of reminded me of the Rose Parade, but without the floats, flowers, and the USC football team.
You may be forgiven as an outsider for thinking BBC’s coverage tended to the obsequious. I sometimes thought if I heard the word, “amazing,” one more time I would run out the door screaming.
But Elizabeth II, Regina, deserves it. She is- and has been- a magnificent head of state and public servant. She radiates affection for her people.
Her people recognize it. They respond in kind. A recent poll revealed fully 80% of the British public adore her.
One wonders what she knows her government doesn’t.
By contrast almost an equal percentage of the British public think the government is going in the wrong direction. The approval ratings for the once popular Prime Minister, once seemingly born to rule, are in the cellar, well below those of, for example, President Obama. On a par with the US Congress. Maybe lower.
The right of the Tory Party is attempting a rescue, of sorts.
Yes, you read that correctly. The Prime Minister is not considered to be in the right wing of his party. There are those in the Tory Party who are to the right of Nero, Atilla the Hun, and the Prussian Army marching band.
The right of the Tory Party itches to replace the Prime Minister and his Chancellor. But they do not want to lose control of government in the process. They in fact hope to increase their power independent of the Liberal Democrats.
To accomplish this purpose, the right seeks to reframe the political narrative this way: This government is incompetent. The basic Tory policy isn’t wrong. It’s administrators are clumsy posh boys. The people, so the new narrative goes, will forgive a heartless government, but not a hopelessly incompetent one. Translated? Let's keep the heartless, draconian policies and throw out the toffs. Everything will be fine.
But the Queen, that truly magnificent, reliable, even amazing stateswoman, is a living contradiction to their thesis.
One can over egg it I suppose. It is romanticism not to recognize that the head of a family variously estimated to be privately worth between £300 and £700 million does not lack for power and influence. She cannot be just the sweet little old dear with the rotating hand wave who brings to public service the attitude of a granny baking new whole grain bread for the grand kids.
In fact, we know she’s not. Famously, following the 2008 crash she wondered aloud, words to the effect, “ ... and no one saw this coming?” Some days I would like to be a fly on the wall during her weekly debriefings with the Prime Minister. One wonders if they are not in fact debriefings with a slipper (translate spanking).
But she has almost single handedly saved the monarchy from history’s compost heap. She by example, action, and urging led her family in becoming one the nation’s greatest patrons of the poor and vulnerable. Her eldest son, Charles, who must surely reflect his mother, is justly famous for his efforts through his trusts and in Burnley (a town in one of Britain’s most depressed regions, the North West).
This is what she understands that it seems her government does not. The welfare of the people is the welfare of the Crown. Her government in general, the Tory Party and the Orange Block of the Liberal Democratic Party in particular, must learn this very quickly or themselves be consigned to the compost heap from which she rescued the monarchy ... and all the Kings Horses and all the Kings Men not able to rescue the country again.
I want to offer a personal tribute from me to this magnificent lady. It is a small thing but sincerely offered. She long ago earned the admiration, respect, and even affection of her country. She now deserves mine, and she has it.
As for you, Mr. Prime Minister, the Queen has done her job. It is well and truly time you do yours.