11/2/2022 0 Comments Gino farrago![]() Indeed, countries that weren’t even part of the British Empire are joining. None is thinking of giving up its membership. ![]() Most of the Commonwealth’s 56 members are already republics. Even if some do decide to become republics in the years ahead it is not the metric that matters. It was the Queen’s life’s work and republicans in its member-countries are not rushing to the barricades to remove the British monarchy as their head of state now she has gone. The Commonwealth, too, would seem to be alive and kicking. This is the Britain of all classes, regions and ethnicities, shuffling along the banks of the Thames together in harmony and shared grief. Nor are we the divisive, racist, nasty hellhole so many agitators and academics would have us believe, as one look at the world’s longest queue wending its way through London to pay its respects to the Queen lying in state in Westminster Hall confirms. It was, unwittingly or not, her last (and lasting) gift to the Union. Indeed, with the Union of the Crowns in 1603, the Scottish monarchy in the shape of James VI mounted what today we’d call a reverse takeover to become James I of England.īy dying in Balmoral, the Queen reminded Scots they are not just some remote outpost of the Union but an integral part. ![]() The Scots and the English have shared a monarchy for 100 years more than they’ve shared a parliament. ![]() As thousands of Scots who lined the roads from Balmoral to Edinburgh to pay their respects to the passing cortege of their Queen of Scots - and many thousands more who lined the Royal Mile of the Scottish capital in silence and respect as it moved from Holyrood Palace to St Giles’ Cathedral - illustrated beyond argument. Our precious 300-year-old Union would also still seem to have life in it yet. The death of the Queen has been a timely opportunity to take stock of our nation, to re-examine what kind of place we’ve become.Ĭontrary to the miserabilist musings of much of the establishment commentariat and its social media echo chambers, whose default position is always to run Britain down, the condition of the country is actually rather good.įor a start, it turns out that we still matter on the international stage, otherwise why would the Queen’s death be an event of such global mourning, with the world’s leaders flocking to London for her funeral on Monday? ![]()
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