London, (Parliament Politics Magazine)- At the funeral of George VI, I was assigned, along with other boys from the Eton cadet force, to guard part of the line of route inside Windsor Castle as George VI’s coffin was escorted to its last resting place in the St George’s Chapel Royal Vault. With rifles reversed we were told to keep our heads bowed, and hands crossed on the wooden butt, or with eyes straight ahead when presenting arms as the coffin passed, with its big posse of sailors dragging the gun carriage.
Of course, it was a sad day-15th February 1952 – but it was also a moment when there was just a touch of hope and optimism in the air. The new and dazzling young sovereign, with her very handsome husband, Prince Phillip, seemed to offer a fresh start from a long winter of difficult times.
Having won the war Britain seemed to be losing the peace. We were in a permanent balance of payments crisis, with the country bankrupt, the pound always falling, some rationing still in place and talk everywhere of decolonization and the need to ‘manage’ decline, as the world’s biggest empire unravelled. Strikes and absurd demarcation disputes were pulling our faltering industry apart.
The challenges were enormous. How, after the brief euphoria, was the nation to be held together and prosper in a completely different world? Ahead lay the continuing Cold War, endless new conflicts, the Suez moment, the rise of terrorism, financial crises following one after another, the need for massive reconstruction and renewal, tragedies and scandals, and much more.
Few would have guessed that now, seventy years later, while several of those challenges persist, and have even grown and been added to, it would be possible for the nation to stay reasonably intact and for most of the time, to prosper. For would have guessed that, as the old empire dissolved, leaving behind at first a small group of likeminded nations, this would grow by seven times into a network like no other, in size or nature, of mostly independent republics and kingdoms, covering almost a third of the world’s population.
Yet that is what perhaps began that day and has in fact happened, and it was that young figure, seemingly so fragile as the heavy duties of monarchy fell upon her, who was to play such a central part in, and be such an inspiration for, the transformation to come.
That surely is the real legacy and achievement above all of this amazing lady over the decades – not that she, or anyone else, could usher in a golden, problem-free era for all, but that she could create and preserve a degree solidarity and purpose, when so many others, and so many other ugly trends, were, and are, pulling societies part, polarising every issue and filling every debate with poisoning shrillness.
Success breeds success. And as communications technology has grown as a divisive and fragmenting force, pitting identities against each other, localism against centralism, deviation against duty and distrust against respect, so the countervailing need for this kind of respected and admired central focus and leadership, the institution of monarchy, and the late Queen within it, has grown. To make modern democracy work well it becomes increasingly obvious that it benefits from having a figure, and a family, who can stand institutionally above the partisan struggle and safeguard and personify the framework of values and restraints which prevent political battle consuming itself and destroying everything.
This was the binding magic touch, so easy when one sees and feels it, but so hard to put into precise analytical words, which the young Queen Elizabeth was set to deploy which such amazing success – and indeed pledged and determined to deploy even before her reign began. With her touch the institution of monarchy, which many predicted would crumble, has flourished. And with her touch the vast Commonwealth network, which again many wrote off, has flourished and continues to grow.
That renewed national role which Dean Acheson claimed, all those years ago, Britain had failed to find after the end of empire, was there all the time.
It needed Queen Elizabeth to find it, polish it and give it new life. It needs now the same touch from her son to keep it shining and evolving.
The saving glory of the present sad moment is that King Charles is superbly prepared for the task and superbly fitted to tread in his mother’s golden footsteps.
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(Rt.Hon.Lord Howell of Guildford)