Jubilee!

We are celebrating the Queen's 60th anniversary, or Diamond Jubilee this weekend. For most people the best thing about it is the four day weekend. Monday and Tuesday are "Bank holidays" (public holidays) which is unheard of. Four days of parties, rest, or a chance to go away on holiday...

Queen Elizabeth II is respected and loved by many Brits,  - actually I would say most,  - even if many think her family has gone wayward or feeble.

People admire the Queen for maintaining her dignity, faithfulness and devotion to her role, and for keeping calm and cheerful at all times. She is 84 but she stalwartly climbs in and out of cars, walks past the crowds, smiles at them all, greets people, watches long performances put on for her benefit, makes speeches... it must be a boring life. She is amazing. When she needs a break she goes off to her castle at Balmoral in Scotland and walks her corgis through the heather. She has four years to go before beating Queen Victoria's record of 64 years as longest serving monarch.

She doesn't have much of a role constitutionally, except that she opens Parliament at the start of the year and makes a speech. She is Head of the Church of England and she does have a strong faith. (Her Christmas Day broadcast to the nation last Christmas contained a clear Christian message, which was fantastic.)

Abigail came home from school on Thursday with a Jubilee mug given out by her school. Hooray!

This is the mug I was given when I was ten, in 1977, when we celebrated her Silver Jubilee (25 yrs):

These street parties are happening all over England over the next few days. Hope the sun comes out for them... Fronts of houses are festooned with Unions Jacks. Some people grew red white and blue flowers in their front gardens... Our little street isn't having a street party (shame) but we are going to a friend's this afternoon for a big tea party - cake and champagne, I believe.

This afternoon there is a huge pageant on the Thames - the Queen will ride down the Thames in a royal barge, with a thousand boats of all descriptions following behind. That should be an amazing spectacle... Britain is just great at these events...

But needless to say, there are many Brits who don't feel so thrilled about the monarchy. We have our republicans too... So this weekend has been a great opportunity for some nay-saying as well. The weekly paper we are getting at the moment had this cover this weekend: "Are we all monarchists now?" 

and a scathing article by Polly Toynbee in the Guardian (which is admittedly our most left-wing newspaper) started:

Queen's diamond jubilee: a vapid family and a mirage of nationhood. What's to celebrate?

If the very idea of monarchy diminishes us, the living reality is much more humiliating and damaging to our country...

Yes we have freedom of speech in this country (except for pro-Christian writing that is... or so it often seems),  and we also know how to laugh at ourselves... Anyway, I am glad to be here in England for this celebration. Not just to have press cuttings sent to me. Moving to Africa I initially put my Englishness away quite happily, but I felt more English as the years went by, rather than less.

And on the day of our last big national event, the Royal Wedding of William and Kate, I was driving through Kampala over the remains of fires and away from gunshots, praying all the while, on the day of the Walk to Work riots. So, this is better...