An unpretentious Elizabethan

Sometimes little changes help to clarify larger ones. In 1986, when she qualified for her first bus pass, the Queen8217;s 60th birthday was a great national event8230;Ten years later, in the midst of a decade of royal marital and other misfortunes, Britain was a very different place. In 1996, the Queen8217;s 70th was allowed to pass almost furtively8230; Today, as she completes a further decade, the celebrations of the Queen8217;s 80th will be lower key and less concentrated than they were in 19868230;Yet they will also be far more confident than in 1996. Many of the clouds that hung over the House of Windsor a decade ago have thinned or gone away. Wednesday8217;s lunch for 99 fellow 80-year-olds was a touching occasion8230;And the commemorative stamps are back, too.

Part of this general warmth, quite rightly, is simply about behaving properly towards an old lady on an important birthday. But it is also about honouring someone who, in defiance of reason and over an exceptionally long period, has broadly succeeded in remaining a force for national cohesion rather than becoming a force for division8230;

It is unlikely that this mood will change in the present Queen8217;s lifetime 8212;which, as her friends have again made clear this week, will be the same thing as her reign8230;If she becomes even more remote in the years to come, as must be likely, the public seems just as likely to give her the benefit of the doubt. In that sense, therefore, the Queen has won herself the space to preside over her version of the monarchy for the rest of her life.

This achievement comes at a price, however. The longer that the unpretentious Elizabethan version of monarchy continues, the more sharply the question will arise of whether new ways are required to secure a further lease of life for the monarchy under her successors. There is no guarantee that the current concordat with the public will survive under another monarch8230;

Excerpted from a leader in 8216;The Guardian8217;, April 21