So I was dozing mildly in bed this morning, half listening to the BBC Radio 4 Today politics programme and Boris’ latest attempts to lie to Parliament/save his skin, when all of a sudden a full blown version of the National Anthem kicks in. ‘Oh Christ, she’s died’ I thought.
But no, it’s simply her Birthday. Happy 96th, Queen Elizabeth.
We’re also approaching her Platinum Jubilee, the 70th year of her Reign.
So Happy Birthday and Happy Milestone.
She just needs to hang on til June. We’ve got a one-off extra bank holiday for the occasion.
Yes. Happy Birthday and long life.
But I do wish she weren’t my monarch. Republican Canadian
Yeah, very interesting, the British monarchy. The modern British monarchy can trace its roots back to Queen Victoria. Before then, the monarchy was never truly loved. Queen Victoria was popular, gave to charities, instituted democratic reforms, and thus changed all that.
When I was a little boy, I thought I was supposed to, as an American, hate the British monarchy. Now I know that isn’t true. I actually admire it, if only from afar 
. Queen Elizabeth II, like Victoria, is actually pretty openminded. I think she endorses limited gay rights. She may even support gay marriage, I think. In the United States we would call that enlightened conservativism. What can I say, I like her.
The only question most people have is, what will happen when Prince Charles becomes monarch 
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The current British monarchy traces its roots back to Sophie of Hanover, and Queen Elizabeth traces descent from monarchs stretching back to pre-Norman England. I also wouldn’t overplay Victoria’s popularity - the country got very fed up with having a monarch in mourning for 40 years who was more interested in her male servants than her royal duties.
I had the same kind of shock when sometimes in 2016 I got into my car, the news were on the radio and suddenly they started playing “Blowin’ In The Wind”. I thought “Fuck, Bob Dylan has died”, when a few seconds later they announced his Nobel Prize for literature.
How many of her subjects are older than her?
Since she passed Victoria’s record, she’s now aiming for another two years and three weeks so as to take the world title from Louis XIV.
Sometimes, even the newsreaders aren’t sure:
QE2 is a perfect example of how a modern monarch should act.
I wish her another decade of health and happiness.
I feel this says a lot about the future of the monarchy. A lot of people seem to be moving towards a desire for a republican government. And that’s under a monarch who most people seem to feel is doing a good job.
Once Elizabeth passes away and the monarchal system isn’t propped up by her personal popularity, I feel it will collapse and be replaced. Charles will probably end up being the last monarch.
Everyone has to start singing God Save the King, and anybody who gets it wrong gets locked in a tower.
On her 100th birthday, does she send herself a telegram?
This morning DJs on one of the local country & western stations had an irate listener call in because the station hadn’t wished the Queen a happy birthday the previous morning. They were like, oh well.
I can certainly see most or all of the Commonwealth realms choosing to ditch the monarchy once she’s gone. Less sure about the UK though, our system has long adopted the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ model of government. I mean, NOBODY wants President Boris.
But, in their time, a President David Attenborough, Brenda Hale or even Betty Boothroyd wouldn’t be unthinkable.
Well, any of those would be lovely. I just don’t trust our politicians or our populace to actually choose them
As a very rough estimate, approximately 135,000 folks in Britain are 95 years of age or older.
This gives you a ballpark figure.
Wouldn’t that be a cricket pitch figure?
Possibly. It’s certainly enough to fill over 1500 London buses, or, if laid end to end (not that one would readily do that to a 95 year old), about the length of 25000 London buses.
But considerably less than the size of Wales (let’s not get silly).