Queen Elizabeth II: In Memoriam
"For the British people, Victoria was more than an individual, more even than the queen. She was—and had been as long as most of them could remember—a part of the fabric of their lives. She embodied history, tradition, government, and the structure and morality of their society. They trusted her to remain there, always to do her duty, always to give order to their lives. She did not disappoint them. In return, they gave her their allegiance, their devotion—and their esteem.”
- Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War.
Much of the Western world and especially the United Kingdom has been transfixed by the passing of their monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
The reaction has been somehow both predictable and yet stunning.
At the time of writing, the line to view the Queen lying-in-state stretches well over 5 miles from Westminster down past Parliament and along the Thames all the way past the London Eye, the Tate Modern, London Bridge, the Globe Theater and all the way to Southwark. It will likely take most people 14-15 hours of "queuing" to pay their respects - if they can.
That "if statement" is because, as of this morning, the line is actually closed. It has reached capacity and will not accept new joiners for around 6 hours.
This weekend it became far worse - by Saturday it was well over 24 hours.
It is difficult to find much to say about this that hasn't already been said (and said well) before we even get to the fact that the death of constitutional monarch is not exactly highly correlated with financial markets and personal finance.
There is one thing, however.
We can't help but wonder whether a small part of the incredible reaction to QEII's passing emerges from the fact that she is in one of the final vestiges of an earlier age and so perfectly symbolized a time and more importantly, a value system that is now nearly entirely vanished.
The Queen was, perhaps, the last tenuous link to the Second World War and the greatest generation who fought it and sacrificed for the principles over which it was contested, is now gone.
Regardless of how you feel about monarchy as a concept, the values that Queen Elizabeth embodied so clearly and consistently: duty, competence, responsibility, selflessness, good humor and tolerance are increasingly very hard to find, especially among our institutions and elites.
It is even rarer to witness a set of similar principles deployed consistently for decades.
These days everything and everyone is, to paraphrase Elon Musk, a hustle. Or worse.
The list of is endless but the perfect counterpoint to Queen Elizabeth's selfless approach to public service might be the police in Uvalde, Texas and their infamous non-performance in the hallway of the elementary school.
In the United Kingdom, it would be difficult to find a figure less like the dearly departed Queen than the outgoing Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. The circumstances of his resignation are par for the course with how many Britons feel about those who lead them. In fact, the lies, the venality, the greed, the corruption and above all, the selfishness of Johnson's tenure were only exceptional in how shamelessly and unapologetically he deployed them.
Now, as the subjects of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland celebrate the passing of the only monarch many of them have ever known they will likely very swiftly come to realize that her selflessness might not be the only thing they will miss.
In fact, they may discover that the hard times are just beginning.
Perhaps the most difficult question will be whether the Union itself is still popular enough to stay together without its largely symbolic yet massively unifying figure. As we watched the farmers of Aberdeenshire raise their tractors in a salute of respect for the Queen passing from her beloved castle at Balmoral to Edinburgh we wondered if the Scots will ever view another (British) Monarch as their King or Queen in the same way that Queen Elizabeth was most certainly the Queen of Scotland, as well as England.
And regardless of whether the particular challenge of a second independence referendum comes to pass, one thing is certain: there will be precious little to pay for it on either side of the border. One of Queen Elizabeth's greatest accomplishments may have been both managing and masking an Empire and a country, in decline. It is worth noting that on February 6, 1952, at the beginning of Elizabeth II’s reign, one pound sterling was worth $2.80. Today it is worth slightly less than half that, at $1.25.
And the price of most goods, of course, is priced in dollars. Today all of the attention energy, of course and for good reason. Once the funeral is over the headlines will, rather quickly, shift back to the other crisis affecting nearly everyone in Great Britain.
The new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, has announced a price cap but before the announcement, energy bills for Brits were set to hit £3,549 per year from Oct. 1, (up from £1,971). That figure was estimated to climb to £4,650 in the first quarter of 2023 and then £5,341.08 in the second quarter of that year.
Steep.
We know what Queen Elizabeth would recommend if facing these obstacles: strength, compassion for the less fortunate, grace under pressure, common sense and, above all, decency.
It is an open question as to whether the UK and her former subjects will be able to rise to the occasion. They can comfort themselves that, unlike many countries, they at least have a good example to follow....
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