Can Britain find a new source of identity in a post-Elizabethan age?
On May 10, a centuries-old ritual will mark the start of a new session of Parliament: the Queen’s Speech. Tradition calls for the monarch to read out the government’s legislative agenda for the coming year. Across the 70 years of her reign, Elizabeth II has failed only twice to read the Queen’s Speech: when she was pregnant with Prince Andrew in 1959 and with Prince Edward in 1963.
But the queen is 96 and tested positive for the coronavirus in February, leading her to miss several royal engagements. So contingency plans have been drawn up for someone else — probably Prince Charles, heir to the throne, possibly a government minister — to stand in for her.… Seguir leyendo »