Category: Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II Lying in State in Westminster Hall Ahead of Funeral on Monday

Queen Elizabeth II, who died in Scotland on Thursday, is now lying in state in London’s Westminster Hall for a four-day vigil until her funeral on Monday. Huge crowds gathered in central London on Wednesday to witness the Queen being taken from the Buckingham Palace to Parliament as artillery guns fired salutes and Big Ben…


Queue Builds as up to 400,000 Expected for Queen’s Lying in State

A huge line has formed in central London as people queue up to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II—who died in Scotland on Thursday—ahead of her funeral on Monday. Up to 400,000 people are expected over the next four days to pass by the Queen’s coffin as she lies in state in Westminster Hall….


English MP Writes to Police Scotland After Anti-Monarchy Protesters Arrested

Conservative MP David Davis has written to Scotland’s chief constable to express his concerns about an impingement on free speech after anti-monarchy protesters were arrested in Edinburgh. Davis wrote to Sir Iain Livingstone, head of Police Scotland, after a 22-year-old woman was arrested and then charged with a breach of the peace after holding aloft…


Let’s Hear It for the British Empire

Commentary Like many, I’m suffering from a surfeit of royalty at the moment. I was a great fan of Queen Elizabeth II, whose passing last week I noted in The Spectator. I’m also, though a proud American patriot, a fan of the British monarchy. It has been a source of stability, succor, and political enlightenment…


John Robson: Critics of Constitutional Monarchies Should Be Careful What They Wish For

Commentary Before the tributes to Queen Elizabeth II were even done, there were those who swooped in with calls for Canada and other realms finally to become republics, and worse. To which I say be careful what you wish for. In two ways. First, there were some mind-bogglingly offensive statements on Her Majesty’s passing, including…


Australian Government’s Short Notice on Public Holiday to Commemorate the Queen Raises Issues

Australian business and healthcare sectors are worried about their ability to manage the upcoming Sept. 22 public holiday to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II after the government’s announcement came on short notice. Following the holiday confirmation, medical staff and patients have raised concerns that elective surgery and GP appointments could be cancelled or postponed. The Australian…


Canada’s Currency, Stamps Among Nationwide Changes Following Queen’s Death

Queen Elizabeth II’s likeness will continue to grace Canadian coins, bank notes, and stamps for some time, but will eventually be phased out to introduce replacements bearing the image of Canada’s new monarch, King Charles III, according to federal institutions. The Royal Canadian Mint says Canada’s coins, all of which carry a side profile of…


New Zealand is First Commonwealth Nation to Rule Out Republic in Wake of Queen’s Death

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been the first Commonwealth leader to rule out her country becoming a republic while she is in power, in the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Last year Barbados became a republic, and on Sunday Gaston Browne, the prime minister of another Caribbean nation, Antigua and…


The Queen’s Reach

Commentary London—Watching BBC and Sky News coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, one is struck by the adjectives used by reporters, commentators, and people interviewed outside Balmoral castle and Buckingham Palace: sense of duty, virtue, integrity, service. What astounds is that these and other character traits the late Queen exhibited were once considered…


Vale Queen Elizabeth II

Commentary The Queen is dead. Long live the King. These are the words that must be uttered upon the death of a sovereign. They establish the practice that there is no break in the sovereign power, which passes immediately to the heir upon death, along with the guardianship of our constitutional form of democratic government….