The Royal Family

HM The Queen at the Rededication Service

This year in the life of the nation there is a strong Royal emphasis because of the Queen's Golden Jubilee. On a more sombre note the deaths' of Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother have reminded us of the influence the Monarchy still has within our society. The depth of popular feeling after the Queen Mother's death in particular took everyone by surprise, including the media.

It reminded us that the Royal Family do still in some way embody the essence of our nation, and can speak of the high values of duty, loyalty, honour and strength of character. As the Archbishop of Canterbury said in his funeral sermon the Queen Mother embodied in herself, strength, dignity and laughter, and made us believe that our personal stories were linked with her story and so with the story of the nation. The Queen has the same iconic status and almost mythic significance.

That is one of the real values of a constitutional monarchy, that the monarch can stand above the political fray as a unifying symbol which helps us establish and affirm our national identity. We need more exploration in our schools of the value and purpose of the monarchy so that the young people who witnessed the pageantry of the Queen Mother's funeral can begin to understand the constitutional significance of monarchy within our island story."