A party pooper at the Jubilee .......

 Like most people the Accession and the Coronation have become linked over time so at the street party on my estate in Carlisle most of the conversation was linked to memories of the Coronation.

One of our neighbours in 1953 had bought himself an old Riley motorcar, he couldn't afford the petrol (some things it appears never change) so instead of driving he sat outside in his car and listened instead to the Coronation on radio.

My family boasted one TV between three families and so we had to travel on the 210 Trolley Bus to Hyde so that we could watch the Coronation on my Aunts Black and White TV with its 9 inch screen. That is where the old Manchester joke comes from:

Where do flies go in winter?

Through Denton to Hyde!

I guess at 8 years of age I just thought the weather in London was just grey and misty and wet. The highlight of the day was the model Coronation Coach that my grandfather bought me in order to remember this great occasion. 

I still have the Coach. It is somewhat the worse for wear but it has survived, it possibly needs the kind of love and attention and careful restoration that is currently provided by The Repair Shop on TV. I'm not sure whether we will have to go through all this again next year in order to celebrate the Coronation or whether we will hang on and celebrate the Coronation of Charles 111 in due course?

Really ever since 1953 I have been something of a curmudgeonly republican at heart and whilst I was happy enough to see HRH The Queen and her heirs to the Throne, Charles and William on the Balcony of Buckingham Palace, the sight of so many others who go to make up the Royal Family plc and the cost implied by their presence I found rather more than I thought was a reasonable charge on the public purse, at least Prince Andrew was kept away by Covid.

I found the concert outside Buckingham Palace and the celebration of the Decades from the 1950's through the 60's and 70' almost as tedious as the Royal Great Grandchildren appeared to, but possibly for different reasons. Ageing rock stars rehearsing theirs and others popular songs or despite being a long way away being projected in on the giant IMAX Screen that was Buckingham Palace. My problem was where were the references to three day weeks, miner's strikes, de-industrialisation, austerity, the growth in Child Poverty and Foodbanks?

Don't let reality spoil the party, don't be a part pooper. I know, I know, but ...........

I must confess however that on the occasion that I met Queen Elizabeth and was presented to her my curmudgeonliness evaporated. There was something that was both gracious and warming about the Queen in Person. She demonstrated that remarkable capacity to convince you that you were the only person in the room and that you mattered. It is a gift and a skill that is either inherited or learnt at a parents knee.

The Royal Maundy at Bradford Cathedral also provided me with an opportunity to witness the remarkable dedication and professionalism of the Queen and the overall effect her presence had on those who were the recipients of the Maundy Money.

Of course traditionally the service would have been a footwashing ceremony but at some point the footwashing gave way to a small gift of specially minted money to reward those chosen for the age and service to the wider community.

The other sense I had on that occasion was the way in the reception afterwards the Queen focussed her attention not on the great and the good who were present but on the support staff, the vergers, the cleaners and the office staff. There was almost a sense of her being a Queen of and for the people.

The idea of a democratically elected President as in Ireland or America or indeed France does have its attractions but equally it comes with it's limitations and costs and the risk of electing someone totally inappropriate but with the money to buy their way into office.

So I guess that the recent Bank Holiday 'trumped' as it were my curmudgeonliness and as I looked back through my rear view mirror over the seventy years to myself as a 7 year old son of a Manchester Bus Driver watching the Coronation on Black and White TV and the sheer unimaginability of my ever being presented to the Queen in person and marvelling at the changes that those 70 years have brought from colour TV, to the internet, to foreign travel, to the NHS I can only reflect that in so many ways the reign of HRH has been blessed and many of us born in the late 40's early 50's have enjoyed quite remarkable lives.