Her Majesty Reviews the Fleet

Queen Elizabeth II's Canadian standard flies from H.M.C.S. St John's on June 29, 2010 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.


Her Majesty embarks H.M.C.S. St. John's. Bosan Mate: Pipe the Side!


Royal Salute and God Save the Queen!


Prince Philip wears the uniform of a Canadian Admiral. Nice to see the restoration of the executive curl. Shame to see the Duke demoted. Canada has never had the equivalent of an Admiral of the Fleet or Grand Admiral, the honourary rank of His Royal Highness in Britain. Prince Philip seems a little naked without his traditional Royal Navy fourth ring and fourth row of buttons.


3 Cheers for the Queen: Hip Hip Hooray, Hip Hip Hooray, Hip Hip Horray!


Her Majesty sails past H.M.S. Ark Royal and U.S.S. Wasp




The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh disembark HMCS St. John's after Her Majesty reviewed the Fleet in the waters off Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Day Two of a nine-day tour of Canada, 29 June 2010.


© Press Association

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Her Majesty Marks Centennial of Royal Canadian Navy

Her Majesty Aboard HMCS St. Laurent in Stockholm on June 11, 1956.

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The Queen's Homecoming

Only foreigners pay visits - this is not a royal visit as much as it is a royal tour or a royal homecoming. It's "very good to be home," the Queen reminds Canadians.

At last, the wait is over. After months of meticulous planning on both sides of the Atlantic, Queen Elizabeth II and her royal consort, Prince Philip, have finally begun their week-long royal tour of Canada. The homecoming – the 24th by a reigning sovereign to the Realm – began today in Halifax, Nova Scotia after a transatlantic voyage over heavy rain, dense fog and towering icebergs.

The excitement is palpable as onlookers wait for the royal couple to step onto Canadian soil. Well, not soil, concedes an eager CBC reporter, but rather red-carpeted cement. "But still, it's immobile, and it's Canada, and the culmination of weeks of planning and hoping and waiting." All along the banks of the Halifax coast and harbour, cheering crowds have lined up to glimpse the Queen and Consort...

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Arguments for Repatriating the Monarchy

I am not necessarily opposed to repatriating the monarchy in Commonwealth realms, but know the path is frought with danger. Repatriation is a risky business. Even with the best political will and intentions, chances are politicians would royally screw it up. That said, there are very good reasons for and against going down that route, so today we focus on the positive:

1. Royals should embody our National Identity: The royals are British and we are no longer British. The world and the world's media will never identify our Queen or future King as anything other than British. Kings and queens should personify the nation and embody our national identity. Total patriotic fulfillment of that unique national identity requires that we have a fully independent sovereign who can represent us exclusively, not one who is shared by 16 other countries;

2. Monarchs should be the sole focus of Unity and Allegiance: The establishment of a resident monarch is more likely to command the allegiance and affection of its countrymen. It was possible for an absentee landlord to be the focus of unity and unfettered loyalty when we felt an integral part of the British Empire, but not so today. The Queen, her heirs and successors have all but disappeared from public consciousness;

3. A stronger and more indigenous Constitution of Liberty: If freedom wears a Crown, let it be worn at home. A resident sovereign who holds the popular affection of its people would more readily humble the pretensions of democratic politicians. A local majesty would more truly represent the popular sovereignty of the people, and as such would serve as a more effective constitutional bulwark on usurping politicans in possession (or not in possession) of their temporary mandates and majorities;

4. The Crown would be Decolonized: By ridding the naysayers of their best argument, we would better ensure the long-term survival of the Crown. The problem is not the monarchy, it is its delegated status. It is the secondary position of governor-general, not Her Majesty, that is the outdated colonial relic in our constitutional firmament and should be abolished. Nip this one in the bud and it may very well be sianara to fledgling republicanism; and

5. The Monarchy would be Revitalized: A fully repatriated monarchy would be the catalyst to revitalize and once again celebrate the crown at the centre of national life. Instead of rolling back the monarchy and vandalizing our inheritance piece by piece, we could begin to restore our royal heritage and enrich our national institutions with the ancient symbolism and glorious trappings it deserves.

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The Few - Twenty Years Later

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The Battle of Naseby

June 365 years ago – on the 14^th in the old calendar, 24^th in the new – the Battle of Naseby was fought.

The Battle of Naseby

The Parliamentarian New Model Army defeated the Royalist Army.

Memorial at the battlefield in Naseby

It was a decisive victory in Oliver Cromwell's rise to power, the Cromwell tyranny, and the Commonwealth of England.

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The Magna Carta

It was on this day five years short of eight centuries ago. It was June 15, you say? Well, in the Julian Calendar, yes! It was on this day the Magna Carta was signed and sealed.

King John signs the Magna Carta.

The Magna Carta has been held up as the first seed of democracy, but wrote Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn:

English parliamentary government was initiated in 1215 by the Magna Charta. Seven years later the Hungarian nobility extorted from their king a similar document. Neither charter has anything to do with "democracy."

The world of old, where the aristocracy checked the powers of the king, and today's world, where power has a popular basis, are miles apart. They have nothing to do with each other – apart from being miles apart. Wrote Bertrand de Jouvenel:

[Authoritarianism] could, no doubt, have been avoided if there had been a stable, vigorous, and unified executive to which the legislature acted merely as limitary principle. But in fact, as we have seen, the contrary happened: the legislature made itself the ruling sovereign.

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Landed Gentry

What I would wear if I could fling care to the Devil for one merry day!

Hat tip: Admiral Cod

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Churchill Sans Cigar

There is truly nothing sacred in the modern world.

In the well-known original image, Churchill makes a "V" shaped symbol with his fingers – while gripping a cigar in the corner of his mouth.

But in a reproduction of the picture, hanging over the main entrance to a London museum celebrating the wartime leader, he has been made into a non-smoker through the use of image-altering techniques.

It is unclear who is responsible for doctoring the photograph, with the museum – The Winston Churchill's Britain at War Experience – claiming not to have noticed the cigar was missing.

Drawn and quartered gentlemen. What is truly galling about this bit of sophomore Stalinism is how casually it was done. Did they think that modern England is so ignorant a place that no one would notice? Or so craven that no one would care? Sadly, it was probably a sound assumption. Luckily there are still those who recall Churchill in all his cigar chomping glory.

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Trooping the Colour 2010

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Visit to H.M.S. Ocean

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Happy Birthday, Grand Old Duke

Those of you turning on the radio this morning just before 7am might have been surprised to hear the national anthem. It is, of course, the birthday of the greatest living Englishman, Prince Philip Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg Battenberg, who is 89. He’s a daily reminder that inviting back Charles II was a wise move...It's a pity they don't make his kind anymore.

- Ed West at The Telegraph

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Edward Charles Morris Fox

The actor whom perhaps more than anyone is etched in the popular imagination of the quintessential upper class English gentleman. His big breakthrough film was Day of the Jackal in 1973, but he also starred in Battle of Britain, A Bridge Too Far, Bounty, The Shooting Party and is famous for his portrayal of Edward VIII in the television serial Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978).

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The Royal Welsh

Her Majesty visited one of the newest regiments of the British Army today. The Royal Welsh were formed on Saint David's Day in March 2006 as a result of the previous government's amalgamation of older regiments, the oldest of them being the Royal Welch Fusiliers (you read that correctly, Welch not Welsh) which can trace their history back to the "Glorious Revolution".

The Queen and soldiers of 1st Battalion Royal Welsh, during the Drumhead Service of Thanksgiving to mark their return from operations in Afghanistan, Chester, 10 June 2010. © Press Association

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The Tea Party Jacobins?

Up to a point, Lord Copper.

I agree with Burke's Corner that the modern reincarnation of the American Tea Party movement appears as anti-tory and anti-government as its Boston predecessor of 1763. But let's not dismiss this libertarian mob as a bunch of juvenile antipolitical Jacobins when it is government that is getting way out of control with its trillion dollar deficits.

The Burkean is fundamentally about maintaining good order and the permanence of tested institutions as the best way to safeguard human liberty - the disorder we see in Greece and to a more limited degree in the United States, is not because a loose cannon of radio talkshow hotheads are revolting over the airwaves and egging on their followers, it is because the governments themselves are destabilizing our societies through their own reckless behaviour. The Burkean is not anti-government, but neither is he slavishly pro-government; we should be as concerned as the Tea Party about what is going on, and what this will collectively mean for us in the years to come.

We can make common cause here - let us put away the Pimm's and drink the tea.

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The Trial of King Charles I

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The Queen's English Society and the Academy of the English Language

Is the attempt by the Queen’s English Society to create an Academy of English, on the model of the Académie Française, both welcome and long overdue? Gerald Warner thinks we need an authoritative body to maintain the purity and beauty of the English language, given the falling standards of its use around the world.

I'm more skeptical and not so sure what good any of this would do. I do remember priding myself on the idea that the Anglophone countries never had such a top-down academy to instruct the masses on proper grammar, spelling or punctuation. I wish we could all speak the Queen's English, but the reality is that most mother tongue English speakers live outside the UK, led by the U.S.(251 million speakers), India (125 million), Nigeria (79 million) and only then Great Britain (60 million), Philippines (49 million), English-speaking Canada (25 million), Australia (18 million)....the language is perhaps too widely dispersed and varied to foster universal standards. The famed "Immortals" of the French Academy are a dying breed - I do not know if this is a model worthy of imitation in the English-speaking world.

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The Right Honourable George Wyndham

George Wyndham was a Member of Parliament from Dover from July 12, 1889 until his sudden, untimely death from a heart attack in his 50^th year on June 8, 1913.

The Right Honourable George Wyndham PC was the leader in the House of Commons of the die-hard opponents of the Parliament Bill that became Parliament Act 1911.

On February 22, 1911 he spoke before the House of Commons:

When the Prime Minister [Asquith] comes to the most formidable obstacle in his course he always develops a most impressive manner and endeavours to dismiss from the minds of those who differ from him all fears which they may entertain. When he came to this point in his speech yesterday he was kind enough to say that he did not challenge the sincerity of those who believe—as we do sincerely believe—that this measure will erect a despotic Single Chamber rule, and becoming more and more impressive in his manner he wound up that portion of his speech by saying that this was the most unsubstantial nightmare that had ever affected the imagination. As his manner became more and more impressive so did the matter which he was unfolding become less and less convincing.

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John Adams meets King George III

Hat tip: Gods of the Copybook Headings

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