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Many felicitations, Ma'am.
Thursday, 21 April 2005 12:15Today would appear to be the Queen's birthday. That's as in her actual birthday, not her official birthday, which is celebrated in June.
I know this because the very first thing I heard, groggily, this morning when Radio 4 came on was an announcement to this effect, followed by the National Anthem. It's lucky I don't belong to that ever-diminishing group of people who believe you must stand up when the anthem is played, no matter what the circumstances, or it would have been a very rude awakening indeed. Instead, I was able to continue my usual morning habit of lying prone, groaning mildly, and trying to summon up the energy to lean over and switch on the light.
But I love that I live in a nation where we still mark such occasions with national radio broadcasts. The day would probably have passed me by if we didn't. Yet, since we do, I can now count my experience of this event as something I have in common with all the other citizens of the UK (and indeed commonwealth) today: or at least, those that know about it.
I believe I'll always be a royalist, despite my otherwise left-wing liberal tendencies, precisely because I see the creation of a sense of communal identity through rituals such as this as a positive thing. It's what always makes me fascinated by 'big' funerals, such as Princess Diana's, the Queen Mother's, and, even, the Pope (although I'm certainly not a Catholic). Clearly there have to be caveats, since the same sorts of rituals can also be used to promote abusive power-structures and feelings of extreme nationalism. But at the right level I am all for them: after all, we are social beings, and I like to be given a sense that I have something in common with others.
Meanwhile, I also find through a bit of Googling about the event that the broadcast of the National Anthem on such occasions has caused Radio 4 some heartache in the past (1998). I love that I live in a nation where we consider such things worth agonising over, too.
I know this because the very first thing I heard, groggily, this morning when Radio 4 came on was an announcement to this effect, followed by the National Anthem. It's lucky I don't belong to that ever-diminishing group of people who believe you must stand up when the anthem is played, no matter what the circumstances, or it would have been a very rude awakening indeed. Instead, I was able to continue my usual morning habit of lying prone, groaning mildly, and trying to summon up the energy to lean over and switch on the light.
But I love that I live in a nation where we still mark such occasions with national radio broadcasts. The day would probably have passed me by if we didn't. Yet, since we do, I can now count my experience of this event as something I have in common with all the other citizens of the UK (and indeed commonwealth) today: or at least, those that know about it.
I believe I'll always be a royalist, despite my otherwise left-wing liberal tendencies, precisely because I see the creation of a sense of communal identity through rituals such as this as a positive thing. It's what always makes me fascinated by 'big' funerals, such as Princess Diana's, the Queen Mother's, and, even, the Pope (although I'm certainly not a Catholic). Clearly there have to be caveats, since the same sorts of rituals can also be used to promote abusive power-structures and feelings of extreme nationalism. But at the right level I am all for them: after all, we are social beings, and I like to be given a sense that I have something in common with others.
Meanwhile, I also find through a bit of Googling about the event that the broadcast of the National Anthem on such occasions has caused Radio 4 some heartache in the past (1998). I love that I live in a nation where we consider such things worth agonising over, too.
