Queen Elizabeth II died on 8 September at the age of 96 in Balmoral Castle, Scotland. As the world's longest-reigning and oldest monarch, Elizabeth II has experienced 15 British prime ministers and has been hailed as the "cornerstone of modern Britain".
Queen Elizabeth II (Source: Foreign Media)
One
The Queen's life is almost a contemporary history of Britain.
In 1952, her father, George VI, died and Elizabeth was crowned. In the early days of her succession, she faced the decline of Britain's national strength, shortage of materials, the clouds of the Cold War, and the need to deal with relations with former colonies. Churchill once commented: "She is meticulous, well-informed, conscientious and responsible, and has just received prime ministers and ambassadors from various countries as soon as she ascended the throne... She did nothing wrong. ”
During the 70-year reign, Elizabeth II experienced the disintegration of the "Empire That Never Sets", the Cold War, the Anglo-Armagh War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Brexit, the epidemic and other ups and downs, witnessing the rapid progress of human science and technology and the drastic changes in the international pattern, which can be called "relaying positions on the radio and ending on mobile phones". Many British people say she is the near-only constant in the wave of change and a spiritual symbol.
In the last year of the Queen's reign, the Caribbean island nation of Barbados seceded from the Commonwealth and no longer honored the Queen as head of state; Commonwealth members Jamaica, Saint Lucia and other countries called for the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic; Australia has also previously hinted that the Australian people have given Elizabeth II a lot of "emotional support", but after the Queen's death, the situation may change.
In the United Kingdom, the dark tide of independence in Scotland and Northern Ireland has been surging, and even about the "monarchy" has been discussed in recent years.
Now that the Queen is gone, has Britain reached a new crossroads?
Crowned queen Elizabeth II. Source: China News Weekly
Two
The Queen is popular with the British, but popularity for the monarchy, especially among young people, is declining. Some even predict that the new King Charles III is likely to witness the collapse of the monarchy. Previously, a British poll showed that respondents aged 18 to 24 supported the election of heads of state more than those who wanted to maintain the monarchy.
But this is only a part of the group, after all, in Britain, where the conservative political tradition is deeply rooted, institutional change will not be easy to achieve. For the foreseeable future, the majority of the British public will continue to support the British royal family, and the possibility of the end of the monarchy is low.
The Queen's death is more of a symbolic event for Britain. Today, the British monarchy has been smoothly replaced, and the new king and the new prime minister will form a cooperative relationship in accordance with the usual practice.
But as head of state, the Queen's death will make Britain lack a cohesive force in the short term, especially on issues involving national sovereignty and unity, which will form a large political vacuum.
The Queen is beloved in Scotland and Northern Ireland. On the eve of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the Queen, as a symbol of national unity, called on the local people to "carefully consider the future" from the height of the British government, which played a positive role in curbing scottish separatist forces.
Her death has left some people at a loss, and it is not excluded that some local separatist forces will take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble, which is also a huge challenge for successors. But after all, the United Kingdom still has a strong state apparatus, observers analyze, in the short term, Scotland will most likely not be independent, Northern Ireland and Ireland will be difficult to unify.
At present, the Commonwealth has more than 50 member states, and the head of state is the British monarch who holds the same position and has no real power. In recent years, Britain's influence within the Commonwealth has gradually declined, and some member states have taken the opportunity to break away from the system to form republics, but this is no longer the wave of national independence in the colonies after World War II. In fact, the close relations between these countries and Britain have not changed much, the relationship between language and culture and economic exchanges formed by many years of colonial history will not be easily severed, and the economies of some small countries in the system are quite dependent on Britain.
On 6 September, Terrass met Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in Scotland. Image source: Visual China
Three
For the new British Prime Minister, Truss, it is indeed a big challenge to encounter such a big event as the death of the Queen just after taking office. But after the funeral, the dilemma of domestic and foreign affairs is really tricky.
At present, inflation in the UK is high, the cost of living has risen sharply, economic growth is weak, and there are long-term concerns about Scottish independence and Northern Ireland; Internationally, it is not easy to properly deal with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and to properly handle relations with the United States, the European Union, and China. The ideological tendency of Truss is obvious, and many British people believe that their victory is "privately entrusted" by the Conservative Party, and they are worried that the new prime minister's tough policy toward Europe and China will make the United Kingdom pay a greater economic price. All of this requires the new Prime Minister to come up with a tangible solution.
For the new King Charles III, British polls show that he is far less popular among the populace than his mother. At present, the new king faces the challenge of how to work with the government to alleviate the people's livelihood crisis, which may require reducing the royal family's financial expenditure and supporting more charitable and public welfare activities. In the long run, whether Charles III can maintain the unity of the British nation and the unity of the Commonwealth with his own prestige is a greater test.
British media said that many British people from memory, that is, Elizabeth II is in power, she brings too much sense of the times to the British, she is the last bridging agent of a declining empire.
But a page of history is destined to be turned. As the older generation of world politicians who experienced World War II gradually withdrew from the stage of history, the new generation began to take over the heavy responsibility of global governance. Where do they want to take the world? It will take time to test.
Opinion/Ruike Xu (Associate Professor, School of English, University of Foreign Chinese, Beijing)
Bei Zhang (Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Europe, China Institute of International Studies)
Writing/Song in Yan, Diancang, Yunge
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