The Queen should have stepped down a decade ago

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Rather than viewing her 70 years as simply remarkable, might we view them as an impediment to the nation’s coming of age (EPA)

Despite her impeccable sense of duty to the nation, bequeathed to her by accidents of birth and succession, perhaps we should allow ourselves a contrary view of the Queen’s reign at this auspicious time.

Rather than viewing her 70 years as simply remarkable, might we view them as an impediment to the nation’s coming of age.

The length of her reign maintains a physical link to those two aspects of our history – the dubious glories of Empire and the Second World War – that shackle us to a mythic sense of the past, enabling those who wish to do so to continue to peddle an outdated view of the nation’s exceptionalism.