The vast majority of Australians have nothing but respect and admiration for Her Majesty the Queen and will be wishing her good health and an even longer life on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee, writes former prime minister of Australia Tony Abbott in an opinion piece for London’sOn her 21st birthday, she declared that “my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service” and to that of the “great imperial family to which we all belong”.
Notwithstanding the atavistic ambivalence of some Australians of Irish heritage and the constant media drumbeat that the monarchy is “outdated”, “foreign”, “elitist” and even “racist”, it still fascinates us. Partly that’s the celebrity factor, partly respect for the Queen herself, partly appreciation that the Crown puts part of our system of government above and beyond party politics; and partly it’s the mystique of having a claim on the oldest continuing institution in Western civilisation .
The Crown is more than the individual who wears it. It’s more than any of the countries that share it. It’s an institution that spans continents and centuries. It’s a link to our best ideals. And it perfectly reflects Burke’s notion of society as a compact between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are yet to be born.
What a miserable publication this has become.
Pretty sure he already has