In just a few days, Queen Elizabeth II will become the first ever British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee after 70 years of service. “Service” is the word used by the special royal website set up to prepare to celebrate the seven decades of her reign. From Thursday June 2 to Sunday June 5 ordinary Brits will be holding street parties, attending concerts and religious events to show their love and appreciation of the woman who has been in Buckingham Palace since 1952.

 eBay in the UK is currently advertising what it calls “Queencore table décor” along with Union Jack flags, bunting and special celebratory candles. People across the country are learning to bake cakes in red, white and blue. The new Barbie doll of the Queen has sold out entirely.

 Trooping the Colour, bringing together more than 1,400 soldiers and 200 horses, will kick off the Jubilee bank holiday weekend, when the Queen and her family will be on the palace balcony watching the traditional RAF fly-past. Over the weekend there will be beacons lit, a St Paul’s cathedral service of thanksgiving, a BBC “Party at the Palace”, and a Jubilee pageant. It is a massive milestone. Pubs, clubs and bars are being allowed to stay open until 1am.

 The reputation of “the firm”, as the House of Windsor is sometimes referred to, is an extremely important element of Britain’s history from the early 17th century to now. When the Queen is no longer with us, the royal family will likely face an uncertain future. Elizabeth has always said she will remain on the throne as long as she is able.

 The upcoming celebrations already provide multiple clues to her popularity and the Palace’s handling of it. Last week, for example, Her Majesty attended the opening ceremony of London’s Crossrail project, linking the east and west of the UK capital via the centre of the city. Long-delayed by rising costs and the Covid pandemic, it was renamed the “Elizabeth Line” in 2016.

 Previously the monarch visited Paddington Station, opening the line officially three and half years after she was first invited to do so. “We now know that it’s fit for a Queen – and for Londoners,” declared the mayor of the capital, Sadiq Khan.

 In the 1950s, as a young woman at the start of her reign, Elizabeth was depicted as a glamorous "fairy-tale Queen". After the trauma of the Second World War, it was a time of hope, a period of progress and achievement heralding a "new Elizabethan age".

 At the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, the crowds and celebrations were genuinely enthusiastic. But, in the 1980s, public criticism of the royal family increased, as the personal and working lives of Elizabeth's children came under scrutiny. Her popularity sank to a low point in the 1990s. Under pressure from public opinion, she began to pay income tax for the first time, and Buckingham Palace was opened to the public.

 Discontent with the monarchy reached its peak on the death of the former Princess of Wales, Diana, although Elizabeth's personal popularity—as well as general support for the monarchy—rebounded after her live television broadcast to the world five days after Diana's death.

 Polls in Britain in the early noughties showed strong support for the monarchy, and in 2012, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year, her approval ratings hit 90 percent. Her family came under scrutiny again in 2019 and the early 2020s due to her son Andrew's association with convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Andrew’s lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre, amidst accusations of sexual impropriety, and her grandson Harry and his wife Meghan’s exit from the monarchy and their subsequent move to the US added to the image problem.

 With the Queen aged 96, it was no surprise of course that the latest problem has become the issue of her health. “And concerns about the mortality of the monarch have inevitably led to questions about the mortality of the monarchy itself,” wrote one royal expert.

 Last November, the Queen was driven from Windsor Castle to a London hospital where she stayed overnight for unexplained “preliminary investigations”. After that, Buckingham Palace seemed evasive about her condition. And it was nearly five months before she was able to make another public appearance, at Westminster Abbey for a service of thanksgiving for the life of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, who died in April 2021.

 She caught Covid this February, with the palace stating that she was experiencing "mild cold-like symptoms." While recovering from infection, the Queen cancelled many work commitments; since then, she has continued to work but has reduced in-person activities due to her persistent mobility concerns. Last week she generated enormous media coverage by using an electric buggy to visit the Chelsea Flower Show in west London.

 Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, likes to present himself as modernizer. He is far less popular than his mother. When he turned 70, in November 2018, he said: “If you become the sovereign, then you play the role as it is expected. So clearly I won’t be able to do the same things I’ve done as heir.” That has fuelled speculation that he won’t air his views, even while still holding them.

 It is hard to disagree with this conclusion from the royal historian Clive Irving: “The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year was always going to be a gamble for the House of Windsor,” he wrote recently. “On the one hand, it would demonstrate what they do best, a superbly choreographed series of pageants designed to leave audiences around the world agape. On the other, it would highlight just how dependent the whole show has become on one person, the woman whose amazing staying power it celebrates.” Indifference to “the firm” seems certain to increase once she departs.

BY: IAN BLACK