We need the monarchy more than ever

One part of our unwritten constitution has been functioning perfectly during the Brexit upheaval: the monarchy. Unhappy behaviour by some younger royals reminds us how jealously the institution must be protected. It will also be essential to guard the monarchy’s impartial ‘light above politics’ (Roger Scruton’s happy phrase) with more care than ever in the inevitable Brexit arguments of the next few months.

Since Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952, aged only 25, she has provided a comforting, non-political presence throughout immense and often unsettling change in this country. There is no way in which a succession of republican presidents (probably politicians kicked upstairs) could have done the same. Imagine Presidents Wilson, Major or Blair on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Nor can I.

Or imagine a president today who was known to have strong views one way or another on Brexit. It would be intolerable. The Queen’s reign is by no means over, but she became our longest-reigning monarch in 2015 when she overtook her great-great-grandmother Victoria. Her Platinum Jubilee is now in hailing distance in early 2022.

Her reign has been always informed by her lack of pomp and boundless sense of duty. ‘I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view,’ she once said. ‘To give of my best in all that that day brings — and to put my trust in God.’ Her belief in Christ’s message of ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’ informed the graceful advice she gave to all Brexit warriors in her last Christmas broadcast (the only words she is allowed every year to write herself): ‘Even with the most deeply held differences, treating the other person with respect and as a fellow human being is always a good first step towards greater understanding.