The real success of such manufactured consensus is evidenced, however, by the emollient rhetoric emerging from quarters claiming to be not monarchist. The queen’s image now appears automatically on many workplace screen savers while, startlingly, many academics across the country have received instructions from their employers to either not use social media or to mind what they say. It is the kind of mandated devotional unanimity that the new King Charles III once described in relation to another, non-Western country as an “awful Soviet-style display”. Self-absorbed grandstanding is perhaps to be expected from a British media not known for nurturing diversity of opinion in a country where large portraits of the queen are now plastered serially across billboards, bus stops, tube stations, malls, cinemas, and thoroughfares, accompanied by daily public ceremonies and costumed pageantry. Many vulnerable Britons, too, face far from peaceful illness and death this winter. They are unlikely to be “reassured” by the existence of a distant queen or, frankly, troubled by her demise. Most denizens of the Commonwealth – Britain’s former colonies – live precarious existences of their own, many battling catastrophic floods or famines that are nowhere in the headlines. Yet, we are repeatedly instructed that this death is a profoundly significant moment not just for the whole country but the Commonwealth and the entire world. Given the queen’s visibility and longevity, it is understandable that many Britons feel a sense of sadness at this passing, though only the very few who actually knew her will be able to mourn the private person. A handful of people have already been arrested merely for anti-monarchist placards or slogans. What renders our social existence so fragile and unstable in the first place that only one woman, who we would never meet, could provide “continuity” and “reassurance”? You may not ask such questions, for the mildest dissent is immediately shut down. On a seemingly interminable loop, we hear that she was the glue that held us together, a part of us that has been taken from us, and the only stable presence in our lives. More information about Her Late Majesty can be found on the Royal Family website.Ever since Queen Elizabeth II passed away peacefully at a great age, the British public sphere has been engulfed by waves of cloying platitudes. She officially opened the Parliament of New South Wales in 1954, Sydney Opera House in 1973, Parramatta Stadium in 1986, and Darling Harbour in 1988. Her Late Majesty will forever be connected to pivotal moments in our State history. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II went on to become the longest-reigning British monarch, Australian sovereign and leader of the Commonwealth of Nations, which she navigated for more than seven decades with dignity, courage and commitment. Her official title was Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Australia and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. Her Coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953. The young Princess Elizabeth became Queen of England at the age of 25 after the death of her adored father, King George VI, in 1952. Her Late Majesty played a vital role in the shaping of NSW and will be forever linked to our State and to our Nation. The NSW Government, on behalf of the people of NSW, has respectfully offered its sympathies to the Royal Family at this time. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed away on 8 September 2022 at the age of 96.
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