Sixty years on the throne, a nation celebrates

God save the Queen. I think she's done pretty well.

She is not bad for her age, still works a full day on many things that we do not see and will not stop working until the day she dies.

I have been invited this year to one of the Garden Party's that is held at Buckingham Palace each year. I am still waiting to see if I have to wear my old dress uniform or if I can get away with wearing formal attire. Whatever though it will be a good day out for both my wife and myself. I am nothing special just two of around 1,000 persons who will be attending that day. But she will meet every one of us. My wife is practicing how to curtsy properly, thank God all I have to do is bow my head for a second. I hope I don't head butt her when I do it she is a very small person

I meant that she has done a good job as Queen. And she's not doing bad for someone of her age either. :-)

Poor Charles;He's going to end up like Victoria's son Edward.

I LOVE her. I think she's an elegant, gracious and inspiring person. I wish there were more world leaders who exhibited her strength and depth of character. Too bad her power as Queen was subverted long before she took the throne, although I do believe she still exerts such a strong personal influence for the good of the realm that she keeps the UK from destroying itself.

Yes she is very elegant, gracious and inspiring person. She actually does have a lot of influence and British Governments could not function without her seal of approval. Our Prime Ministers have to go to her when election time comes around and they have to ask her to dissolve Parliament so that a new Government can be elected by the people. And then the new Prime Minister has to visit her before taking office to get her approval to govern the UK. She can at any time say no to that Government either to dissolve Parliament or to create a new one. She would never do that, as it would course a crisis. And here is an odd fact she can actually declare war on another country without telling our Parliament and our armed forces would have to obey, as when we join the armed services we have to swear an oath of allegiance not to our country but to the Monarch and to do otherwise would make each person who disobeys a traitor as do our police and our members of Parliament otherwise known as MPs.

And I think it's a good thing, too. If she didn't have these remaining powers, the UK would be like the rest of the EU. Just look at what is happening to Europe. No sovereignty left! Just one big "duck soup."

Oh Natalie please don't get me started on Europe :-) We are in the EU and don't we just know it, we are the only country that kept our own currency thank goodness however because we are in the EU are having to bail out many countries in the Union, Ireland £10 billion, Greece £10 billion twice, Spain will be next along with Portugal both will get £10 billion. France will if it’s not carful be in that club with this new President that they have. While all the time these country's that we are bailing out are trying their level best to undermine our Golden Mile the City of London because they are so jealous of the City the capital of the financial world with France leading that cavalry charge . Do you know we have to pay to be in the European Union? Its £20 billion a year. Thatcher when she was in office managed to get a rebate each year of £3 billion and the other countries are so jealous that each year they try their level best to get that rebate rescinded. It’s been nothing but trouble since 1974 when we went into what was then the Common Market. The UK cant keep going this way something has got to change, I am all for coming out of this Union and so are the vast majority of the British. Told you not to get me started didn't I :-)

Perfectly understandable to me, Graham. There are those here that want very much to put the USA in a similar situation---some by using the UN to do it, and others who want a "North American Union" with a common currency for Canada, the USA, and Mexico. I, for one, am against such a thing!

Thanks for sharing this with us in Artistic Minds® Graham.

She's had an awfully long reign. It's wonderful that the nation is celebrating with her.

You know I have a feeling that she will outlive her son, her mother the Queen Mother lived well past her century

Funny you should mention that. I have expected her grandson to inherit the throne for years.

thanks for sharing with Surreal Circus

I spent two tours of duty as a guest of Her Majesty's government; It's hard to believe I was less than a year old when she acended the throne. Since the Queen Mother was over a hundred when she finally passed on,I suspect QEII will be around for a little while longer.

When was that Norman?

1977-79 (RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge,near Ipswich),and 1986-89 (RAF Upper Heyford,near Oxford);Very happy memories of my time there.

Hey, we were practically neighbors norman, I was at RAF Lakenheath in the late 70's at the same time. The Queen's Silver Jubilee celebration was something I remember while there.

Do you know RAF Weston on the Green, Oxford? I did my first jump over that base in the late 60s I had to jump out of a static balloon as a practice. Then flew from Brize Norton and jumped in a stick of nine at 2,000 ft. I closed my eyes and hoped for the best after that there was no going back I had to jump or suffer the consequences.

I've heard of Weston,Grahm;What kind of planes were there at that time (sorry,I'm an aviation buff) :) )? Brize Norton as far as I know was/is a cargo base,isn't it?

Cool,John :) ! What kind of planes were at Lakenheath at that time? Bentwaters had F-4D Phantom II's.

norman- there were still a few F-4's there, but leaving; hanger queens, LOL. I was part of the operation to replace the F-4 with the F-111F's, arriving shortly before the aircraft got there. A major effort really to get the base ready for them, and I was happy when they started showing up. Upper Heyford had/got the F-111 "E" models. I was working on the FB-111A's with SAC at the time, had a special "U" prefix in front of my job code for them, so off I went... ;-)
I had to extend my enlistment to do so actually as well, but well worth it. I'm pretty sure the F-111 has been replaced at Lakenheath with the newer 2-seat F-15E strike/bomber version now, not sure about the other RAF bases.

Our F-4D's were replaced by A-10's at Bentwaters not long after I left. Both Bentwaters and Upper Heyford are now closed;I'm pretty sure Lakenheath and Mildenhall will stay open for a while.

I didn't know those two were closed. Mildenhall was/is a major logistics transport hub, pretty close to Lakenheath and was a MAC base when I was there; SR-71's were seen flying in there occasionally as well. We used to go to Mildenhall a lot, as they had better stores, clubs, etc. at the time. Lakenheath grew in size with the arrival of the F-111's and nearby RAF Feltwell was used as housing for many guys I worked with, just not enough room at Lakenheath for all the people. RAF Feltwell was a pretty base, open access, and I think Spitfires flew out of there in WWII from the large grassy airfields it had.

When I first to Upper Heyford,they put me up at the senior NCO quarters at RAF Croughton for the same same reason as Lakenheath-lack of space. Croughton was a listening post,although it was also used as a fighter base during WWII;Some of the old fighter pens were still there. While I was there,I had a friend who worked for Lotus; He used to get us tickets to the British Grand Prix every year. Silverstone used to be a bomber base during WWII;The perimeter road was turned into a racetrack,and the old runway became a VIP landing strip.

Hi Norman sorry that I only just have back to you.

Brize is the main base for transportation of all military personnel and equipment except of course our Royal Navy to all areas in the world that we need to get them to fast. It’s also the main base for our Parachute military training. All our fallen comrades are transported back to Brize as well. I can’t remember what aircraft were at Weston as it was such a long time ago and I did not take much notice at the time. Croughton is a communication station and processes quite a large proportion of your country's military communications in Europe

I've been to Silverstone for the motorcycle Gran Prix type races there. We all rode there on motorcycles in a large group, most of us doubled up on one. I have a picture someplace of the parking that is amazing, there must be a million motorcycles as far as the eye can see, LOL. It was a championship race, and the place was really packed. Great time!

Thanks,Grahm...My condolences to your lost comrades,especially those who are fighting with us in Afghanistan. I recently read a story about a C-17 transport that was recently accepted by the RAF at the factory in the U.S. It's going to join the C-17 fleet already at Brize Norton.

For most of my life I was never really a fan of the Monarchy, not anti but indifferent. It was the realisation that the alternative would be President Blair that made me realise a consitutional monarch is really the best option. As long as The Queen is Comander in Chief of the armed forces we are safe from nutters who would get us into wars for their own personal advantage.

And Prime Ministers can be thrown out quite easily. Right now it looks a good bet that Cameron will not be leading the Conservatives at the next election. :->

I have never minded the Monarchy although I have some very strong thoughts on the mina ones. At least our Queen and her Husband have actually done something in their lives. The Duke in the Navy during World War 2 and actually saw action in the Med. In addition, the Queen before she became Queen did her bit for the war effort.


I am not going to say anything at all about her eldest son or her youngest son, her other son at least saw action in 82 and he did no matter what people say he did his bit even though he is now known as a freeloader. Daughter she is just behind her mother in her work ethic and I would not wish to get on the end of her sharp tongue.

As for the others mina ones I think we should kick them out into the cold hard world.

Your right Ian the thought of President Blair or President Brown or even President Cameron should fill every British person with dread.

I was watching the Pageant this afternoon with my wife and some friends that are staying with us from another country and my wife remarked how well it was organized. I had to say that we have had over 1,000 years to get things like that right. Our friends were glued to their seats and were mesmerized by the whole affair. They could not believe how many people turned out in the rain to cheer her and to watch the whole show. My friend’s wife kept saying how old is she why doesn't she sit down she must be getting tired. We won’t see another Monarch doing this for a while.