Monday, 11 June 2007

God save the Queen!

"Because nothing will save the Governor General", as everyone who was around in 1975 is able to respond.

This is the Queen's Birthday weekend. They don't celebrate it in England, but we celebrate it here (Our six y.o.: "Are we going to go?"). It's not even her proper birthday. Like with Horse's Birthday, they pick an arbitrary date and you celebrate it then.

I remember leading one of my first church meetings back in 1984, at St Matthias' Centennial Park. Phillip Jensen was the rector, and his dad Arthur was in the morning congregation. I asked for prayer points, and Arthur said in a stern tone "I think it's about time we prayed for the Queen.

So we did.

I like that Australia is still a constitutional monarchy. The Queen is never around, so it seems to me that you preserve the best bits of the system without having to worry to much about all the palaver and hoo-ha that goes with Queens riding past in carriages, living in palaces that you have to pay for, and generally making an expensive tourist attraction of themselves. While West Australia is still one of the six states (and two mainland territories) that make up the Commonwealth of Australia, we will remain a monarchy no matter how many referenda we have on the question.

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