I am not going to rehash my article on the Queen’s 70-year reign published in the 9 June 2022 edition of CW, as it basically says it all about what a magnificent person the Queen was and what a good job she did; except to say I don’t cry very often, but I did last Friday morning when I heard the sad news of her death. 

This wonderful, remarkable woman, who epitomised the very best qualities of selfless devotion to duty and good will towards all, has finally left us. She seemed timeless, and was the closest thing to the world’s grandmother we are likely to get. I will miss many things about the Queen, including that mischievous twinkle in her eye. She had a wonderful sense of humour, amongst her many attributes. 

She is being rightly honoured, not only in the UK and the other 14 countries (including Australia) of which she was monarch, but throughout the world. Even Vladimir Putin seemed genuinely upset at her passing. Our PM Anthony Albanese has not put a foot wrong so far in honouring her and it was good to see old stagers like John Howard honour her and recount their favourite stories about her, too. 

US President Joe Biden has ordered flags on all US government buildings to fly at half-mast on the day of her funeral, and as I drove past the Italian embassy on Sunday, I saw the Italian flag was also at half-mast, such was the respect she had around the world. 

It was sad, but perhaps not surprising, to see some in this country, especially the usual suspects amongst the Federal Green members of parliament, come out with churlish, inappropriate, and just plain ignorant statements against this great lady. Also, calls for a republic at this time when she has not even been buried yet are in appalling bad taste. Even avid republican Peter FitzSimons says now is not the time to talk of a republic. So much for a new era of civility in the federal parliament!

So, it’s now ‘God save the King’. We all wait with bated breath to see how Charles will go. He certainly has been tutored well by his late mother and father, and has served a long apprenticeship, to put it mildly. He is 73, and his great-great grandfather Edward VII was only 60 when he succeeded his venerable mother, Queen Victoria, in 1901. Not many people thought Edward VII would be a good king as he was a bit of a rake, yet he turned out to be a great statesman who was instrumental in getting the Entente Cordiale between Great Britain and France off the ground.

I am quietly confident that Charles will be a good king; nothing like his mother, who was truly platinum standard, but a competent and likeable monarch nevertheless. I think he will be helped immensely in his role by his wife, Camilla, the Queen Consort. Australians will wish him well.