Royal history and hope as Queen begins platinum year of reign – The Yorkshire Post says

This has always been a solemn occasion tinged with personal sadness, Her Majesty paying her respects in private, and this year will be no exception.

Yet, in every other respect, it is a historic day – one that will certainly never be witnessed again by this generation – as the Queen begins the 70th year of her remarkable reign, and which will culminate next year with her Platinum Jubilee.

But this latest landmark is worthy of formal recognition because it is another gentle reminder about the Queen’s enduring influence – she will be 95 in April – and how people of all ages, and backgrounds, have been reassured by her presence in this pandemic.

The Queen struck exactly the right tone with her ‘we’ll meet again’ message of hope at the outset and her most Christmas message was her most personal yet as she hailed the nation’s “quiet, indomitable spirit” and the “kindness of strangers”.

It’s why she had such a rapport with Yorkshire’s Captain Sir Tom Moore who died this week – they both define and epitomise the wartime generation – and why the Queen’s reign offers, even on this most bittersweet of days, hope for the future.

Already the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, like over 10 million other people, have received their Covid vaccines and the rollout of this inoculation programme suggests that this will be a year of family reunions, and economic renewal, ahead of a Platinum Jubilee celebration and nationwide street party in 2022 that will redefine the term ‘historic’.

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