Let’s mark the accession and the coronation

I SEE that the powers that be, with no electoral warrant whatsoever, have once again decreed that the date of a Royal Jubilee should be played about with.

And as with the Silver Jubilee on February 6, 1977, and the Golden Jubilee on February 6, 2002, the Diamond Jubilee is to be celebrated during the following June – all this apparently because then the daylight last much longer and the weather (hopefully) is better.

Monday February 6 will mark something which has happened only once before in nearly 1,200 years of monarchy. And it will pass with barely a mention of it.

If it had been declared a national holiday (as it should have been), it would have been part of a useful three-day break between Christmas and Easter.

How many people with February birthdays defer all celebrations until the following June?

I was at Headingley to watch a Test Match, with England reducing India to 0 for 4 in their second innings – an interesting and correct diamond celebration. But the Queen then had already reigned for four months.

An obvious solution to the date problem would be to appoint February 6, 2012 as a day of thanksgiving and recollection, with the extra daylight needed for widespread celebrations available on Sunday June 2, 2013 and the 60th anniversary of the coronation.