This article is reproduced from Niu tanqin (ID: bullpiano) with authorization by Niu tanqin
Britain’s real crisis is here.
I always think that there are at least three crises in Britain.
First, the prime minister’s crisis.
Johnson stepped down in a scandal, and truss, the new leader, was a private gift from the conservative party, but most of the British people are not optimistic. Opinion polls show that 52% of Britons think that truss will be a bad or even very bad prime minister.
Secondly, people’s livelihood crisis.
Inflation has exceeded 10%, and the discontent of the British people is said to have reached the peak in decades. They have just experienced a “summer of discontent”, followed by a “cold winter”, facing the difficult choice of “eating or heating”.
Thirdly, the crisis of the royal family.
“London bridge collapsed”, the venerable British Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96. Charles succeeded him as king of England. However, no matter how senior Charles is as crown prince, he cannot compare with the queen who has been in office for 70 years. This is not only a major political crisis but also a huge spiritual crisis for Britain and the Commonwealth.
Among these three crises, people’s livelihood is the biggest politics, and the prime minister is the key to politics. But the shock wave of the Queen’s death should be the biggest crisis in Britain at present.
Although the queen is only the nominal head of state, her 70 years in office have already made her surpass a symbolic leader. In the words of new British Prime Minister truss, she is the cornerstone of modern Britain.
You should know that when Elizabeth II ascended the throne in 1952, the British Prime Minister was Churchill; Two days before her death, truss was appointed. She has been in office for 70 years and witnessed 15 British prime ministers and 14 US presidents. She is not only the longest serving and oldest head of state in the world, but also the key to maintaining the unity of the whole UK and the Commonwealth.
But now the queen is gone. After the queen, Britain is no longer the original Britain, and the Commonwealth is certainly no longer the original Commonwealth.
Take Australia, an important country in the British Commonwealth, as an example. During the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne this year, Australian Governor General David Hurley said that the Australian people gave Elizabeth II a lot of “emotional support”. However, after the Queen’s death, the situation may change. “I think people are paying attention to the queen now, but when she leaves and dies, a successor appears, and Australia will have a new discussion about it.”
Matt Thistlethwaite, a senior official of the Australian government, said that it was time to start talking about Australia becoming a republic.
In his words, the queen is indeed a great monarch and the leader of the Commonwealth, “but as her rule moves towards dusk, I think Australians naturally begin to ask themselves, what will happen next in Australia. Do we want King Charles? Or are we mature and independent enough to appoint our own people as heads of state?”
What does that mean?
It means that after the queen leaves, the new Charles does not have the appeal of the queen, and more Commonwealth countries will no longer respect the British king as the head of state, but become Republic countries.
In fact, during her 70 years in office, the queen has also experienced many crises. The accident of Princess Diana in China is the biggest crisis; Abroad, one Commonwealth country after another abandoned the queen and became a republic.
In the last year of her life, Barbados, a Pacific island country, broke away from the British Commonwealth, elected its own president, and no longer respected the queen as the head of state; Jamaica, a Caribbean island country, revealed that it had started the process of seceding from the British Commonwealth to become a republic.
The queen can’t stop this trend. In the Charles era, the pace of de britannization will surely be accelerated.
Australia, New Zealand, and then Canada… Although they are still Anglo Saxon, the strength of Britain is declining, and the British king is no longer their king. This will also have a subtle impact on the future world pattern.
For Britain, what is more troublesome is the unity and unification at home.
The Queen’s last state event was two days ago, when she accepted Johnson’s resignation in Scotland on crutches, and then appointed truss as the new Prime Minister of Britain.
Johnson stepped down because of the scandal, and truss was the third female Prime Minister of Britain. From a positive perspective, as the queen herself said before her death, she fulfilled her duties for the royal family to the last moment of her life; But from a negative point of view, after all, she is 96 years old. This disturbance in British politics is really fatal to her health
The queen may also have a premonition that the place of her death was not Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle in England, but Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
In fact, the queen played an important role in the failure of the Scottish independence referendum.
Britain has come to a new crossroads. Scotland is fighting for independence, and Northern Ireland is in constant trouble. We can’t rule out Wales following suit. Without the kind old lady, the queen, the separatist tendency in Britain will certainly be further intensified.
I remember that when brexit happened, many Britons worried that considering that Scotland did not agree to brexit, the next step might be Scottish independence, and then Northern Ireland would become part of Ireland
Like the Russian doll, this empire, which once owned the world’s largest land, shed its skin layer by layer and finally returned to the three British Islands. With the Queen’s final departure, the future of the three islands is likely to be a dream.
When a country is strong and prosperous, it will return home from all over the world; But when it comes to decline, it always falls apart internally.
This may also confirm the old Chinese saying: the general trend of the world is that if we divide for a long time, we will converge and if we unite for a long time, we will divide.
In this world, many things are created by ourselves?
In 1952, when 25-year-old Elizabeth II became the queen of Britain, the British Prime Minister was Churchill, the US president was Truman, and the Soviet leader was Stalin. In the past 70 years, she has witnessed too many powerful events, witnessed the gradual transformation of Britain, and witnessed her gradual aging
This is the law of nature, and no one can stop it.
Time is the most ruthless enemy; Time and interview prove everything.