Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Only a minority can remember the day Elizabeth II became Queen. I was just coming up to thirteen at the time and I recall it with surprising clarity. It was a chill and gloomy day when the news came, in a formal announcement on the BBC radio (then the wireless) that the King was dead. The nation was stunned. He was so young. He had been there for them all through the terrible war, the bombs and the sorrow and he had been there at the end to celebrate victory. It was this shock which consumed the nation that day rather than too many thoughts about the new Queen, away with her husband in Kenya at the start of a tour on the King’s behalf. Of course she flew back at once.

It was the picture of her emerging from the aircraft on her return, a tiny figure dressed in black, but not veiled, on the top of the steps, with the entire Cabinet bare headed and lined up below, led by Churchill, now her Prime Minister, that brought home to the nation that it was about to experience a change unknown since Victoria’s accession in 1837. Victoria presided over the  expansion of the British Empire to its highest point to make Britain the number one world power. Elizabeth was destined to preside over the dissolution of that Empire in a seamless transition to a voluntary Commonwealth with few sorrows and little bloodshed. Now nobody regrets its passing and the young have only a vague idea of what the Empire was. But Britain is still there at the centre of the world, not an Empire any longer, but a power still. Not a super-power but a special sort of power with a unique and mysterious authority which cannot be defined.

It is perhaps best explained by the magic of the Monarch, a Head of State like no other, admired by even republicans, a kind of Queen for all the world; Elizabeth at 90. And long may she reign.

 The latest edition of this ever popular psycho-thriller, now in its twentieth year, has a dramatic new cover and is offered for a limited period at the special price of £5.99 paperback and .99p  Download. A haunting tale of passion and the paranormal, written in the style of its setting in the 1920s.

A tiny English village slumbers on the Surrey/Sussex borders, but the pastoral exterior hides a number of nightmare secrets.
The return of a young man after a long absence stirs memories of the horrific murder of his mother and uncle years earlier and of an ancient curse delivered upon the family in Napoleonic times. The villagers’ unease grows as the young man embarks upon an affair with the local farmer’s daughter, and a series of mysterious deaths seem to follow in his wake. Full of authentic period detail, this is a tale which will haunt readers long after the last page has been turned.

Amazon UK             Amazon US

President Obama, hugely popular in the UK, has not hidden behind impartiality nor minced his words. The vote is for the British people, but here is what I think is his message. Moreover he drives in hard. As president of the US he has a right to state America’s preference over what happens in Europe, because when it screws up America has to ride to the rescue, testified by thousands of US graves far from home. Britain in Europe reassures America that the fabric of unity will hold.

So a delighted Cameron beams as the President pours scorn on the ease with which Leave claim to be able to fix a trade deal with the US. ‘Back of the queue’ and ‘five to ten years’ are among the phrases deliberately used in high profile media events. Hilary weighs in across the Atlantic and says Britain should stay put. Boris goes berserk. He completely loses it and starts to say the most stupid things you can imagine and hurling nasty, almost racist insults. Talk about throwing toys from the pram. Woweee!

Leave have only themselves to blame. They have been preparing for this for over thirty years and they have nothing concrete to offer at all. They are either stupid or lazy or lack judgement or all three. They should have been having talks in Washington, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Delhi, Canberra, Ottawa and all over, meticulously fleshing out a programme and a direction of travel. But no, too much effort. Well now it is all coming out. There is nothing on offer but faith in a bunch of zealots, harking back to a world no longer there, hoping that things will turn out okay. Of course there may be a reason for this.  They may be quite canny. They know there will lose so why bother.

So as the week ends Cameron is rescued from the nadir in his fortunes the week before, Boris has fallen off his perch and been revealed not as a majestic bird of prey but a rather noisy rooster without any hens and Obama today sets off for Germany and Angela. Just to rub it in if you have not been listening.