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LONDON This venerable Roman city on the River Thames is agogthis weekend over the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth withUnion Jacks and imperial red, white and blue bunting visible almosteverywhere. It was 60 years ago that Elizabeth Alexandra Mary began her reignover the United Kingdom and six other Commonwealth nations, thefirst of which in order of precedence was Her Majesty s oldest andtherefore most senior dominion, Canada. As the sun emerged briefly through a grey sky the Queen spentSaturday afternoon doing something she loves, watching the EpsomDerby. Dressed in a blue coat and matching hat, the keen andknowledgeable horsewoman was greeted with an enthusiastic renditionof God Save the Queen by a crowd that included the cream of Britishsociety, among them many of her kin and oldest friends. On Sunday, the pomp that nobody does better than the British is tobegin in earnest as the Queen leads a flotilla of more than 1,000vessels down the Thames aboard her new royal barge. On Mondayevening she is to be feted by a Who's Who of British pop music,including Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney, before thelighting on a beacon at Buckingham Palace that follows by a fewminutes the lighting of another beacon on the roof of nearby CanadaHouse. On Tuesday she is to cross over from Westminster Hall to the palacein a horse-drawn royal cavalcade guarded by soldiers on horseback,where she is to look out from the royal balcony at the crowdsgathered at Canada Gate and on the Pall Mall. On Wednesday she isto have lunch with her Commonwealth prime ministers, includingStephen Harper. At 86 years of age twice a great-grandmother in a family wherethe women are known for their longevity Elizabeth obviously hasslowed down a bit but remains in apparent robust health. If theQueen lives four more years she will break a record that oncelooked to be unassailable. She will surpass her great-greatgrandmother, Victoria, as Britain's longest-reigning sovereign. Should Elizabeth reach that milestone there will be speculationaplenty about whether she should or would abdicate so that PrinceCharles, who is already 64, can become King Charles III. Manybelieve Charles should in turn step aside so that his far morepopular son, Prince William, can succeed the Queen as King WilliamV. While Victoria, Empress of India, saw her realm extended to the farcorners of the globe, Elizabeth has watched hers contract bit bybit especially in the late 1950s and early 1960s when nationafter nation in Africa, the Middle East and the Far East declaredits independence. 'Lilibet,' as she was called by those closest to her when she wasyoung, has been the one constant in British life for more than halfa century. What had been a white, Anglo-Saxon nation arose, quiteliterally, from the ashes and austerity of the Second World War andwas transformed into a multicultural hub and one of the trendiestplaygrounds for the famous and the infamous. In another sign of the times, the Queen now has a mobile phone.Sixty years ago it took nearly 24 hours for news to reach her inKenya that her father, King George VI, had died in London and thatshe and her husband must immediately break off their planned tourto Australia and New Zealand to attend the funeral. The new Elizabethan Age has not been without its trials anddisappointments for the Queen. Hounded by the paparazzi and aravenous tabloid culture that no longer treats younger royals withrespect or gives them much breathing room, some of her children andgrandchildren have, to use an old English expression, 'let the sidedown.' The marriage of her first-born and heir, Charles, to PrincessDiana, ended in a shambles. So did the marriage of his youngerbrother, Andrew to Sarah, Duchess of York and albeit with farless public opprobrium the union of her only daughter, Anne, toCaptain Mark Phillips. There have also been embarrassments asAndrew and his estranged wife, 'Fergie,' as well as others close toher including her youngest son, Prince Edward, and his wife,Sophie appeared to trade on their royal connections to try toget easy money. Throughout these often tawdry controversies and others involvingAndrew and Fergie's two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, andCharles's second son, Prince Harry, the Queen has maintained herdignity and her high reputation. Without complaint she continues toget on with the punishing demands of an international life ofpublic service, regularly reviewing classified private dispatchboxes on global affairs and having frequent consultations withBritish prime ministers. There have been many trying times none more so than when theQueen was slow to understand that many of her grieving subjectsexpected her to leave Balmoral Castle to mourn in public alongsidethem in London after the death of Diana in a car accident in Paris,which also killed an Egyptian lover whose reputation was that of aindolent bounder. Back in London, and dressed in black, the Queendutifully emerged from Buckingham Palace to speak with some ofthose who gathered to honour Diana. Even as a child Elizabeth was regarded as someone with both a sweetnature and grit not to be trifled with or crossed, according tothose who knew her back then. That potent mixture and the fact thather primary private interests have always been her horses, herWelsh corgis and long walks around her English and Scottishestates, may explain why the Queen has been spared the intensescrutiny that her children and now her grandchildren must endure. Nevertheless, the Queen continues to quietly assist her offspringand their progeny to prepare for public life. She had made therounds recently with granddaughters Beatrice and Eugenie in tow, aswell as with William's bride, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. With Britain in the middle of a recession that seems likely to getworse, the Queen and her Diamond Jubilee have once again broughtsome magic to the British Isles and to the centre of the royaluniverse in London. In a fit of patriotism, parliamentarians havebeen so gobsmacked by the Queen and the Second Elizabethan Age thatthey are reportedly about to rename Big Ben the big clock atopWestminster Palace as the Elizabeth Tower. Given the pomp and hoopla that attended the Queen Mother's 100thbirthday, some are already wondering what her daughter's centenarybash will be like. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Cable Tray System Manufacturer , China Sheet Metal Components for oversee buyer. 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