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| Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Image Credit: Joel Rouse/Ministry of Defence via Wikimedia Commons (Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0) |
This week, it was announced that HM the Queen will be marking the date that she becomes the longest-reigning British monarch by officially opening the new Borders Railway line from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, near Galashiels in the Scottish Borders on September 9, 2015.
Train services will actually start a few days earlier, but
with the formal opening, the new line will get its Royal seal of approval from
Her Majesty, who along with the Duke of Edinburgh will participate with the
opening celebrations at Waverly Station. Following this, they will board a
train drawn by a historic steam locomotive – the Union of South Africa – with
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and make the 35 mile journey to
Tweedbank, which will include a stop at Newtongrange in Midlothian along the
way.
It will be a day of profound commemoration and ceremony, for
at a cost of £300 million, this line will be the largest new railway to be
built in Britain for over a century. However, its path will be quite familiar
to train enthusiasts and local residents, for it will travel the much of the
northern part of the old Waverly Route (named in honor of Sir Walter Scott’s
first novel), which ran 98 miles from Edinburgh to Carlisle across the border
in England, which was built and opened in stages from 1844 to 1862, but was controversially
closed in 1969 following the Beeching Report, which resulted in the closure of
several rail lines and stations throughout the United Kingdom for purposes of
cost-cutting.
Since then, a nearly 50 year campaign has been waged to
restore the line, and these efforts over the decades will bear partial fruit
when the Borders Railway begins to serve the people of Midlothian and the
Scottish Borders, which has been the only region in Britain without rail
service, and this has caused adverse economic effects for the area. Now with
the restoration of this line, the people living there will mark a truly
historic occasion, which promises to open their area up for work, education,
tourism, leisure, and other pursuits to drive economic activity. It is hoped
that with this much achieved, the entire Waverley Route can eventually be
restored.
But alongside the historical significance of the return of
this railway is the fact that it coincides with Queen Elizabeth II surpassing
her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria as Britain’s longest-reigning
monarch. It has been known that the Queen, who is already the country’s
longest-lived monarch and marked her 63rd year on the throne back in
February, would reach this point in her reign in early to mid September 2015,
but it was not entirely clear what day on which it would exactly fall. Buckingham
Palace has calculated that Victoria had reigned for 23,226 days, 16 hours, and
23 minutes – taking into account the precise timings of her accession in 1837
and her death in 1901, and the 63 years in between (including 15 leap days).
From there, it was determined that the momentous day would be September 9th.
Despite achieving this milestone, the Queen herself likely
wanted no public celebration – just as the date of her accession usually comes
and goes without much of a fuss. Such displays commemorating the reigning
monarch are typically reserved for jubilee’s like the ones in 1977 (Silver),
2002 (Golden), and 2012 (Diamond). However, given the significance of this
particular event – after all, becoming Britain’s longest-reigning monarch is a
pretty big deal – it only made sense to do something.
The opening of the Borders Railway has therefore provided a
perfect opportunity for the 89 year old monarch to be see out and about during
a significant public engagement on what will be remembered as a very historic
day, so that her record-breaking won’t be the sole reason for the celebrations
that will take place, and instead will be part of something greater.
It is quite significant that by formally opening this line,
the Queen is reviving a tradition of rail in the area that goes back to a time
when new rail lines were built almost every day throughout the UK, which
happens to be the era of Queen Victoria, and so there will be parallels with
that earlier reign – especially because of the travel by steam train, which
ought to be an interesting sight for everyone and a thrilling experience for
the Queen herself.
It is also significant that this is taking place in
Scotland, for it was Queen Victoria who started the Royal Family’s modern love
of Scotland, which was been passed down through the generations to the present
Queen, who has maintained the family tradition of spending summer holidays at
Balmoral in Aberdeenshire. Spending this day in Scotland as she marks her
milestone is a demonstration of her affection for a part of Britain which she
holds dear to her heart – so much so, that during the independence referendum
campaign last year, she memorably remarked that she hoped that the people of
Scotland thought carefully about the future when deciding between whether to
become an independent country or remain part of the United Kingdom.
As it was, the people of Scotland voted to stay as part of
the Union, and despite her official silence and not explicitly giving her
stance on the issue, there is no doubt that she wanted her kingdom to stay
together. It is therefore all the more interesting that she will be riding in
the train with First Minister Sturgeon, who campaigned for and has continued to
advocate for the break-up of Britain. Not only this, but it is believed that
Ms. Sturgeon harbors republican sympathies.
Nevertheless, the Queen – as a constitutional monarch – will
carry herself appropriately in her engagements with the First Minister, so she
will not show hostility to her or disrespect to her party. In this way, the
Queen probably wants to show that she is indeed, above the day-to-day political
fray, just as she likely believes the existence of the United Kingdom to be
above politics and nearly beyond reproach, and she certainly doesn’t want it
breaking up from under her. Indeed, in
her Christmas broadcast last year, she talked about reconciliation following
the referendum and how this process would take time following the end of the
two year long and emotionally-driven campaign, which as she said, had brought
disappointment to some and relief to others. And she knows that she has a role
to play in that reconciliation process, and that she must be Queen of all Britons.
The monarchy is in many ways, a major piece of the glue that
holds the United Kingdom together, and Her Majesty takes her role seriously.
More than almost anybody else (including the politicians), the Queen
understands the importance of celebrating the UK as a whole and acknowledging
the constituent parts of the UK, so that each part may have a sense of
ownership in the monarchy and in the idea that it is an institution that
represents the entire UK. This helps to strengthen the Union because the Queen
and members of her family are seen throughout the country carrying out a
variety of engagements – many of which are of social, cultural, or economic
significance to a particular area, and it is good to see them out and about –
especially when showcasing areas of the UK outside of the capital city, London.
In the case of opening the new Borders Railway, Her Majesty
is shining a spotlight on Scotland, and this is her way of showing that
Scotland matters to her personally and as Queen of the United Kingdom. She
herself is half-Scottish through her beloved mother, and is a direct descendant
of and successor to Scottish kings and queens going back over a thousand years,
including Robert the Bruce – who defeated the English at the Battle of
Bannockburn, Mary, Queen of Scots – who was beheaded under the orders of
Elizabeth I of England, and James VI & I – who brought Scotland and England
together in a personal union which paved the way for the full political and
economic union resulting in the country we know today: the United Kingdom.
Therefore, the Queen represents the long and complicated
history of her country and her people – the themes, values, issues, tensions,
paradoxes, and contradictions, as well as the triumphs and tragedies, good and
bad, joys and sorrows, and times of unity and division. With the constitutional
arraignments of the UK being hotly debated, and with the country coming to
terms on issues such as immigration, the economy, the role of government, and
its place in the world, the Queen and the Royal Family function to help bring
the British people together and see that what they have in common outweigh the forces
which drive them apart.
So it is fitting that within a year following Scotland’s
decision to stay part of the Union, the Queen is coming to the part of UK for
which she has great affection to mark the return of rail transportation to the
Midlothian and Borders regions, while also inviting Scotland and Scots to share
with her in the celebrations for that, as well as helping to mark her personal
milestone.
She has been praised for doing this – from Infrastructure
Secretary Keith Brown calling it a “great honour” for her to lead the commemorations,
to Councillor Graham Harvie, the Convener of the Scottish Borders Council, who
remarked that the area was “thrilled” to welcome the Queen for the formal
opening, and said: “The fact that this occasion coincides with Her Majesty
becoming Britain’s longest serving monarch makes it unique in the history of
the Borders.”
In addition, whatever
issues she has with Nicola Sturgeon will not be on display, and indeed, it may
well be that the two women will personally have a pleasant time as they join
together to mark the historic occasion.
When that day comes, hopefully there will be crowds from all
across Scotland and the wider United Kingdom at Waverley Station in Edinburgh,
at Tweedbank Station, and at places in between along the route to take part in the
double celebration. It ought to be a great day, with a cheerful atmosphere for
all amongst individuals, families, and communities, which will be remembered
for a lifetime. Witnessing her people having fun and enjoying themselves – more
than anything else – is likely all that the Queen asks for as she goes through
with this blessed moment in her reign.
