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The striking lack of antimonarchist sentiment was perhaps the most impressive tribute to Elizabeth's quarter-century reign. The vast majority of her subjects clearly appreciate the manner in which she has fulfilled her unique constitutional role: embodying the nation's unity, providing historical continuity, standing above party strife and class divisions. "We yearn for symbols of national unity," wrote Tory Elder Statesman Lord Hailsham in the Sunday Telegraph. "The Americans have their Constitution and flag. In addition to our flag, we have our Queen." Nonetheless, as Hailsham told TIME London Bureau Chief Herman Nickel, he fears that the institution of the monarchy remains "vulnerable to a bad monarch" and that even a good Queen like Elizabeth "cannot serve as a court of appeal against the follies of democracy." For that reason, he now feels that Britain also needs a written constitution and a bill of rights. Some critics maintain that the monarchy may be an obstacle to such reform because the existence of the ancient institution gives too much legitimacy to tradition.
Secret Papers. Whatever the merits of the debate about the monarch's value, Elizabeth has worked hard at her job—traveling, appearing constantly at ceremonial openings, carefully studying the secret government papers in the red "boxes" (leather dispatch cases) that follow her wherever she goes. The seven Prime Ministers who have served her have attested to her impressive grasp of state affairs. Despite the rigid order of palace life, she has tried in small ways to make the monarchy a bit more modern socially—with her walkabouts, for example, or by substituting relatively egalitarian garden parties for the stratified debutante balls of old.
Political Writer John Grigg, once a harsh critic of the monarchy, who now feels that Elizabeth "is to be hailed as an unquestionably good Queen," told TIME that he was "almost moved to tears" by her stroll from St. Paul's to Guildhall last week. "Until quite recently," Grigg noted, "the stuffier kind of monarchists felt that the Queen couldn't behave in an informal manner without demeaning herself. But in fact it enhances her. Not only can she do it, but she clearly enjoys doing it."
Despite her success as a sovereign, Elizabeth II has not presided over a new Elizabethan age—for which her subjects, perhaps unrealistically, hoped when she ascended the throne. While living standards in general have risen almost 70% during her reign, a large part of these gains has been purchased by mortgaging the future through the amassing of a huge foreign debt (although the North Sea oil is beginning to change the economic picture). Indeed, the past quarter-century has witnessed enfeeblement and decline—the end of an empire, the shrinking value of the pound sterling, near stagnation of a formerly innovative economy. It is this grim reality that the Jubilee briefly banished. But it will still be there to challenge Britons when their party is over.