One of the many changes to our nation since 2000 has been the decline of the House of Windsor.By decline I mean that the Royal Famly have almost disappeared from national life. We now pay more attention to Wags,soap stars and film stars than we do to Princess Anne or Prince Charles.
Our media only seem interested in the royals unless there is new girlfriend for Harry or Willaim or a bust up outside a nightclub.We now regard them as semi celebrities.The decline of the Royal Family has been steadily progressing since the 1980s, when coverage by the press depicted the Windsors as a soap opera. The endless splashes in the tabloid press from the Andrew Morton books to the Paul Burrell revelations have seen a marked decline in royal coverage. Even more corrosive has been the reduction in respect for the royals as they became foddet for gossip hungry media.

Do you remember when the Queen used to visit a foreign country? It would receive widespread coverage. Now we hardly see or hear of the Queen and her family. Recently,she became a YouTube hit through her comments about Silivio Berlusconni( Italian PM)at the recent G20 summit.The fuss about US First Lady Michelle Obama touching the Queen created one of those fake media scandals that our celebrity driven media love to report.

The Truth is that the Queen is important.She is a symbol of our nation,representative of its history and and its changes which are to come. She has met every Prime Minister since Winston Churchill. Barack Obama is the 11th US President that she has met!We are truly blessed to have as Head of State someone who has acquired a huge amount of wisdom and experience. Someone who reprsents change and also continuity at the same time.

It is sad that we seem to have tipexed her out of our daily life. The deaths of Princess Diana and the Queen Mother showed that there is lots of affection for the Royal Family and that we have not quite succumbed to republicanism yet.

When the Queen passes away, we will realise what a treasure she is, and how luck we have been.