Jubilees: The Diamond Queen & Dickens

Monday was the start of the Queen 's Diamond Jubilee.

60 years on the throne.

Not bad, eh?

For most people the jubilee means nothing more than getting an extra public holiday this year

(5 June -Yeah!).

I wouldn't claim to be a monarchist, but I admire the Queen’s tireless service to her country. I do however believe that a modern and democratic country should appoint its head of state (which is what the Queen actually is) in a democratic way. However, the current monarchy has evolved over centuries and works reasonably well, which is probably why there is no real move for radical change in British society. I don't think we can guarantee that this attitude towards the monarchy won't change when the next generation takes over....

But, lots of respect to the Queen. Not many holds the same job for 60 years!

the Google doodle marking Dickens 200th birthday

Another jubilee to mention is that yesterday it was 200 years since Charles Dickens was born.  I wonder what horrors of society he would have written about if he had been alive today? There was no welfare state back then. Poverty was a theme Dickens explored in many of his novels, and there is no doubt it would still preoccupy him if were writing today. Likewise the gap between rich and poor and the financial recession would have been a theme Dickens would have delved into if he were writing in 2012. His father had lived beyond his means and was sent to a debtors' prison, the Marshalsea in London. This was the inspiration for his novel Little Dorrit, the tale of a girl whose father was imprisoned in the Marshalsea after going bankrupt. This continued gap between those earning the most and the rest of the population, would have provided Dickens with some powerful source material.

So, although A LOT has changed since Dickens' days, there are still a lots of similar topics he could have addressed.