What happens if the Queen reaches the age of 100?

My son asked me this weekend if the Queen has to send herself a telegram should she reach the age of 100. (d.v.)

Her majesty is already by nearly a decade the longest lived reigning British monarch. Her two predecessors as holders both of that distinction and of that for longest reign, Queen Victoria and King George III, both died at the age of 81 and the present Queen celebrated her 90th birthday this year.

My son asked me the question on the day that Queen Elizabeth's reign became one year longer than that of her great, great Grandmother, Queen Victoria.

(For any Jacobites reading this blog, in May Queen Elizabeth's reign exceeded the length of the claimed reign of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart (known to non-traitors as the "Old Pretender.")

If (d.v.) she should live to reach the dates of

  • 6 February 2022 (when she will be 95 years old), she will celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne.
  • 27 May 2024 (when she will be 98 years old), she will surpass Louis XIV of France as the longest-reigning monarch of a major country in European history.

    • I know that Her majesty did not want too much fuss made of the point when the length of her reign passed that of Queen Victoria - as it was a distinction that she earned mainly by living for a long time - but given the above points it will be a remarkable thing if she does live to the age of 100 and certainly worthy of celebration.

    I would have thought the appropriate answer to my son's question is that the office which sends all other centenarians a telegram on behalf of the Queen should send one to her on behalf of the Prime Minister.

    Comments

    Jim said…
    she should also get a novelty birthday card from Jeremby Corbyn, commenting on how she "does not seem to know when to go"
    1:28 pm
    Chris Whiteside said…
    The way things are going he might still be leader of the Labour party which will have a million member and twenty MPs.
    9:02 pm
    Jim said…
    And there is the problem. It means that we end up with a totally off the rails conservative party.........correction.......An even more totally off the rails conservative party, whom the electorate can not feasibly eject.

    Maybe its time for a new way
    4:35 pm
    Chris Whiteside said…
    I think that the Conservative party is currently well aware of the constraints on its power - a majority of only 12 being the most obvious - and has not yet lost sight of the implications of the awful lesson the Labour party is currently providing of what happens if you stop paying attention to the electorate.

    If the Conservatives did win the sort of landslide I referred to in my post above there would be a danger of any party which won such a massive majority going in your words "off the rails."

    I suspect that if Labour continue down their present suicidal path that another opposition will emerge. Can't quite see where yet, but if either the Lib/Dens or UKIP get their act together ...
    10:59 am
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