Liz Windsor: The Jubilee and a Reign in Numbers

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom presided Sunday afternoon over a vast nautical celebration including over 1,000 boats in front of 11 million spectators who had massed along 11 kilometres of the Thames. The occasion was four days of celebration of her Diamond Jubilee. A look at the numbers generated by her 60-year-long reign leaves dubious its utility versus its futility.

• 0. The number of interviews the Queen has given to the press.
• 1 yacht, the Royal Britannia, which has loyally served the queen during 43 years on all the world’s oceans, before leaving service in 1997, a decision of Tony Blair’s government and a result of its considerable cost. It is the only occasion upon which the Queen has been seen to cry in public.
• 12 Prime Ministers, from Winston Churchill to David Cameron, have worked with the Queen since her ascension to the throne.
• 16 countries, including the United Kingdom, of which the queen is head of state, among the 54 member states of the Commonwealth.
• 30 corgis. The Queen’s favourite dogs have their place in Buckingham. The Queen received her first as a present in 1944.
• 129. The number of times the Queen has had to pose for portraits.
• 261 official state visits made by the Queen to 116 countries.
• 5,300 royal swans are counted every year. Technically, they are the property of Elizabeth, who is also queen of all the sturgeons, whales and dolphins in the kingdom due to a law of 1324 that has never been abolished
• 50,000 people on average are received yearly in a series of dinners, banquets and other receptions in Buckingham Palace.
• 90,000 “Christmas puddings” were offered to the queen and her personnel for Christmas, in keeping with the custom of her predecessors.
• 175,000 telegrams have been sent by the queen to centenarians.
• 1.5 million people have drunk tea with the queen in garden parties organised by the monarch
• 387 million the estimated personal wealth of the Queen, in euros. She is the 262nd richest person in the country and the 14th richest aristocrat in the United Kingdom according to the list of the Sunday Times from 2012.

Original l’Humanite article: Jubilé: Elizabeth II en a usé plus d’un by S.G.

Translated Tuesday 5 June 2012, by Harry Cross and reviewed by Henry Crapo

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