Waiting in vain: HRH The Queen kicks off her 12-day visit to Canada by telling her loyal Canadian subjects exactly where to go. 

Together with 200 journalists, the residents of Iqaluit in the Canadian Arctic (pop. 6,000) will watch her unveil the town's first street sign. [Globe and Mail].

Writing in the new issue of Granta, Finton O'Toole compares the Silver Jubilee of 1977  - 'There is no future in England's dreaming' - with the modern jubilee experience:

'HI. WE ARE STANDING AT THE MALL. V. TIRED. NOTHING HAPPENING. IF ANY NEWS TEXT BACK. C U.'

Watching the Golden Jubilee crowds watch themselves on the screens outside Buckingham Palace, he realises that the Queen has become just another living legend, an example of retro chic, a bit player in the pop panoply.

It's the experience of waiting for HRH that's the main event. It lets people catch sight of 'their own forbearance and tolerance, their own cheerful stoicism'. [Granta].

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