Her continuous hard work for 60 years has gained Queen Elizabeth II of Britain unique respect, not just from her people, but from many others around the world.
Her contribution to public life is being rightly marked as she passes the diamond jubilee of her accession to the throne following the unexpected death of her father King George VI.
She became Queen as a young woman of 25 in 1952, and over the decades saw Britain transform from the tired post-war colonial power that it was, through the ferment of the social revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s, and the economic revolutions of Thatcher's 1980s, into the self-confident multi-cultural state that it now is, even if its place in the international world remains confused between the US and Europe.
The Queen has played an important part in giving the government and people a larger perspective than the immediate political priorities of governments and prime ministers that come and go.
She has survived her own family problems with dignity, and gave Britain a rare explicit glimpse of her own sense of duty this week when she dedicated herself anew to the service of the British people.
