Queen Elizabeth II

The death of Queen Elizabeth II brings to an end the longest ‘reign’ of a monarch in British history. A revered symbol of service, dedication, stability and endurance to Britain and the Commonwealth, her passing marks the end of an era that spanned the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936, within her childhood memory, to the celebration of her Platinum Jubilee marking 70 years as Queen. Not yet Queen, she experienced the Second World War and the independence of India, after Churchill’s deliberate starvation of three million Bengali Indians, the Cold War inspired anti-colonial wars in Malaya, Kenya and other colonies and later British support for US interventions in Vietnam, Grenada, Iraq and elsewhere, the colonial war against Argentina in 1982, the xenophobic rejection by Britain of its post-colonial future as part of Europe and the threat of Scotland’s departure. She endured the scandals created by Charles and Andrew. Elizabeth became Queen in 1952 and Guyana’s constitution was suspended in 1953. Some of the PPP’s leaders, including my father, were imprisoned. Subsequent neocolonial strategies brought about reconciliation with Kenyatta and other militant leaders, but not with Cheddi Jagan and the PPP, at the US’s insistence.