Several special messages are televised every Christmas in the United Kingdom. The most important and traditional is that of the crown, then followed, in that order, by the woman or man who occupies the post of prime minister and then by whom he leads the opposition.
This is the 60th time that Queen Elizabeth II records a video, because in her first 7 years on the throne she pronounced them live.
This is the first time that Boris Johnson televises a message as Prime Minister, although constitutionally he can say 5 of these during his five-year term.
Instead, this is the fifth and last Christmas in which Jeremy Corbyn is going to be the Leader of the Opposition.
REAL SPEECH
Every December 25 at 3pm Elizabeth II delivers her short but very important Christmas message. This tradition was initiated by King George V in 1932. Then, when he died on January 20, 1936, his firstborn and heir Edward VIII could not make his own Christmas speech because he had to give up the crown 14 days before his first Christmas. Neither in 1936 nor in 1938 was there a real message for Christmas. That of 1937 and all of 1939-51 was read by his younger brother and successor George VI until he died on February 6, 1952. A large part of these were focused on the events of World War II (1939-45) where the The United Kingdom was saved from being invaded by the Nazis (who at one time had the collaboration of the king who abdicated in 1936).
From 1952 to date, his eldest daughter Elizabeth II is the one who has been doing such work for 67 years. In 1957 the queen read that message for the first time on TV and since 1959 all those videos began to pre-win, so now we have just turned 60 since that is done.
George V and his 2 children came to have the title of “Emperor of India”, name by which the Indian subcontinent was known which has always had a population greater than that of the Americas, Europe, Africa or China. In addition, they headed the largest overseas empire in history, one that had as a subject a quarter of humanity.
Elizabeth II does not inherit the rank of “Empress of India” because a few years before ascending to the throne the British withdrew from it on condition of continuing to maintain it in their Commonwealth (as is the case with 53 of the 193 countries of the United Nations ).
She, however, remained the queen of numerous independent nations, the same that today have been reduced to 16 (United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Belize and 10 island states in the Pacific and Caribbean), in addition to having 14 overseas units on all 7 continents and 2 crown units near England (the Channel Islands and the Man Islands).
While Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump or Xi Jinping are the transitional presidents of the largest republics on the planet, Elizabeth II is the life queen of territories that add up to an area greater than that of any of those powers.
No other person in power in the world has ever given as many televised annual Christmas messages as she.
ELIZABETH II
In all her Christmas messages the queen usually appears surrounded by ornaments for this party as well as family portraits. This time she mentioned her great-great grandmother Victoria, whom she already surpassed in years of reign, arguing that on the 200th anniversary of her birth she and her husband Felipe have celebrated having their eighth great-grandson.
His family, which is the most televised in universal history, is presented as an example to imitate and as a symbol of British traditions.
In his message, as in Boris Johnson’s and Jeremy Corbyn’s, the Brexit issue was not mentioned at all, which was the main theme in the general elections that were held 13 days before Christmas.
Elizabeth spoke of two important anniversaries: 50 years of when the man first arrived on the moon and 75 years of when the successful Allied landing in Normandy began, beginning Hitler’s defeat on the western European flank.
The first is something that was always the passion of her husband Felipe, who is close to fulfilling a century of life although with a very delicate health. When Neil Armstrong and the other 2 astronauts who made the first human exploration of the moon visited London, Felipe asked for a private meeting with them to show their admiration. In fact, Felipe, as a pilot, always wanted to go as high as he could over the clouds.
The second is something that has been of greater importance, for she saw her father as all the preparations for Day D. If that operation had not been victorious, World War II would have had another outcome.
While Elizabeth II argued that the lesson of the first case is knowing how to take great steps after taking the first steps forward.
