Trooping The Past

There is no doubt Queen Elizabeth has performed her duties as Head of State wonderfully. Throughout her long sixty year reign, she has barely put a foot wrong. Today the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony to mark Her Majesty's official birthday is again taking place in central London.

Scores of soldiers in nineteenth century fancy dress stamped their way up and down the sandy ground of Horse Guards Parade as Officers sitting on horses with bits of dead bear wrapped around their heads barked public school orders at them. Not a female soldier was any where to be seen

Meanwhile across the globe in the thirty minutes this anachronistic fancy dress parade was being played out China launched three Officers comprising two men and a woman in to space orbit.

The contrast could not be clearer. The United Kingdom, an increasingly insignificant, medium sized, class-ridden European monarchy stuck with institutions living out a faded past. China the emerging superpower looking to the future.