The leadership legacy of Queen Elizabeth II on the centenary of her birth
Jason Tanner's unique commentary around the relevance of the British Royal Family and the UK to the modern world and democracy is the culmination of history studies stretching from his early schooling in Guildford, through to his graduate studies at the University of Liverpool and overlapping post-graduate training as a Broadcast Journalist on Britain's south coast. Jason has developed his own unique narrative termed as ‘his-story, ’ charting the rise and fall of the Empire with particular reference to Queen Victoria and the second Elizabethan age; using the streets of London as the backdrop... (use drop-down arrow to continue reading)
While training to the higest grade in post graduate broadcast journalism in Portsmouth, Jason benefited from tuition directly delivered by the inspirational print journalist, David Kett, who co-authored materials specially commissioned by the National Council for the Training of Journalists at that time. But the genesis of his interest in the contemporary royals was spurred on by his mother who cast an almost obsessive but keenly analytical eye over 'everything royal' during his childhood, during a period when silver jubilee street parties in 1977 for Queen Elizabeth II seemed a very big unifying phenomenon throughout the UK with little sign of overt republicanism, except for the terrible troubles haunting Northern Ireland at this time.
Spurred on by current threats to free speech, he recently became the founding Director of the Defend UK campaign for fairer free speech. He also writes as an independent, multi–subject news commentator.
Queen Elizabeth II broadcasting her first Christmas message in 1952 (With thanks: © 2026 BBC)
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Queen consort, Queen Elizabeth on the Buckingham Palace balcony with her daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II.