How could that fine woman possibly step down? There is no doubt that she is getting older and small changes in routine hint at this (longer weekends at Windsor as well as investitures held there, and Prince Charles seeing the contents of the red boxes and doing one or two investitures himself) but the idea that Her Majesty would completely throw in the towel is almost absurd. As the granddaughter of George V and Queen Mary she knows that duty is till death. The effects of the Abdication were firmly impressed on her young mind and she saw the effect it had on her father and mother. When Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands abdicated in 1980 the Queen of England is believed to have said "typical Dutch". Abdication is not typical British and thus not typically what she would do.