Everyone's memory slips away. Diana did some groundbreaking things. Touch an AIDS patient bare handed and being a princess, too. The queen wears gloves to touch anyone. 50 years from now, Elizabeth will be remembered as living a very long time. She has done nothing groundbreaking. Just a very nice and decent person. George III lived a very long time, if not for the Revolutionary War, who would remember him? Yes, Diana was an icon in many ways, but icons fade, too. Victoria was Elizabeth in her day. Perhaps, greater. More influence on the continent. Today, she is a statue of a short, stout lady. That's how things go.
I could have written so much, but I will answer you and some other posters here with what I wrote in another thread:
Our beloved, iconic, remarkable Elizabeth II is the UK and the Commonwealth and she is as Obama said a jewel to the world.
She is an international icon and the embodiment of royalty. She has dedicated her life to the UK and the Commonwealth, and have spent the last 63 years building relations and friendship between nations as no other. She's was known as the world's top diplomat until at least 2011 (when she almost stopped traveling) She was also with her parents, sister and Winston Churchill a symbol of peace during World War II.
She is as several of the so-called experts said on British/American/Canadian television during her 90th birthday celebrations and Jubilee celebrations in 2012 a symbol of continuity and goodness in the world. And as Baroness Scotland said during an interview: She is kind, caring, warm, forgiving and concerned with poor people, young people and people who are struggling.
Monarchs, Presidents, former Prime Ministers, former employees and family member have said the same and the Queen herself has mentioned it several times in her speeches over the years.
She is simply THE QUEEN and world leders around the world admirer her, and she make me proud to be half-British. We should be proud to live in this admirable lady's reign.
There will be no one like her again, and I agree with Tony Parsons that she will be the last monarch who will be a truly unifying force in our nation, but the monarchy will continue to endure in to future with Charles, William and George.
And you can not compare the Queen's legacy with the legacy of a controversial person, which almost no Britons under 30 care about.
Diana was pretty controversial before her death. She had turned a revered institution in to her own soap opera, she attacked her husband on television, she embarrassed the Queen and was putting the future of her sons at risk etc. I'm not saying that Charles was innocent, but he didn't attack Diana on TV or in front of the kids.
When it comes to her charity work: I think it took her several years to become patron of approximately 100 charities and she accepted many of them to boost her popularity during the 90s. She then (I think) dropped most of them.
And when it comes to her death: As cepe wrote in this post:
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f23/the-royal-family-and-the-media-11937-12.html#post1871170
The immediate response of the British people was to turn on the press. So what did the press do? Turn it round and blame HMQ. With hindsight we know what HMQ did in looking after her grandchildren was the right thing.
Most people today (even journalists) regrets the way they attacked/bullied the Queen in the days following Diana's death. And the monarchy is more popular today than it was during the Diana years. We've had record high support for the monarchy in several polls since 2002, some of over 80%.
Yes, I agree. There is so much out there by which to remember Diana, and it will be available to future generations. Her dresses will be appearing on display in years to come in Palace exhibitions, children will play in the parks, Londoners and tourists will walk on the Walk, and cyberspace will have many archives of videos and articles. She will not be forgotten.
