Her dedication to the job made her seem perhaps staid, but those who spent private time with her speak of her rather sharp wit and her sense of fun. She understood how important her own symbolism was for the british people and for people around the world. Is that to say that in her death the monarchy is necessarily weakened, then do you think? It's difficult to say. Some monarchies, especially in the arab world, have absolute power. And then some, as in japan and here in britain, have power because they have none. But even among those constitutional types of monarchy, some have done better than others. The dutch, danish and sw