LONDON – No step backwards, no abdication. Despite those who wanted her to give up , Queen Elizabeth remains on the throne and pays tribute to the fallen of World War I and the volunteers who fight Ebola in West Africa in her traditional Christmas speech. Not only. In the same speech the queen makes an appeal for reconciliation in Scotland. Three months after the referendum that saw 55% of Scots say no to independence , the British sovereign remembers the Christmas truce of 100 years ago during the Great Wars an example of the ability to overcome even the most bitter contrasts: “In Scotland – he says -, after the referendum, many have experienced great disappointment, others have experienced great relief. To overcome these differences, it will take time. Sometimes it seems that reconciliation has sometimes few possibilities in the face of war and conflict, but, as the Christmas truce of a century ago reminds us, peace and goodwill have lasting power in the hearts of men and women “.
Next, the British sovereign recalled that the nearly 900,000 Commonwealth fallen in the Great War offered “a sacrifice” that can be respected “only with silence”.

Then he mentioned the installation at the Tower of London with 888,246 red ceramic poppies, one for each British fallen and the Commonwealth countries in the First World War, seen in a few weeks by 4 million visitors: “The installation reminded us of the penalty for loved ones we have lost “. Still talking about the First World War, Elisabetta recalled the Christmas Truce, when, 100 years ago, on Christmas day, British and German soldiers, on opposite sides, stopped fighting to meet,
Elizabeth II then said that she was “deeply touched” by the health professionals who went to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia to help Ebola patients in an epidemic that caused almost 8 thousand deaths.

Today the queen was also at Mass, with other members of the royal family, in the church of St Mary Magdalene in Sandringham.
Absent, this year, Camilla and the little prince George , entrusted to the care of his baby sitter: in this regard, his mother Kate, Duchess of Cambridge , apologized for not having brought him. In fact, the two thousand people present were disappointed due to the absence of the young prince. When a child named Maddison Neal, 8, stuck a box of MilkyBar chocolates for little George in the crowd, Kate felt compelled to give explanations and replied: “I’m sorry I didn’t bring George, but otherwise you would have heard in church”. With today’s speech, the queen respected a fixed appointment for her subjects. “Now I speak to all of you from my home and from my heart”: this is how, on December 25th 1932, the speech of King George V started, marking the beginning of an all-British tradition, going on for all these years until today.