The end of an elizabethan era

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THETHETHE IMPACTIMPACTIMPACT OFOFOF QUEENQUEENQUEEN ELIZABETHELIZABETHELIZABETH EPTEMBER 8 2022: The words II’SDEATHONII’SDEATHONII’SDEATHON S THETHETHE UKUKUK ECONOMYECONOMYECONOMY by Iman Amani “London Bridge has fallen” echoed throughout Great Britain. This signified a huge loss, for not only the commonwealth but also the world, of a queen who had reigned for nearly 80 years. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II - the longest reigning British monarch serving for 70 years Potrait of Queen Elizabeth II and 214 days, swearing in 179 individual prime ministers in her This series of unfortunate events lifetime and serving as the head of 32 is unlike anything the UK has ever states beginning at the tender age of faced. It is clear that the queen’s 25- died peacefully in Balmoral Castle. death has come at an extremely Her legacy is deemed extraordinarily bad time. Now, the question that historical, a once in a lifetime arises is: What happens to the UK occurrence for the modern ages. economy due to the loss of a monarch? It is evident that such an esteemed individual like herself, when gone, CURRENCY CHANGE would bring about a major economic Following the oldest person to impact on one of the biggest have ever acceded to the British economies in the world. An economy throne, King Charles III who will be already deep in turmoil: experiencing replacing his late mother as the one of the worst currency crises the new monarch will subsequently be nation has ever seen, weakened by taking her place on the new UK strikes around the country and facing coins and banknotes. According to risks of inflation in the near future. the Bank of England: Now, left in the hands of a new Prime approximately 7 to 8 pence is Minister, Rishi Sunak who took office needed to produce a banknote. after the resignation of the shortest- This means that the cost to serving UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss. replace these can be estimated to be around 350 million pounds.

However, this conversion will not be an immediate change done in a single night: Queen Elizabeth II herself took around eight years to appear on a banknote after she acceded the crown, which also means that a similar time scale would likely be seen with King Charles III. Undoubtedly, a change this big should severely impact the nation’s supply of money but luckily the Bank of England and the Royal Mint have been preparing for this event for quite some time, so further procedures and initiatives have already been taken into consideration including setting aside some amount of money.

THE ENERGY CRISIS

The loss of a significant individual enveloped the UK with a blanket of grief and sorrow as different people with different statutes, from members of parliament and royal officials to common day-to-day farmers and labour workers, came together to mourn the loss of a beloved monarch by honouring the Queen with a 10-day funeral. This affected the country’s workforce causing productivity to lower which then reduced the overall economic output. From this, the economy was pushed into a technical recession of two back-to-back quarters of negative growth. This was not something that the UK could afford to happen due to the energy crisis. On 31 August 2022, Russia halted all exports of natural gas to Europe after several leaks were found in the pipeline. According to data from Trading Economics: “the cut-off has caused the cost of natural gas in Europe to triple to €217 per Kilowatt-hour recently compared to €70 a year ago.” For the UK, it meant that energy bills for an average household could exceed £6,000 yearly by April 2023 due to the higher heating costs in the winter. Experts have even deemed that some people will not have enough money to pay their bills. Additionally, Companies and private firms could also be impacted by this with more than 76,000 at risk of facing insolvency due to high energy consumption (especially those in the industrial sector).

It is clearer than ever that Queen Elizabeth II has played a deep-rooted role in the UK economy and society, in fact, more than we could ever imagine. Personally, it makes you wonder how much of a difference the world would be if the royal family did not exist: Would it ultimately change society, politics and economics as a whole for better or for worse?