In Britain a restrained 48 hours at Westminster has not been enough. This is a country that excels to excess in its commemoration of an idealised past, a past seen through the prism of a figure who could hardly be described as representative in any way. The battle between the Daily Mail and the BBC has had three phases: open warfare, a cease-fire and finally an alliance in which the two organisations adopted the same fawning tone and bloated coverage. Partly as a result, there is more public interest now than there was when the Queen Mother died, eight days ago .The current Government was elected in 1997 with a pledge to "modernise" the country. Typically, the precise nature of the "modernisation" was kept fairly vague, although the Government did remove the right of most hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, an act that inevitably poses questions about the validity of a hereditary monarchy.What is beyond question is that a modernised Britain has not been on show to the world in recent days and neither has a modernised monarchy. Indeed, the Royal Family has been extremely inept at adapting to changing times, as some of its leading members have privately admitted.

As Michael Jacobs argues on page 25, the modernisation of the Royal Family is not just a question of a few stylistic changes. Only through changes to its constitutional status will the Royal Family in Britain become truly modern, closer to the model in Nordic countries.Modernisation will not happen of its own accord. Last week several commentators confidently declared that the Queen Mother's death marked the end of the old-style Royal Family, as they did when Diana, Princess of Wales, died. More likely the coverage of the death will spark a renewed appetite for traditional royalty. No doubt the timid, confused and over-managed BBC is already reviewing its coverage of the Queen's Golden Jubilee this summer. The BBC and the Daily Mail will be at one again in the scale and deference of their coverage.We do not denigrate those who have chosen in the last week to reflect on the country's past and their own, or those who felt a genuine affection for the Queen Mother.

But only when Britain and its institutions have a much clearer sense of their roles in a rapidly changing world will they be able to celebrate the past with a sense of proportion and with a confidence about the future that lies ahead.. In the spirit of research .. This habitually signals hefty, jocular irony In the spirit of research .. This habitually signals hefty, jocular irony But I mean it literally. It was in the spirit of research that, at different times, I tasted Blue Nun, Hirondelle, Mateus Ros?Piat d'Or, Jacob's Creek and Black Tower. I did not expect to much enjoy them and, sure enough, I didn't. But it's important to have sampled them, to have sated curiosity. One cannot in good faith excoriate or, for that matter, defend a product of which one has no direct experience.