Britain’s Queen Elizabeth said at the opening of the UK Parliamentary Year that “a national recovery from the pandemic is the government’s priority”.
The ceremony has remained very austere as a result of that pandemic. The princess did not go to the Parliament building in London in ceremonial robes but in daily attire.
She drove from the palace to the parliament in a car and not in a carriage as usual.
It is the first significant public task 95-year-old Elizabeth has performed as head of state since the death of her husband, Prince Philip, on April 9. The Queen has hardly been outside Windsor Castle since Philip’s death.
She has her son Crown Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, by her side at the opening of the parliamentary year.