London
(AFP) - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday
with a family gathering and a cake baked by a reality television star,
as a new poll finds Britain's longest serving monarch is as popular as
ever.
The
queen has reigned for more than 64 years and shows no sign of retiring,
even if she has in recent years passed on some of her duties to the
younger royals.
A
new poll suggests the British public want it to stay that way, with 70
percent saying she should reign for as long as possible, the highest
proportion since 1981.
Support for the monarchy remains high at 76 percent, according to the Ipsos-Mori poll for King's College London.
"The
queen is hugely popular, she is liked personally and is felt to have
done an excellent job," Roger Mortimore, a professor at the Institute of
Contemporary British History at King's College London, told AFP.
Thursday's
celebrations will be low-key, with the main public events, including a
military parade and lunch for 10,000 guests on The Mall outside
Buckingham Palace, taking place as part of her official birthday
celebrations in June.
With
her husband Prince Philip, she will meet members of the public near
Windsor Castle, her weekend residence, before lighting the first of a
chain of beacons stretching across Britain and its overseas territories.
At
an event in Windsor's town hall, the queen will be presented with a
cake baked by Nadiya Jamir Hussain, the winner of the "Great British
Bake Off", a hugely popular television cooking competition.
The
Muslim mother-of-three will present the orange drizzle cake, with
orange curd and orange butter cream, to the queen personally -- a
prospect she said has left her "so nervous I can't even look at the
oven".
The
queen will also attend a family birthday dinner organised by her heir
Prince Charles, emphasising her role as the head of four generations of
the House of Windsor.
Charles
and his son William are increasingly taking over the queen's duties,
although she still carried out 341 engagements last year, including
state visits to Malta and Germany.
William,
who with his wife Kate and two young children has brought fresh energy
to the royals, paid tribute to the matriarch he and his brother Harry
describe as "the boss".
"I
am incredibly lucky to have my grandmother in my life. As she turns 90,
she is a remarkably energetic and dedicated guiding force for her
family," William said.
- Lunch with Obama -
The
queen has seen 12 prime ministers pass through Downing Street since she
ascended to the throne in 1952, meeting them once a week at the palace
and still receiving daily updates of the workings of parliament.
Conservative
Prime Minister David Cameron will pay tribute to the monarch in
parliament on Thursday, while US President Barack Obama will also pay
his respects when he joins the queen for lunch at Windsor on Friday.
The
queen is widely viewed as a constant and stabilising presence in a
turbulent world, a status she has cultivated by refusing to make public
her personal views.
Her
determination to remain above politics has come under pressure ahead of
Britain's EU referendum on June 23, after a newspaper reported that she
favoured a vote for Britain to leave the 28-nation bloc.
The
claim in The Sun, under the headline "Queen backs Brexit", prompted a
rare and strongly worded denial from Buckingham Palace, emphasising that
she has and will always be politically neutral.
In
September last year, the queen broke Queen Victoria's record to become
Britain's longest reigning monarch, but played down the achievement,
saying it was "not one to which I have ever aspired".
"Inevitably, a long life can pass by many milestones. My own is no exception," she said.
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