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I want to say unequivocally the Queen is magnificent. She is the enduring force, she is the glue that makes everyone feel good. She is beloved. I would rue the day when she may not be here.

I quite like the Queen. Now, this must come as a fairly amazing statement for someone who is avowedly left wing, pro-independence and anti-monarchy, but there you go.

Sure, I'd take the responsibility of queen any day.

In her religious role, the Queen is head of the Church of England, but in her civic role she cares for all her subjects, and no one is better at making everyone she meets feel valued.

I speak for all Malaysians in expressing my admiration for the Queen and the grace, poise and selflessness with which she has carried out her duties during her long reign. She represents the very best of British traits: dignity, resilience and hard work.

We do not always appreciate the role the Queen has played in one of the most significant changes in the past 60 years: the transformation of Britain into a multi-ethnic, multi-faith society. No one does interfaith better than the Royal family, and it starts with the Queen herself.

If pushed to say what I like about Elizabeth, who, as I'm sure most of you know, overtook Queen Victoria this week to become our longest-serving monarch, it would be her uncomplaining, getting-on-with-it ethic.

I guess I've grown to admire Queen Elizabeth II more. I've always struggled with my feelings about the Royal Family. I am a supporter. I'm not someone who thinks we should get rid of them. But what I've struggled with is the lack of emotionality that the Queen seems to share.

In my darker moments, I feel like the Queen of England, bound and gagged by reverence. Tin-crowned and irrelevant.

Like many people in Britain, I have an affectionate respect for the Queen, and am surprised that I should be having such republican thoughts.