Royalists and commemorative-china merchants will rejoice as Elizabeth II notches up her 23,226th day on the throne today, overtaking her great-great-grandmother, Victoria. Republicans are as heavily outnumbered as in 1952, when the 25-year-old queen began her reign. But much else about Britain is unrecognisable. It has been transformed from the world’s factory into its factotum, with manufacturing jobs replaced by those in financial, legal and business services. Immigration has increased the non-white population from 75,000 to around 8m. Gays can marry, while fewer straights bother: nearly half of children are born out of wedlock, against 6% at the start of Elizabeth’s reign (unwed couples are no longer barred from her annual garden party). Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved governments, and English cities’ powers are growing. Calls for independence from London and from the EU are louder. Happier, if less glorious, Elizabeth’s has become a more divided kingdom.