The Queen has agreed to break with tradition for the first time in her reign at the thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey to mark her Coronation.

The Coronation at the abbey on June 2, 1953, symbolised the end of postwar shortages and the dawning of a new Elizabethan Age.

The Queen has decreed that this year’s service should be less formal. Details are still being decided by Wesley Carr, the Dean, with the Palace, but it seems that the Queen’s last Christmas broadcast, when she gave a personal account of her religious faith and declared herself accountable to God, will be read from the pulpit.

Apparently, there is no precedent for reviving a broadcast in this way. Last year was the 70th anniversary of royal Christmas broadcasts; the first was made on the radio by George V.

An abbey spokesman said: “The service is designed to be a fresh and original occasion — it would not seem improbable that a broadcast in which Her Majesty spoke of her faith might influence such an occasion.”

In her broadcast, the Queen said: “I know just how much I rely on my own faith to guide me through the good times and the bad. Each day is a new beginning.”

No decision has been made on who will read the Queen’s words, but it could be one of the family, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Dean.

THE gathering of the independent school Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference at Brighton College is an apposite comment on the state of the Tory party. Alongside the military historian Corelli Barnet, who mischievously talked about how public schools have failed the country for a century, was Damian Green, the Shadow Education Secretary. Not only was Green relegated to a break-out session, but only 19 out of 300 heads, once natural Tories, bothered to attend.

Who has a licence to thrill?

HE HAS played a Nazi and a psychopath, so what could be a more natural career move for Ralph “Rafe” Fiennes than James Bond?

The star of Schindler’s List and The English Patient beat the American George Clooney, Colin Firth and Robbie Williams in a poll of 1,000 fans for amazon.co.uk, for the 007 role, which is expected to become vacant after Pierce Brosnan does his fifth film in 2005. Other favourites included Jude Law, The Talented Mr Ripley star, and Bend it Like Beckham’s Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who was recently screen-tested by Bond producers. Some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Russell Crowe, were not on the list. But surely it should be true grit and true Brit.

PS

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Litvinenko murder suspect's peace offer
• Low rollers seize chance to scoop £5m on the nose
• I wish I were Chancellor now, says Ken Clarke