Jubilee - live: Platinum Party at the Palace begins with surprise sketch of the Queen and Paddington

The British Army has given a handcrafted walking stick to the Queen to mark the platinum jubilee.

The monarch appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday to watch the first day of jubilee festivities, which included a parade down The Mall and a Red Arrow flypast.

The Queen, who wore pale blue, was also holding a walking stick which was made by Cumbria-based traditional stick maker Dennis Wall.

General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, chief of the general staff, had presented her with the gift as a symbol of the Army’s support.

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The Queen will miss the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on Friday “with great reluctance” after experiencing “some discomfort” during Thursday’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Buckingham Palace has said.

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In a statement, Buckingham Palace said the Queen “greatly enjoyed” her birthday parade and flypast in London but “did experience some discomfort”.

The statement said: “Taking into account the journey and activity required to participate in tomorrow’s National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, Her Majesty, with great reluctance, has concluded that she will not attend.”

She is believed to have experienced episodic mobility issues during Thursday’s events.

But she will attend a beacon lighting event at Windsor Castle on Thursday evening, the palace confirmed.

It is understood the decision was considered regrettable but sensible due to the length of the journey and time involved and the physical demands the service would require.

Anti-monarchy campaign group Republic says it expects the Platinum Jubilee to be the “last hurrah” of major royal events.

Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, which wants the monarchy to be abolished, said such celebrations can take place “with or without the monarchy”.

He said: “The jubilee is the last hurrah of the monarchy in the next few years.

“We always hope that this is the last.

“We are moving from hope to expectation as it will be a very long time until Charles has a jubilee and hopefully the monarchy will be abolished by the time George is on the throne.”

Asked about the possibility of the Prince of Wales’s coronation taking place as a major royal event in the next few years, Mr Smith said it will not be the same as the jubilee.

He said: “It will be a political event,” adding that the coronation will “trigger huge debate” over the monarchy and is likely to be accompanied by protests.

“People do not think about Prince Charles in the same way they think about the Queen,” he said.

“That conversation is going to be a very different affair.”

Baton-bearer Lemona Chanda carries the Queen’s baton during the Birmingham 2022 Queen’s baton relay at Battersea Power Station in London. The relay is touring London for four days, coinciding with the Platinum Jubilee weekend.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were spotted smiling at cheering fans as the couple drove through London during Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee celebrations.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were seen smiling as their car drove on Cleveland Row, a side street near Buckingham Palace, on Thursday.

Fans waved and clapped for the royal couple, who were seated in the back of the car with a window rolled down on the passenger side. Meghan appeared to be smiling at the crowd as Prince Harry looked over her shoulder.

It is unclear where the couple were headed as their car drove through London; although, it was reported that the duke and duchess will be staying in their old home, Frogmore Cottage, during their time in the UK.

Sir John Major, one of the 14 prime ministers of the queen's reign, suggested Queen Elizabeth II would have made a great addition to his cabinet.

Speaking to the BBC about his weekly meetings with the Queen in his years as prime minister, Sir John said: “Politics even amongst the closest of colleagues tends [to be] a little leaky.

“The one thing about the meetings with the Queen, nobody is there, just the corgis - behaving or not as the case may be, usually behaving - and you could speak in absolute privacy. There's no private secretary there. No notes are made.

“You can say exactly what you wish, exactly what is on your mind. And so can the Queen. So that is very valuable.”

Sir John said he often came away from these meetings thinking to himself: “What a shame she isn't in the cabinet.”

The Duke of Cambridge has arrived at Buckingham Palace to play his part in the dual beacon-lighting ceremony with the Queen, who is at Windsor.

The principal beacon is the 69ft tall Tree of Trees sculpture, featuring 350 British-grown trees, which towers over the palace.

Created by British designer Thomas Heatherwick, the living creation reflects the planting of more than a million jubilee trees as part of the Queen‘s Green Canopy initiative to mark 70 years of the monarch’s reign.

It will be illuminated with 3,500 festoon lights when the monarch symbolically triggers the ceremony from her Berkshire home.

The Queen has lit the principal jubilee beacon at Windsor Castle to celebrate 70 years on the throne.

The special ceremony is in honour of the four-day holiday weekend for the Queen’s platinum jubilee. More than 2,000 beacons are being lit across the UK, including one in each of the capital cities of Commonwealth countries.

At the event, the monarch symbolically touched the Commonwealth Globe of Nations in the castle Quadrangle.

The event marks her second appearance of the day, after she appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace for the Trooping the Colour event earlier on Thursday.

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