LEADING ARTICLE : A manifesto for the monarchy

Liz McColgan's storming win in the London marathon should inspire us all, not least that other long-distance runner Elizabeth Windsor.

The Queen spent her 70th birthday quietly. It was the kind of display of dignity in ordinariness that can do the monarchy no harm. Yet if she is to celebrate her 80th birthday in more style, she will need to go a good deal further in restoring the Royal Family's public standing.

The divorce of the Duke and Duchess of York and of the Prince and Princess of Wales will clear the decks. But her sons' failed marriages are only part of her problem. The real trouble is much wider than that. Our society is being remade by some powerful forces: it is becoming more diverse and less deferential, more international and less patient. It is those changes that really threaten the monarchy by making it seem outdated, slow-moving, irrelevant.

The depth of respect for the Queen and the Queen Mother will ensure that the real test for the monarchy will not come soon. No, the real test will come with the succession.

Prince Charles has sometimes given the impression he would rather retreat into his garden than be King, an attitude that invites the question: "Well if he's not bothered, why should we be?" Republicanism is not on the agenda of serious politics, as yet. But if the Royal Family does not get its act together, it may be a different story in 20 years' time (which counts as the short run in the monarchy business).

The monarchy's public standing will not be restored through appeals to history or folklore. The case will not be won by totting up the commercial benefits of royal-related tourism. The monarchy will only prosper if it finds a way of knitting itself into the fabric of a fast-moving, plural, sceptical society.

The Royal Family's role is not to compete with pop stars in the glamour stakes. Its main job is not constitutional. It should position itself as the prime defender of the dignified part of society by standing for decency, duty, service and self-sacrifice. The way it can best achieve that is through following the lead of Princess Anne's impressive, determined charity work. That is the model Prince Charles should follow.

The monarchy has a difficult trick to pull off. It is a self-consciously old- fashioned institution. It cannot survive without clothing itself in the past. Yet the royals have to find of a way of identifying themselves with the current, the modern, without debasing the currency of royalty. The way to pull off that trick is to capitalise on the anti-statist tenor of our times by identifying with the non-state voluntary sector. In this consumerist age the other thing that people like is have spelled out to them what they are being offered: the Queen could do worse than issue a manifesto for the modern monarchy with a commitment to the voluntary sector as its centrepiece.