As ‘mother of the nation’ her words spoke volumes

It was the moment we had all been waiting for and when it finally came we were reminded of the days when Britain faced its darkest hour.

There was only one person who could provide the kind of rallying reassurance the nation needed – and in order to evoke the Blitz spirit, she had to have lived through it herself.

Hence why, in these strange times of self-isolation and social distancing, Britons willingly invited the Queen into their living rooms last night.

Cooped up indoors like battery hens, facing an Easter separated from loved ones, there had been a growing sense that only HM’S wise words could bring the comfort so desperately craved by a world turned upside down by coronavirus.

Forget Joe Wicks’s workouts or Carol Vorderman’s maths: finally, here was the Queen of them all, delivering her own lesson, not just to the homeschoolers but their anxious parents, and their exiled grandparents and great-grandparents.

From selfless NHS workers, to hard-working shelf-stackers, to the newly unemployed – this was a message of hope for all.

“If we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it,” she insisted, echoing the gospel song.

After nearly seven decades on the throne, this remarkable nonagenarian is well practised in the art of providing calm in times of crisis and, even in the face of an invisible enemy, she did not disappoint.

With characteristic subtlety, the best and arguably most tear-jerking line came at the end; there were shades of forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn as she declared: “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”

At other moments, the rousing rhetoric was positively Churchillian, reflecting how, alongside the wartime prime minister, her late father George VI and the Queen Mother became symbols of British determination to overcome the Nazis.

At nearly 94, the monarch was at her most personal yet, managing to

trump that extraordinary moment following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales when she spoke “from my heart as your Queen and a grandmother”.

Back then, she addressed the nation on live TV with hundreds grieving in The Mall behind.

At 8pm last night, it was just the lone sovereign in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle – filmed by a solitary masked cameraman – for four and a half soothing minutes.

Fourteen prime ministers and 13 US presidents may have served during her reign, but by her own admission, even the Queen has experienced nothing like Covid-19.

Yet having spent the past seven decades building a world-renowned reputation as a beacon of stability and continuity, of course she knew exactly what to say and how to say it. Her carefully chosen words combined a rare tone of nostalgia with the sort of stoicism that has stiffened the British upper lip over centuries.

Yet unlike that clichéd caricature, the words of comfort were delivered with the compassion of a great grandmother. Here was the Queen acting not as Head of State but “Mother of the Nation”.

Too often the Royal family has stood accused of being too detached from the rest of us. This was an opportunity to foster a spirit of togetherness not seen since the Second World War – and the former Auxiliary Territorial Servicewoman grabbed it with both hands.

Cleverly, this was not just about stressing that rich or poor were in the same boat but sharing in the universal frustration at the choppy waters we are currently having to navigate. Yes self-isolation is hard, but why not make the best of a bad situation, she wisely suggested. Seize the moment to step off the hamster wheel for once. And while you’re at it, give yourself a pat on the back for how well Britain has responded to this extraordinary challenge.

After several weeks of having to endure the political partisanship and academic ambiguity of Downing Street press conferences, there was a sense that we didn’t just need to hear it – we needed to hear it from HM.

Only a woman of the Queen’s vintage could credibly deliver the immortal line: “Those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any.” Pure Winston.

Similarly the point about following the lockdown rules, not because you’ve been told to, but because it’s right, was only plausible from someone whose entire reign has been characterised by putting duty first.

For regardless of what the republicans might have you believe, the Queen knows more about self sacrifice than most.

In drawing on her own childhood memory of her very first broadcast, when a then 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth addressed evacuee children alongside her 10-year-old sister Princess Margaret, she managed to convey a palpable sense of empathy.

Lest we forget that she too lived through the horrors of the war – with Buckingham Palace bombed while the young princesses were apart from their parents at Windsor Castle.

And as someone who used to spend as long as six months on official royal tours, she is all too familiar with the “painful sense of separation from loved ones” she spoke about. Who better than the world’s most travelled and Britain’s longest-reigning monarch to provide a guarantee that Britain will get back to normal? “We will succeed – and that success will belong to every one of us,” she insisted.

Coming from someone who has kept calm and carried on through all manner of crises, finally it didn’t feel fanciful to start believing it.

Today, we have a constitutional monarchy, and the days of sovereigns ordering about their subjects are long gone. But the instructions from the woman dubbed “the Boss” behind palace gates were clear: remember those British qualities that define us all.

For in telling the nation to take pride in the “attributes of selfdiscipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling [which] still characterise this country”, she could have been talking about herself.

‘This was an opportunity to foster a spirit of togetherness not seen since the Second World War’

‘In drawing on her memory of her very first broadcast, she conveyed a palpable sense of empathy’