Words of the week

AS long as you wash your hands after you shake hands. – Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock on handshaking etiquette during the coronavirus outbreak.

WASH your hands to the National Anthem. – Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg on how long handwashing should last.

FOR the length of time it takes to sing Happy Birthday. Twice. – Boris Johnson’s own guidance.

SHE’S six or so weeks away from her 94th birthday and she’s at an age when she’s susceptible to such a virus. – Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine, on why the Queen donned gloves at an investiture.

IT was hell on earth. Murder. The sea was red with blood, human blood. – Veteran Horace ‘Harry’ Billinge, 94, recalls D-Day as he collects his MBE from the Queen.

I AM very good at playing grandmas lately. – Butterflies star Wendy Craig, 85, says she has no plans to stop working in entertainment as she received her CBE from the Queen.

MEGHAN was too good to be true. She was a smiling face in a dull institution, she cheered the nation up no end. – Novelist Dame Hilary Mantel praises the Duchess of Sussex.

WE can’t go back to the future. – Deputy Labour leadership candidate Richard Burgon, the Leeds East MP.

CRIKEY, what else is on the list? – Sukekha Varma, the first female clerk of the course at Aintree, on preparing for the Grand National.

THE thing about Question Time is that it’s entirely unpredictable, so people will get into arguments. – TV presenter Fiona Bruce.

LOSING hurts but the records are only for the media. – Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk after the side’s Premier League unbeaten run came to an end.

MY number one thing is be kind to yourself. We can’t control what other people do, we can only control what we do. – Love Island host Laura Whitmore.

NO ONE could have worked harder than her, and I feel sure history will judge her kindly. – Former Cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom on Theresa May.