WE WILL SUCCEED ...BETTER DAYS WILL RETURN
Queen’s broadcast urges nation to unite and face ‘enormous’ challenges
THE QUEEN rallied the nation last night, vowing that we will defeat Covid19 and the success will belong to us all.
In a historic and heartfelt
address amid the gravest crisis of her 68-year reign, the monarch, who will be 94 this month, drew on a lifetime of experience to preach a message of unity and hope to the UK and Commonwealth.
Echoing Forces’ sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn’s wartime anthem We’ll Meet Again, the Queen pledged: “We will succeed – and that success will belong to every one of us.
“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.”
The Queen heaped praise on those on the front line of the battle to combat Covid-19, which claimed 621 more lives in Britain yesterday, and thanked people staying at home to protect the vulnerable.
The broadcast, believed to have been watched by more than 30 million Britons, came as Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned of further lockdown restrictions and stressed it was “mission critical” to follow rules on social distancing.
The Queen recorded her address in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, filmed by just one cameraman wearing protective equipment.
She said: “Together we are tackling this disease and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it.”
Spirit
Looking back to her first wartime broadcast when Britons were separated from their loved ones but knew it was the “right thing to do”, the Queen held out the promise of similar immortality in the national memory for this generation.
Insisting the attributes of self-discipline, quiet good-humoured resolve and fellowfeeling still characterised Britain, she said: “The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and future.”
She celebrated the community response amid pictures of NHS workers, volunteers, the Army building London’s Nightingale Hospital, neighbourhoods clapping for carers and children’s pictures of rainbows.
The Queen said those moments would be remembered as “an expression of our national spirit; and its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children”.
She spoke of “heart-warming stories of people coming together to help others” and said though self-isolating may be hard, “many people of all faiths, and of none, are discovering that it presents an opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect, in prayer or meditation”.
Observing the Government’s advice for the over-70s, the Queen and Prince Philip have been staying at Windsor, along with a tiny group of key domestic staff since March 19. In her message the Queen recalled her first public speech at 14, helped by her sister Princess Margaret, 10, to the children of Britain and the Empire in 1940.
She said: “We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety.
“Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones. But now, as then, we know, deep
down, that it is the right thing to do.”
But the Queen pointed out that this was a very different battle – with the world united in battling the coronavirus outbreak. She said: “While we have faced challenges before, this one is different.
“This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal.”
Taking to Twitter to retweet a story about her speech, US President Donald Trump heaped praise on the Queen, calling her a “great and wonderful woman”.