Queen: Now do your duty to beat Covid

DURING her seven decades on the throne, it has been impossible to know conclusively what the Queen thinks on any major political and public issue. And rightly so.

Public trust in the monarchy – and the preservation of the country’s delicate constitutional balance – relies on such neutrality. So when this woman of such wisdom does speak, her words, impeccably timed and perfectly calibrated, contain unequalled power.

And so it is with her regal pronouncement on vaccine sceptics and refuseniks: ‘They ought to think about other people rather than themselves.’

Yes, Elizabeth II’s message is rooted in her deep Christian faith. But having herself spent a lifetime serving the nation dutifully, she asked the nation to do its duty.

Those who fail to have their Covid jabs, she suggests in this historic intervention, are acting selfishly – risking inflicting more harm on their fellow citizens.

After a year of living under restrictions of varying severity, this is a time of unprecedented anxiety. The vaccine is our passport to freedom. So far, 18.6million people have been injected. The rollout has been an astonishing success – the envy of much of the world.

But damagingly, a minority are declining inoculations. This risks fresh outbreaks, which would delay our return to normal life. The damage this might do to a nation already collectively at breaking point is unimaginable.

Of course, no one should be bullied into having jabs. But the Queen, who aged 94 had hers weeks ago, seeks through her powerful broadside to persuade any waverers that any fears are unfounded.

When the longest-lived, longest-reigning monarch in our history speaks such sense, every single person should listen. Her words are not mere platitudes… they are a matter of life and death.