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Queen’s COVID19 Address to the Nation: “Better days will return”
Queen Elizabeth II has called for the British to adopt an attitude of “self-discipline and quiet good humoured resolve and fellow feeling” as the whole world faces the Coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking from the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle the 93 year old monarch said that this generation is as strong as any that has come before. In a phrase that resonated of Winston Churchill’s call to arms at the beginning of the Second World War she said that in the future people would look back with pride as to how they responded to the challenge.
She said of the virus that it has “brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many and enormous changes in the daily lives of all”
She had very warm words of admiration for the people in the health services in the front line of the battle and for those across the Commonwealth and the world who have gone out of their way to help those in need. Praise also for those who self-isolate to protect others and bring us all closer to normality.
The Queen’s Speech tonight (05.04.2020) was billed by the British Government as aimed at lifting the nation’s spirits.
The Queen herself, who was crowned on the 2nd June 1953 is one of the longest ever serving monarchs and probably the most highly regarded of the institutions of the UK today.
She is the Head of State of no less than 12 independent countries apart from the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) including Canada, Australia and New Zealand and several Caribbean countries as well, of course, as the 14 British Overseas territories of which Gibraltar is one.
She is the Head of the Church of England and has always promoted a spirit of service to the nation. Her Christmas Day messages (which she took over following the death of her father King George VI) are an institution among the British in which she has never shied away from her Christian beliefs.
In her address she recalled how in 1940 aged 12 she had given made a similar broadcast with her younger sister the late Princess Margaret to refugees displaced by the war. Her Majesty drew painful parallels with the separation that people had to endure then although the challenge that we now face is global and to be solved with compassion.
Tonight however her speech has been quite different from the celebratory Christmas afternoon messages.
However, the message was one of optimism and inspiration. This she said was a time to slow down in prayer and meditation. “Better days will return and we will all meet again”.
Queen’s COVID19 Address to the Nation: “Better days will return”
