SARAH VINE marks 10 years of her Mail columns
This yr marked the tenth anniversary of Sarah Vine becoming a member of the Mail.
Since her first column in 2013, her witty, courageous and soul-baringly sincere views have at all times been value studying.
To mark her decade, the Mail presents a compilation of Sarah’s highest weekly columns.
From the vicissitudes of political life to fascinating brushes with celeb, the trauma of the pandemic, the battle on woke and the demise of the Queen — Sarah completely captures the important thing moments which have outlined us as a nation.
More than that, her columns additionally doc a interval of hanging change for her personally: the tip of her marriage, the lack of pricey associates and discovering the power to start out once more.
To mark Sarah Vine’s decade, the Mail presents a compilation of her highest weekly columns
THE OTHER WOMAN
September 25, 2013
For a few years, I’ve needed to stay with the very fact my husband has been in love with one other lady.
There are virtually as many footage of the late Margaret Thatcher in his workplace as there are of me and the youngsters.
Now, I worry, I’ve one other rival for his affections.
Like the Iron Lady, she has gained three elections. But Angela Merkel has an added advantage, one which Maggie undoubtedly lacked: she loves the music of Richard Wagner.
In my husband’s eyes, this makes Merkel as scorching as Jennifer Lopez. For you see, he’s pro-Wagner in the way in which your common 11- year-old lady is pro-One Direction.
I do not know anybody else who would come again from vacation in Austria with a pair of swimming trunks within the model of lederhosen.
And solely a person besotted would spurn the advances of the beautiful Kirsty Young as a result of he merely could not bear the agony of deciding which of the grasp’s works would make it onto his Desert Island.
JOAN COLLINS FOR DINNER
March 19, 2014
Regular readers might do not forget that just a few weeks in the past, after assembly at a Tory Party do, I invited Joan Collins to dinner — prompting close to panic, when she accepted, about what on earth a hostess ought to serve for a Hollywood goddess.
And so she got here. Joan Collins. To dinner. At my home. Walked up my backyard path in her leopard-print costume and leather-based jacket, and spent all the night being fabulous.
Dame Joan Collins sits on the couch in her West Hollywood, California penthouse residence in March 2015 shortly after being awarded a dame hood from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace
Joan drank small quantities of white wine with ice, defined why Elizabeth Taylor bought the position of Cleopatra as a substitute of her (‘I wasn’t ready to sleep with who I wanted to sleep with, darling’) and was candy to my ill-behaved kids.
All this regardless of the very fact the night was a little bit of a fiasco. In no explicit order:
1. The quails’ eggs. I assumed I’d be frightfully swish and complex and do quails’ eggs. I boiled them as per the directions, then put them in a fairly bowl with celery salt and an identical bowl for the shells.
Luckily, Joan was not the primary to attempt one — if she had, it could have exploded and run down her entrance. After a lot apologising, I put them again to boil, however nobody dared contact them. Later, the canine ate all of them. He hasn’t stopped breaking wind since.
2. The placement. Always examine, while you do your seating plan, that the visitor of honour hasn’t bought caught with a desk leg in the way in which. Joan was very good about it.
3. Discourage your son from telling legendary actresses: ‘I assumed you have been excellent within the Snickers advert.’
4. Finally, at all times hearken to the recommendation of Daily Mail readers. One prompt I simply do cheese and crackers.
Well, you have been proper. She ate little or no of something besides the cheese, which she tucked into with gusto.
JEREMY CLARKSON
March 18, 2015
ONCE or twice, over the previous few years, I’ve discovered myself in the identical exalted circles as Jeremy Clarkson.
In the primary occasion, I had simply completed serving to the hostess within the kitchen once I espied the presenter heading in my route.
Wiping my palms on my tea towel, I used to be nearly to introduce myself when he interrupted me.
‘I’ll have a glass of wine,’ he stated. ‘And one for my spouse.’
Sarah Vine displays on the time Jeremy Clarkson mistook her for a waitress and bought her to pour wine for him and his spouse on the time Frances Cain (pictured collectively)
At that time it appeared impolite to attempt to clarify I wasn’t a waitress — so I obliged, and spent the remainder of the lunch re-filling his glass. Since then we have ran into one another at subsequent occasions — however at all times at a distance.
Maybe he thinks it unusual that our mutual associates at all times rent the identical waitress.
Or maybe he simply assumes I’m a really loyal member of workers.
BREXIT
February 24, 2016
For months, I had recognized the storm was coming. As quickly as David Cameron introduced this referendum, I knew there was going to be hassle. Mr Cameron is just not solely Michael’s boss, he is additionally an previous good friend. It does not get extra awkward than that.
[As Michael wrote his Brexit speech,] I got here throughout a stack of pictures from our wedding ceremony, again in 2001.
Sixty or so of our good associates gamely schlepped to the South of France for a knees-up.
There was George Osborne. And Samantha Cameron, radiant and pregnant together with her first baby; she and David laughing on the coach again from the church. Not the Chancellor or the Prime Minister. Just a bunch of individuals from all walks in life who had in frequent one factor: us.
It was as if destiny was intervening to remind us what we have been risking.
June 29, 2016
The first I knew concerning the referendum end result was at 4.45am final Friday once I was woken by the noise of individuals speaking exterior my bed room window.
[Then] my husband’s cell rang. Fumbling, he picked up the decision. I might hear each phrase.
‘Michael?’ an excited, if barely weary, voice stated. ‘Michael, guess what? We’ve gained!’ Thus started the strangest, maddest and, no doubt, most surreal few days of my life. As I lay there in my considerably befuddled state that morning, triumphalism was the very last thing on my thoughts. Or my husband’s.
British Prime Minister David Cameron (L) speaks to the press flanked by his spouse Samantha in entrance of 10 Downing avenue in central London on June 24, 2016, following the Brexit vote
There was a brief pause whereas he placed on his glasses. ‘Gosh,’ he stated. ‘I suppose I had higher rise up.’
I tweaked the bed room curtain apart and my suspicions have been confirmed: a number of groups of reporters have been ready exterior.
A fast flick of the distant management revealed a surreal scene: our home was stay on Sky TV.
Michael reappeared, towelling the water from his hair. By now his telephone was buzzing and beeping like a demented frog. My telephone pinged: a good friend warning me of the perils of stay tv.
‘Whatever you do, do not do a Cherie Blair,’ she wrote. ‘Concealer, blusher, eyeliner, lipstick: the works.’
Michael set off to satisfy along with his workforce, and I set concerning the regular enterprise of getting the youngsters up and prepared for varsity.
As destiny would have it, it was ‘take your daughter to work day’ at my eldest’s faculty, and the plan had been for her and two classmates to go to Michael’s workplace on the Department of Justice.
This now appeared considerably impractical, so I swiftly organized to take them to my workplace as a substitute. On the way in which, we stopped at Sainsbury’s to select up a packed lunch for my youngest.
By the time we bought again to the automotive, the Prime Minister had resigned. I felt as if I had fallen by means of a rabbit gap — misplaced in a wierd land the place nothing made sense any extra.
This was completely, categorically not meant to occur.
May 29, 2019
For the previous couple of weeks there was a little bit of an elephant on this web page. I’ve been doing my finest to bop round it however, given latest occasions, I simply do not suppose I can ignore it any extra.
My husband, Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, is working for PM.
It has not been a straightforward resolution to take. Well, not for me, at any fee. There is household life to consider; not least the small matter of staying sane.
Can he do it? I hope so. But this a lot I do know: if the Party and the nation places their belief in him, he’ll do every thing inside his energy to see this one by means of. I, in the meantime, shall be battening down the hatches . . .
September 18, 2019
All this week, with the publication of his ebook, For The Record, David Cameron has laid naked his disappointment with Michael’s resolution to observe his coronary heart on the EU referendum.
[Michael and Dave] weren’t certain by class or faculty, however by one thing else: actual friendship, not simply as people, but in addition, and even perhaps extra so, between their wives and youngsters, who grew up collectively in one another’s homes.
Dave’s spouse Samantha and I shared the varsity run and spent weekends and household holidays collectively as political ‘widows’. [So] I recognize the place Dave is coming from. That stated, I nonetheless imagine it needs to be potential to disagree basically on political points and stay associates.
Dave’s spouse Samantha and I shared the varsity run and spent weekends and household holidays collectively as political ‘widows’. Pictured: Sarah Vine and Samantha Cameron (left)
I appear to recollect attempting to inform Dave that within the early weeks of the marketing campaign, over New Year at Chequers, and later when he cornered me in a elevate and instructed me he was combating for his political life. That was at Tory chairman Andrew Feldman’s fiftieth birthday celebration, when Samantha and I exchanged cross phrases for the primary time ever.
It was not at all times that manner. I bear in mind the primary New Year at Chequers after Dave entered Downing Street in 2010. Sitting by the roaring fireplace within the Great Hall, [while] Dave produced an countless provide of White Ladies (he makes a imply cocktail does Dave).
Earlier, we had made a visit into city to obtain a karaoke machine, ostensibly for the youngsters, however in actuality so Dave might indulge his ardour for the X Factor. I watched as different prospects did a double take.
‘That bloke seems identical to David Cameron,’ one man stated to spouse as he walked previous.
There are different reminiscences, too. The heart-rending unhappiness of Ivan’s [the Camerons’ six-year-old son] demise (his is just not my story to inform, however imagine me, by no means was a boy so liked); my pleasure at turning into godmother to the Camerons’ daughter, Florence; serving to Samantha select celebration convention outfits; half-terms spent in Ibiza, simply us wives and the youngsters on the seaside.
October 30, 2019
You must forgive me if this week’s column appears a trifle unhinged however I’m writing from the refuge of my son’s bed room, because it’s the one place I can hear myself suppose.
Downstairs, two good gents are within the means of eradicating the doorways and home windows on the entrance of the home and changing them with new ones made out of one thing extra akin to metal girders. This is as a result of my husband, Michael Gove, is now thought of a critical safety hazard.
So it is goodbye to our pretty previous sash home windows, and good day re-enforced panes, triple bolts, panic buttons and CCTV.
Such is the value of politics. [And] whereas we’re right here, can whoever it’s throwing eggs at my entrance door please cease: it is a b****r to wash.
January 29, 2020
When it involves the difficulty that has, in some ways, outlined me and my household’s existence for the previous three years and extra, I can actually say I’ve no struggle left.
It’s not simply the demise threats, the insults, the shouts on the street, the dust left on the doorstep; it isn’t simply seeing my husband undergo a thousand agonies, or having my youngsters dragged into all of it.
It’s the assaults in print from colleagues, the slurs from former associates, having my status shredded and being characterised as a scheming, manipulative Lady Macbeth determine. And, after all, shedding so many aged and pricey associates alongside the way in which.
Perhaps if I have been a greater, stronger, extra clever particular person, none of these items would hang-out me. But they do, and there’s no level in pretending: I’m modified.
Where as soon as I used to be the life and soul of any celebration, now I wrestle to be in a room of greater than two or three individuals. Most nights one can find me in mattress by 10.30pm, sleeping for lengthy durations being one of many only a few methods I can discover of silencing my nervousness.
Where as soon as my kitchen was a everlasting hub of exercise, now I crave solitude and ease in a manner that nobody who has ever recognized me can actually perceive.
I’m not completely certain I do both.
But if Brexit was all about taking again management of our legal guidelines and borders, it has additionally prompted a type of taking again management of myself.
It’s virtually as if, unable to affect the way in which different individuals see me, I’ve turned my efforts inwards, altering what is feasible.
This inner focus has lastly enabled me to lose the burden that I’ve been struggling to ditch for years.
I drink much less, eat much less, transfer extra. And I spend all of the spare time I’ve with my household, whose wellbeing and happiness is greater than ever my focus.
So, ultimately, here is to Brexit.
Thank goodness it is throughout . . . for now.
HARRY AND MEGHAN
November 29, 2017
The actually fashionable factor about Prince Harry’s fiancee Meghan Markle is just not — as so many have stated — that she is combined race or American or a divorcee.
What’s really exceptional about her is she is just not some unknown ingenue plucked from a sanitised line-up of rigorously chosen debutantes. She has actual world expertise, and involves the wedding as a totally fashioned particular person in her personal proper.
As a younger lady rising up in Los Angeles — a metropolis obsessive about skinny, white blondes — she overcame prejudice about her mixed-race parentage and went on to forge a reputation for herself in a notoriously cut-throat trade.
Harry has actually fallen on his toes. An older, secure feminine presence is strictly what [he] wants in his life. Meghan will assist him mature and transfer ahead and, optimistically, lay his previous demons to relaxation.
Meghan will assist Harry mature and transfer ahead and, optimistically, lay his previous demons to relaxation, writes Sarah Vine in 2017
January 9, 2020
For months now, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have had the look of two individuals who would reasonably suck lemons than proceed to be an energetic a part of the Royal Family. Frankly, it is a shock they’ve lasted this lengthy.
That stated, I’m very unhappy to see them go. And so quickly. It appears like they’ve barely bought caught in, hardly had an opportunity to grasp what the job actually entails earlier than handing of their resignation. I suppose there’s a type of braveness in realizing while you’ve had sufficient, and in that respect Harry has been clear. But, in fact, it isn’t completely apparent what has pushed him to such a conclusion: was the £2.4 million taxpayer-funded refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage not lavish sufficient? The outpouring of affection at their multi-million-pound wedding ceremony insufficiently fawning? The Queen’s repeated invites to remain — rebuffed greater than as soon as — not hospitable sufficient?
Since he married Meghan, we’ve witnessed the start of a brand new Harry, one formed much less within the picture of his circle of relatives and extra within the mould of Meghan and her modern and rich worldwide circle.
The woke, considerably humourless and really entitled Harry we see earlier than us now’s virtually unrecognisable from the man we knew and liked. Of course, individuals develop up, they modify. We cannot for ever anticipate him to be happy-go-lucky Harry. But nonetheless, it is fairly a change.
What else is there to say, save to supply our greatest hopes for happiness with their son.
And maybe so as to add: watch out what you want for.
March 6, 2021
My goodness, how unsuitable we have been. Far from being the making of Harry, Meghan would possibly simply show his downfall. All that preliminary goodwill and promise has been, in just some brief years, completely squandered.
The headlines that welcomed their union so enthusiastically have slowly soured, because the couple’s behaviour has grown ever extra paranoid and self-destructive.
And now, a crossroads. The subsequent few days will decide the result of this extraordinary stand-off between the Queen and her grandson.
And though the forthcoming Oprah Winfrey interview will little doubt paint them each as victims of a horrible conspiracy by the British Press and ‘The Firm’ to discredit them within the eyes of the general public, that very same public will choose them not by their performances on the couch of a chat present hostess, however by their actions.
MEETING TRUMP
June 5, 2019
My preliminary response when the invitation got here by means of from the palace was utter panic. The costume code specified lengthy — and I’ve by no means executed lengthy, not until you depend palazzo pants or kaftans.
A visit to a favorite boutique with a good friend turned up a reasonably pretty Marina Rinaldi floorlength robe.
The general impact was, as one good friend put it, like a ‘curvy Morticia Addams’, a notion I reasonably preferred (I’m 52, I’ll take all of the compliments I can get).
[At the palace] it was like strolling into Madame Tussauds, solely to find that each one the waxworks have been actual. Off to the appropriate was the Queen, subsequent to Princes Andrew and Edward. On my left, Ivanka Trump was deep in dialog with the Duchess of Cambridge, and, someplace within the center, was Trump, sucking all who got here close to into his orbit.
It was like every other drinks celebration — save for the truth that everybody within the room was extraordinarily highly effective or well-known — or each. Or me.
Whatever one’s emotions about Donald Trump, solely a idiot would flip down the chance of such a unprecedented journey, writes Sarah Vine
As my husband was whisked off to satisfy The Donald, I regarded for somebody to latch on to. My eyes alighted on Melania. ‘Oh, what the hell,’ I assumed, and approached.
Up shut, the First Lady is much more impressively lovely than in pictures — these cat’s eyes are mesmerising; however she can be rather more human than she has been made to appear, and no idiot.
Observing my husband’s Dress Gordon Tartan kilt, we speculated that maybe subsequent time, The Donald, being of Scottish heritage, must also try the tartan. I complimented her on her costume, she on mine. I cracked the fats Morticia joke, and she or he laughed, a correct, real chuckle. Soon afterwards, the Queen, who’s, in any case, 93, slipped away. The ladies-in-waiting and different members of the Royal Household adopted, so I scooped up my husband and we made for the exit.
Whatever one’s emotions about Donald Trump, solely a idiot would flip down the chance of such a unprecedented journey.
COVID
April 8, 2020
Every disaster has its flashpoint. For me, the information on Monday night that the Prime Minister was being handled in intensive look after Covid-19 felt like one such second.
Or, as my teenage son put it: ‘This factor simply bought actual.’
It’s all of the extra hanging as a result of Boris has at all times been such a larger-than-life presence; such a bear of a person, personally and politically.
I’ve seen him tear up a dance flooring to ABBA at a good friend’s birthday celebration, watched him sort out David Cameron at soccer on the again garden at Chequers (you’ve got by no means witnessed competitiveness prefer it) and waved him off on his bicycle after many a full of life dinner.
He is a person of nice passions and nice mind. In all my dealings with him I’ve at all times discovered him to be one in every of life’s can-doers, a glass-half-full kind of particular person, the type who can not see a problem with out instantly eager to wrestle it to the bottom — however who’s at all times, in the end, magnanimous in victory.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks on Twitter after being admitted to hospital with Covid
That, I believe, is why the seriousness of his situation has hit so onerous.
For such an effusive, ebullient man, such a vibrant life power, to be introduced down by the virus solely serves to deliver dwelling the vicious and indiscriminate nature of the menace to all of us.
MARRIAGE
May 10, 2017
I solely turned a political partner as a result of years in the past I met a really good, clear younger man who, aside from proudly owning a surprisingly giant variety of books about Margaret Thatcher, appeared in each different respect to be completely regular.
I utterly failed to grasp his curiosity in politics would shortly mutate right into a critical obsession and to an precise seat in Parliament.
It by no means occurred to me that I’d someday find yourself married to a minister — as a result of it by no means occurred to me that anybody would really need to be a politician.
But that’s as a result of, not like him, I’m not within the grip of a compulsion each bit as addictive (and damaging) as essentially the most highly effective narcotic recognized to man: the politics bug.
It’s a horrible factor to admit, however earlier than I met and married Michael Gove, I used to be the kind of one that would possibly simply not have bothered voting.
It will get worse. When Margaret Thatcher stood down as Prime Minister, I rushed to Oddbins in Islington and purchased the final bottle of champagne on the shelf to have a good time.
When it involves Tory spouses, there could not be anybody much less certified for the job than me. Except for one factor: I really like my husband very a lot and wish him to succeed on the factor that makes him blissful. Which, God assist us each, is politics.
June 27, 2021
Ever since these footage of Matt Hancock snogging his aide emerged, I’ve been eager about the character of political marriages. And how hardly ever, if ever, they handle to thrive beneath the pressures of public life.
The downside with top-level politics is that, inevitably, you begin to imagine your individual hype.
Ministers are surrounded by individuals telling them how good they’re. Their departments deal with them like feudal barons. Their each whim is handled as legislation. No one ever says No to them. They actually do not get requested to unload the dishwasher. And after some time, it adjustments them. It turns into more and more tough for something to compete with the adrenaline of energy.
Ever since these footage of Matt Hancock snogging his aide emerged, I’ve been eager about the character of political marriages. Pictured: Matt Hancock and Gina Coladangelo
How can anybody be anticipated to place the bins out once they’ve simply bought dwelling from a day saving the world? Domestic life can appear boring and dispiriting by comparability.
And so they start to keep away from it. So a lot simpler to remain late or say Yes to a fundraiser, or present your assist at a fellow MP’s drinks celebration.
Westminster is a spot of myriad distractions for the politician in search of refuge from his or her dwelling life.
And while you really feel disconnected like that, and since energy is such an aphrodisiac, it does not take an enormous leap of creativeness to see how one can go from being fortunately married to the type of one that will get caught so sadly on CCTV.
Climbing that far up Westminster’s greasy pole adjustments an individual. And when somebody adjustments, they require one thing new from a companion. Namely, somebody who’s as a lot a courtesan as a companion, one who understands their brilliance.
Not somebody who thinks it is all a monumental nuisance and desires they’d get a correct job that does not contain individuals poking cameras in your face and commenting in your poor selection of footwear.
The downside with the spouse who has recognized you since manner earlier than you have been king of the world is that she sees by means of your facade.
She is aware of your fears and your insecurities. She is aware of, deep down inside, you aren’t the Master of the Universe you purport to be. And some individuals do not wish to be reminded of that.
In the tip, there are two kinds of politicians. Those who can stroll away from energy — and those that cannot. And who will compromise every thing for the sake of it.
February 6, 2022
In 2016 I despatched an e mail that was later leaked. It contained just a few encouragements to my then husband, Michael Gove, who was working for management of the Conservative Party.
What was meant as nothing greater than phrases of recommendation and assist was interpreted as proof of my meddling ambition.
How dare I intervene within the affairs of males? How dare I proffer my opinion? Go again to the kitchen, love. This one’s above your pay grade.
It has had long-term implications. I’ve little doubt now that it contributed to the breakdown of my as soon as blissful marriage, resulting in my very own melancholy and emotions — on my half, no less than — of deep confusion and unhappiness.
It shattered my self-image, turned me right into a determine of ridicule and hate, projected a warped model of myself that also haunts me to today.
It brutalised me in methods I can not even specific, and in the end it broke us.
Or perhaps it simply broke me after which the remaining adopted.
WAR ON WOKE
July 5, 2017
As far as I’m involved, when you’re an grownup you are able to do what you want along with your physique. Dye your hair inexperienced, cowl your self in tattoos, stick a hoop by means of your nostril and declare your self a transgender alien. The selection is yours.
What you can’t do, nevertheless, is impose your decisions on others. Especially kids.
This week, an eight-month-old Canadian turned the primary particular person to be registered ‘gender unknown’ on its well being card. According to the mother or father — a non-binary trans particular person referred to as Kori Doty — it is because they’re going to wait till the toddler has developed the ‘sense of self and command of vocabulary to inform me who they’re’. Tip: Check their nappy.
June 10, 2020 [after George Floyd protests hit London]
In the present local weather of cultural intolerance, to disagree is nearly inconceivable. Any deviation from the narrative of utmost political correctness, of ‘woke’ revisionism, is interpreted as a thought crime, a perversion, and shut down accordingly.
That is how you find yourself with statues being pushed into rivers by baying mobs.
For what it is value, I believe Bristol is a greater place with out the Edward Colston statue. But I disagree with the strategy of eradicating it as a result of it represents a mindset I discover deeply sinister.
The world has, at innumerable factors in historical past, been a savage and merciless place. For some all too many it nonetheless is. But you can’t and mustn’t whitewash historical past, nevertheless a lot parts of it could repulse you.
Sarah Vine stated Bristol was higher with out the Edward Colston statue however she condemned the way in which it was eliminated
Indeed, I’d argue that that is very true of humanity’s best injustices, of which slavery is one.
For so long as Auschwitz stays standing, for instance, we’ll always remember the genocide of World War II, and rightly so.
Slavery is in that very same class. The finest technique to honour its victims is to protect their reminiscence with dignity and respect and by no means lose sight of the evil executed to them, nevertheless a lot it offends our sensibilities.
June 24, 2020
OH, THE irony of Premier League footballers supporting BLM, which overtly states its intention, amongst different issues, to ‘dismantle capitalism’. Where do they suppose the cash that pays their inflated salaries comes from, if not the very system they declare to despise?
THE QUEEN
September 20, 2022
[With Her Majesty’s funeral] we’ve proven the world how a lot the monarchy actually means to us, even perhaps shocking ourselves within the course of.
We have reminded the world that it’s so rather more than only a dusty custom, or a supply of profitable plot twists and gossip for the likes of Netflix. That it’s a very important, necessary establishment which occupies a central position in our hearts and in fashionable Britain.
The sheer quantity of people that lined the route of the Queen’s coffin yesterday, who camped out all night time and stood ready with a view to catch a last glimpse as she made her technique to her last resting place at Windsor Castle, was testimony to that.
As was the queue that snaked for miles round London of individuals ready to pay their respects as she lay in state: a cross-section of British society, males, girls, kids from all walks of life, all there for a similar cause.
Sarah Vine hoped that the reminiscence of the Queen would encourage individuals within the tough months following her demise
People of each race, faith, age and perception, united by the identical frequent denominator: the Queen.
Such a spontaneous outpouring of real emotion feels so deeply sudden and particular, significantly in these harsh, unforgiving occasions. I can not consider every other public determine, save maybe the Pope, who might stir such depth of feeling.
I wish to suppose she’s watching. I hope she is. I hope she’s there, with Prince Philip squeezing her hand, trying down and seeing what she meant to us, to this bruised and battered nation, to this disparate nation of ours.
And I hope that we will retain a few of that generosity of spirit which was a lot part of who she was. That her reminiscence, her lifetime of obligation and perseverance, can encourage us within the tough months to return.
