The nationwide Big Lunch spread a spirit of kindness and duty – let’s never change the true power of our monarchy
Lasting power of royal glory
AFTER the pomp and the pageantry, the party.
Millions woke up yesterday to the official dawn of our new Carolean era.
In bunting-draped streets bathed in glorious celebratory sunshine, the nationwide Big Lunch saw trestle tables heaving with cheese and pickle sandwiches, cake, curries and noodles.
People who had previously merely lived next to each other became proper neighbours.
And today hundreds of thousands will again brave the rain to volunteer in their communities.
Whether it’s collecting tinned food for the less well-off or digging weeds in a village cemetery, a spirit of kindness and duty will spread.
It is all of this that is the true power of our monarchy.
That glorious St Edward’s crown bestowed on Charles is the ultimate symbol into which we can pour our collective character.
Upon that head is our very idea of nationhood, our togetherness.
Depth of love
Republicans who want to tear down the palaces, claiming hereditary royals aren’t democratic, misunderstand this fatally.
You cannot merely vote for this magical, mystical, deeply historical stuff.
Who would hold street parties for Presidents Blair or Truss? What a miserable, grey prospect such a head of state would be.
And the anti-monarchist argument about costs just doesn’t add up.
Not when London is bursting with foreign tourists spending billions to glimpse what they dearly wish their countries still had.
This weekend showed the depth of love for the Royal Family.
In his mother, King Charles had the ultimate teacher in what it takes to secure its future in the face of relentless change.
He was helped by faultless performances from the Prince and Princess of Wales. Surely few watching the highly charged moment when William bent the knee to his father would deny him his own turn.
Their star power will be key.
In the meantime we can feel happy and glorious pride in a Coronation job well done.
And that in a world of dangerous social media and alarming artificial intelligence, we still have 1,000 years of history as our bedrock.
After all, this is what Great Britain does best.
Never change it.