Emma Raducanu and the Queen’s gambit
(Alamy)
In recent weeks, we have seen ourselves at our worst and at our best. Hardly anyone in Westminster or Whitehall covered themselves in glory during our humiliating retreat from Kabul. While the armed services performed magnificently, rescuing far more people than had seemed possible, our dependence on and lack of influence over the US were cruelly exposed.
Nor did the political class come out well from the unseemly squabble over the crisis in social care. While Germany and Japan (to name just two comparable countries) have devised sustainable, affordable and bipartisan solutions, we have saddled ourselves with a new tax that is inequitable and unpopular but which looks likely to be merely a sticking plaster rather than a cure. Neither Government nor Opposition has risen to the challenge of an ageing population and the burden of dementia on families.
Instead, as Dominic Lawson pointed out yesterday in the Sunday Times (behind a paywall), the Prime Minister claimed to be protecting what he told his MPs was “the right to pass on money”. If as a nation we really think inheritance should trump dignity, then we do not deserve either. A state-backed insurance scheme could preserve both, but there is little sign of constructive criticism from the Left or the Right. We will end up with a messy compromise that will have to be revisited in a few years.
This has not been Boris’s finest hour and, if polls are correct, the public is unimpressed. To say that the weekend briefings about him telling colleagues that his “great, great project” is “going to take ten years” in Downing Street were premature would be an understatement. “ Boris will want to go on and on,” a Cabinet minister was reported to have said. “He’s very competitive. He wants to go on for longer than Thatcher.” What Boris wants and what the voters will give him are two very different things. Hubris only afflicted Margaret Thatcher in her final term of office — and it swiftly proved fatal. Prime Ministers, like the rest of us, have to earn every hour upon the stage.
“Man proposes; God disposes,” wrote Thomas à Kempis in The Imitation of Christ. There seems to be little respect for the Almighty in Westminster today, still less for the Fifth Commandment: “Honour thy father and thy mother.” That ordinance continues: “…that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” We can and should do better than this, for the sake of our senior citizens, who have suffered so much in the pandemic.
Yet the weekend also brought us a glimpse of our better selves, in the form of Emma Raducanu’s almost incredible triumph at tennis. What was especially touching was her response to the timely message of congratulation that came from the Queen, which was delivered on court at Flushing Meadows by the British consul-general in New York. “It is a remarkable achievement at such a young age, and is testament to your hard work and dedication,” the Queen wrote. “I have no doubt your outstanding performance, and that of your opponent Leylah Fernandez, will inspire the next generation of tennis players.” It was a typically generous regal touch to pay tribute also to the losing finalist from Canada — of which Elizabeth II is also head of state. The nonagenarian monarch had evidently stayed up late to witness one of the greatest moments in sporting history.
Emma’s response could hardly have been more sincere: “I’m incredibly honoured, just blown away. I never in my life thought Her Majesty would watch one of my matches. It’s so special. I can’t believe that it’s happening.” She would frame the royal letter, she said. It may well not be her last.
(Roger Parker/Alamy Live News)
What is so satisfying about this exchange is the juxtaposition of the 18-year-old tennis star — until recently an unknown, ordinary schoolgirl, now catapulted by her own efforts on a career of unprecedented promise — with the 95-year-old Queen, old enough to be her great-grandmother, now in the twilight years of the longest reign in the history of the British monarchy. Each has unbounded respect for the other — and rightly so. Emma Raducanu seems to embody everything that is admirable about her generation — so much so, indeed, that becoming such a role model overnight may prove to be an intolerable burden for her. The Queen knows exactly how that feels: she has lived with it at least since that awful day, 69 years ago, when her father died. So these two very different women have something in common. The Queen’s gambit was the right gesture to a thoroughly worthy recipient. That little missive across the Atlantic was also sent from one generation to another. And it was received in exactly the right spirit. This is how we should honour our fathers and our mothers — and our sons and daughters, too.
A Message from TheArticle
We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout the pandemic. So please, make a donation.
