Why we have never had it so good as country - Bernard Ingham

Everything has changed yet we are the same after a thousand years in our respect for our constitutional monarchy. We know when we are on to a good thing - as does the world in its admiration of our seamless transfer of power and magnificent ceremonial. Who would warm to President Tony Blair, still less to Jeremy Corbyn?

In the course of the last 100 years we have seen a host of revolutions: economic, social, cultural, spiritual, transport, scientific, technological, communications and the British Empire remodelled as the 56 member-nations of the Commonwealth.

We joined the European Community on a false prospectus – that it would solve our economic problems when in reality they were primarily caused by the abuse of trade union power. Now we are a sovereign state again, even if the EU is still trying to annex Northern Ireland.

In my youth, the horse and cart was still the main medium of transport. Few people had motorcars and it was a treat to have a ride In one. Now we are choking on vehicular transport and electric cars are moving in, without, incidentally, knowing where the power is coming from.

The jet revolution has made the world truly our oyster. Holidays abroad are de rigueur instead of trips to Blackpool, Morecambe, Scarborough, Bridlington or Skegness.

Not surprisingly, we think we are more sophisticated. After all, travel, they say, broadens the mind. But we are more disputatious in our increased self-confidence. The age of deference has long since gone. Instead, we have an abuse of free thinking: the age of the totalitarian wokerati who seek to control our minds and expression.

The internet has changed the world not merely in the speed of communication but also in its capacity for the corruption of the young by providing a pulpit for the demented and evil. It is one aspect of the surge in crime that still appals my generation.

It is an open question whether we are better educated for life as the education system seems more interested in indoctrination than pure education. The weakening of the family has not helped. But a university education is a rite of passage, as it is described, even though it is doubtful whether it helps many students while they incur a debt of £30,000 or more in tuition fees before they have earned a penny.

Undoubtedly, women have been relieved by technology from the sheer drudgery of my mother’s day. Equality of opportunity has appropriately made great strides during Queen Elizabeth’s reign. But beware quotas. It’s character and ability in an equal society that really count.

We are all incomparably better off, even if this post-pandemic winter is going to test the poorer. And we are living longer, in spite of the NHS’s persistent problems, thanks mainly to the wonders of science.

In short, generally we have never had it so good, as Harold Macmillan felt able to say in 1959.

Unfortunately, there has been another constant in our lives during Queen Elizabeth’s reign. It is the continuing cold war, albeit with a break starting in 1990, that Vladimir Putin has warmed up with his invasion of the Ukraine. The risks and uncertainties remain with China and Russia bent on Communist world domination, North Korea needing watching and Iran and Afghanistan homes to nightmare religious extremism.

This means that we probably have never known a more dangerous world as King Charles takes the throne. An enormous weight rests on his and Prime Minister Liz Truss’s shoulders in navigating us to a better, stronger and more principled nation. Our well-tried Parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy are priceless assets in this endeavour.

The rest is up to us. I would be happier if I felt that the old concept of public duty that imbued all public services. Instead, we have a rash of strikes, a preoccupation with working from home regardless of the deficiencies of services paid for by the public and a reportedly unco-operative Civil Service.

It is one thing to pay our respects to the late Queen. It is entirely another, when she has gone, to fail to live up to her shining example of commitment to the public good. England expects every man this day to do his duty in her glorious memory.