‘We will overcome it’: Queen calls for unity as she thanks NHS staff
The UK will overcome the coronavirus crisis if it remains “united and resolute”, the Queen said today as she thanked frontline medical staff for their efforts in fighting the pandemic.
In an historic televised address from Windsor Castle this evening, the Queen acknowledged the “very challenging time” for the country, but insisted that “we will succeed”.
“Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it,” she said.
The Queen drew comparisons with her first broadcast in 1940, when she and her sister princess Margaret spoke to children who had been evacuated from their homes due to the war.
“Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones,” she said. “But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do.”
She also evoked We’ll Meet Again, the famous wartime song by Vera Lynn.
“We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”
She added: “The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.”
The Queen opened her address by thanking those on the NHS frontline, care workers and those carrying out essential roles for their “selfless” efforts.
She hailed the weekly applause for NHS staff and carers, saying it will be “remembered as an expression of our national spirit”, while its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children.
It is only the fifth peacetime address from the Queen outside of her annual Christmas message. Previous interventions have thanked soldiers for their work in the first Gulf War and marked the deaths of the Queen Mother and princess Diana.
The Queen tonight said that while the country had faced challenges before, “this one is different”.
“This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal,” she said.
“We will succeed – and that success will belong to every one of us.”