"In ways that were unforeseeable at her accession, the Queen’s symbolic unifying function is becoming more important as Britain faces social and economic division"

‘Occasionally one reads of an incident in this great metropolis so awful, so disturbing, that just for a moment one’s mental moorings are shaken’

The monarchy, and its central function as a symbolic unifying force, have been given a new lease of life by citizenship ceremonies

"The contemporary super-rich have little in the way of roots or connection, and therefore little sense of obligation"