A member of my family often used to puzzle us by saying at the end of a television bulletin: “Now that was nice news.” We would think back over the catalogue of misery, evil, disaster and human frailty that had just been paraded before our eyes and wonder what she could possibly mean. Then the answer dawned: she only said this when an item about the royal family was included.
Michael Shea, the Queen’s press secretary for the past nine years, would be pleased by this story, for he has always recognised the time-honoured role of the royals – of cheering people up with colourful spectacle in a period of national self-doubt and international gloom.
