Inside our Jubilee Special

The rain makes today’s Jubilee celebrations a truly British event. We didn’t want any of this continental sun, anyway. The flotilla is making its way through the drizzle, and as we have to celebrate indoors due to the weather then there’s the perfect accompaniment: the new Spectator double issue, out today, which is overflowing with holiday reading.

We have Robert Hardman saying how – policing aside – the bill for these four days of celebrations has been £1 million which works out as half an Olympic volleyball pitch. The queen is remarkable value. At my church this morning, we heard from a parishioner a little older than the Queen who was involved in making the dress for her coronation. The weather that day was just like this, she said, and they were still on food stamps, celebrating with the thinnest of resources. That’s the power of monarchy. As Robert says, the remote and overbearing Olympics chiefs could learn a thing or two from the queen.