But to be young was very heaven!

To begin with I have to say that this is not what I hoped for last Thursday, this deal with the Liberal Democrats. I dislike the party almost as much as I dislike Labour. I think Clegg is a weak man, a man who really should have no leverage on the government of this country. But we have a Conservative Prime Minister again after thirteen years of the worst, most incompetent, most authoritarian ministry in this country’s history. I’m not naïve; I understand that there is a difficult passage ahead; I believe that there is likely to be another election within a year at the outside despite the five year pact.

Still, I live for this moment, I rejoice in this moment. I really only have the vaguest recollections of the last Conservative ministry and am so delighted to see a new one. I set my pessimism and my realism to one side and echo the words of Winston Churchill on VE Day - We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead.

Very well done, David. School is proud of you; the tugs and the oppidans are proud of you; my father is proud of you.

Others will fill our places,
Dressed in the old light blue,
We'll recollect our races,
We'll to the flag be true,
And youth will be still in our faces,
When we cheer for an Eton crew,
And youth will be still in our faces,
When we cheer for an Eton crew.

And, being a hopeless romantic, I simply cannot resist leaving you with some lines of Wordsworth, words which sum up my mood at this sublime moment;

OH! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!
For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood
Upon our side, we who were strong in love!
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!--Oh! times,
In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways
Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
The attraction of a country in romance