Heartfelt thanks from me and my family to the many people who sent their good wishes yesterday, by email or on Twitter and Facebook, for my father's 100th birthday. We had a good do for him. One highlight of the day was the arrival of his card from the Queen.
My dad was obviously quite chuffed after getting the card, but I asked him how he felt anyway; how he felt, as a longtime republican, at receiving these felicitations from the Queen. He said, 'One can't abstract from the symbols in the culture of the wider society to which one belongs'. Damn straight.
