"optimistic and forward-looking and keeps it together."
That's how Melanie Phillips characterises constitutional monarchy in a conversation with John Anderson AC.
Melanie said, "The crucial point about the monarchy, in my view a constitutional monarchy is that it provides a point, a focal point of admiration, of stability, of identification, which helps bind the nation together and gives it a sense of itself that is optimistic and forward-looking and keeps it together."
Melanie said about the late Queen Elizabeth, "You wouldn't have dreamed of hearing her ever complain about anything. She was always optimistic and just got on with it."
What makes you optimistic?