Sandra Chapman: Golfing star McDowell’s popularity with the Saudis

What with reasonably well behaved Royal children and wonderfully behaved horses, it was quite a show.

So we are all back to butts revelling no doubt in the fact that no one currently on this earth will ever see the likes again.

I don’t know how many generations will pass before a Platinum Jubilee can be staged again.

Only royalty could have given us such a slice of history to remember for life “be it long or short”, as Her Majesty would say.

I came down to earth quickly when I realised the slugs were eating into my vegetable patch – the lettuce were very popular – and the rhubarb patch was about to be overrun by a plant – maybe it’s a weed - with a red flower on it which was acting as though it owned the place.

The weather decided to keep our spirits up and for the first time in years I got my ankles sunburned. I could have done with a royal gardener, if her Majesty has any to spare.

So it was back to everyday life with newspapers struggling to fill their pages after overdosing on Jubilee celebrations.

Boris’s future in politics kept them active for a while followed by two sport stories: would tennis star Emma Raducanu be fit for Wimbledon after her ‘absolute freak’ injury which saw her retire from an important match in Nottingham?

And what about our own golfing star Graeme McDowell who’s very popular with the Saudis these days?

He’s come a long way since he first took up the game. He has been criticised for his latest deal with even The National Union of Journalists suggesting his move to play for the Saudis is ‘morally questionable’.

In my days as a trainee journalist it was forever drummed into the likes of me that we were there to report a story not to have an opinion on it. I have tried to stick by that over decades in the profession.

It has not been easy at times but increasingly I see where this is being eroded.

McDowell has declared: “I’m proud to help Saudi Arabia” and believes this golfing series could perhaps be a “force for good”.

This story has a long way to run. I don’t play golf of course, would scarcely know one end of a golfing green from another. But I do know lots of people who do play and so devoted are they to their sport they pay little or no attention to politics.

And so to Boris whose smiling face filled the front of this newspaper the day after the confidence vote which ended in 211 votes to 148 in his favour.

One newspaper described the result as leaving him ‘badly wounded’.

My generation has seen quite a few prime ministers in the UK but could any of us pick out one we could describe as exceptional?

I did like Margaret Thatcher – not just because she was our first female prime minister – but due to her incredible foresight and ability to deal with know-it-all union leaders – mostly men – who rarely gave her credit for anything.

She was a great example to women at the time struggling to get their own opinions heard.

I’m sure many of us achieved what we set out to due to her.

Boris is a very different prime minister dealing with a generation whose views of politicians are many, varied and mostly disrespectful.

Boris was a political journalist for years and has a fair knowledge of how modern journalism works.

This week the News Letter leader column declared: “PM has survived, and must act fast to overhaul the protocol”.

So there you are, within days of that wonderful Royal event we are back to butts and the Protocol, politics at its purest.

Maybe more of us should learn from Her Majesty’s example of love and respect.