TODAY we wish a very happy 90th birthday to a very special woman.

Her Majesty The Queen is carrying on, just as she promised in a famous broadcast on her 21st birthday, in 1947, when she said: “My whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.”

She has done exactly that – and that is what so many of her subjects admire about her.

She is, whether you are a royalist or not, a model of steadfastness and almost selfless devotion to duty. She encapsulates so much of what it means to be British.

No British monarch has ever lived to be so old, and she shows no sign of retiring, even if she has in recent years passed on some of her duties to the younger royals. For a nonagenarian, she has remarkable energy and endurance – even after 63 years, she still appears to enjoy her role.

Of course, she has lived 90 years of immense privilege and her lofty position does seem anachronistic at times in our meritocratic age.

However, perhaps more than ever she has an important role to play. As a nation we are entering a period of political uncertainty as both sides in the EU debate issue gloomy warnings about what might happen if we vote the 'wrong' way on June 23. It will be a historic vote, defining for the foreseeable future whether we are Europeans or whether we need to forge an alternative alliances around the world.

But whichever way we vote, we will still be British, and, no matter what turmoil may occur after the referendum, there is no better symbol of the permanency of the British nation than the Queen, still reigning with relish after all these years.

This is why a new poll shows that 70 per cent of the British public saying she should reign for as long as possible – the highest proportion since 1981. How a politician at the head of a republic would love that sort of approval rating.

So on your 90th birthday, ma’am, may we wish you many happy returns and may we wish once more that long may you reign over us.