So it’s done and dusted. The negotiations are successfully completed, the Privy Council has rubber-stamped the deal, a new Coat of Arms is agreed and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine is opening its airway, expanding its lungs and taking its first breaths in the world. Very well done and congratulations to everyone, past and present, who worked towards this goal and delivered on the vision of those pioneering clinicians and politicians from over a generation ago. Any plaudits are fully deserved. Enjoy the moment.

The College’s Memorandum of Association, published in the final quarter of 2005, lists the noble aims that underpin the College’s “raison d’être”. It is a necessarily dry and formal document that can best be summarised by its opening two objectives, which are, first, to advance education and research in the specialty and, second, to preserve and protect good health, improve standards and provide expert guidance and advice to appropriate bodies on matters relating to the specialty.

Behind this formality (perhaps “pomp and circumstance” is a more appropriate term now we are regal) lies the real world of how the College functions, delivers on these objectives and remains …