Straw in the wind

There were little hints then that I did not take, little straws in the wind that I did not see, little incidents the gravity of which I did not realize.

[…] and the decision of the United States Supreme Court virtually commanding the Florida Supreme Court to reverse its ruling banning Negroes from playing on a city-owned golf course in Miami are straws in the wind showing that segregation is becoming more and more unworkable.

Although no word has ever really emerged of what the Queen has really thought of her prime ministers, there has always been a sense that she did not get on terribly well with Thatcher. Some of this is doubtless wishful thinking, but there were sufficient straws in the wind to give it some credence, such as the story that the prime minister asked what the sovereign intended to wear to an event so as to avoid a clash, only to be told frostily that Her Majesty did not pay any attention to what other people wore.