Queen's House (55 page)

The Queen usually receives between 200 and 400 letters a day, all of which initially go to her each morning for sifting and opening. They then go to the Private Secretary. Some deal with political matters: they go to the relevant government ministry. Some are marked by a personal symbol: these are from her friends and she opens and answers them herself. Some are directed to the office of the Ladies-in-Waiting.

Reading letters from the public is an important part of The Queen's day; she is intensely interested in the lives of her subjects. During difficult periods with family problems she has derived great consolation from the large number of letters of sympathy from mothers with similar anxieties. It is also important to her that people in trouble feel they can turn to her as a last resort, believing in her as an impartial counsellor.

Palace and Parliament

Every Tuesday when The Queen is in residence at Buckingham Palace she receives the Prime Minister for an entirely private audience when neither her Private Secretary nor the Prime Minister's is present. In this, as in so much, she has followed not only her father's example, but also her own love of tradition. However different the Prime Ministers may be, the pattern is unchanging. There are practical reasons for this, as there is with much ritual. The Prime Minister, accompanied by his or her Private Secretary, is received at the entrance to the Palace by The Queen's Private Secretary – the walk down long corridors gives the latter a chance to exchange a few words with the Prime Minister and judge his or her mood. While the Prime Minister is closeted with The Queen, the two Private Secretaries have an opportunity to talk. The
Queen's Private Secretary is disappointed if, after the audience, the Prime Minister is too busy to stay for further discussions.

The Prime Minister is ushered into The Queen's presence with formality, but then all is relaxed and friendly: unlike Queen Victoria, The Queen does not keep her Prime Ministers standing. Because their conversation is completely confidential, each Prime Minister has found it a great relief to be able to talk to someone impartial and above the fray. According to successive Private Secretaries they come out with a lighter step, like pilgrims relieved from their burdens.

During her reign of more than four decades, The Queen has had only six Private Secretaries, while there have been ten Prime Ministers. During those years she has become more experienced than many of her ministers or her secretaries, but she has been guided by them through wars and constitutional crises. The Queen may not have had to deal with the kind of world wars that were suffered in the time of her parents and grandparents, but during her reign there has been a succession of limited wars and armed conflicts, including Suez; the confrontation in Borneo; the Falklands War, in which her son, Prince Andrew, served as a helicopter pilot; the Gulf War; and the ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland, which brought about personal tragedy when on 27 August 1979 Lord Mountbatten and members of his family were killed by an IRA bomb. A dominant figure in the lives of Prince Philip, Prince Charles and The Queen herself, he was regarded with great affection by all the family.

Each Prime Minister in turn has been impressed by The Queen's steadiness in time of crisis and her knowledge not only of domestic but of world problems. Prime Ministers have come with different worries and found her an intelligent and understanding listener. She has also shown a shrewd judgement in dealing with a succession of very different characters. The Queen's first Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was old enough to be her grandfather; her latest, Tony Blair, is young enough to be her son. Today she holds in her exceptional memory a wide knowledge of world affairs.

In the early years she was somewhat in awe of Churchill. When his secretary, John Colville, had brought the news of King George VI's
death to him, Churchill, stricken, had exclaimed, ‘But she is just a child,' and he tended to treat the new Queen as such. Though an ailing man of seventy-seven, he was determined to stay in office to see her crowned. Few people knew that in July 1953 he suffered a near fatal stroke, just at the time when his deputy, Anthony Eden, was undergoing a serious operation.

However, Churchill recovered to enjoy more Tuesday chats until April 1955. ‘What do you talk about?' his secretary once asked. ‘Oh, racing,' he replied cheerfully. At the farewell dinner he gave for The Queen at Number 10 Downing Street, he drank her health from the same glass ‘from which he had drunk as a cavalry subaltern to her great-great-grandmother'.
¹²
The Queen was touched.

This had been a difficult time for the young Queen; had Churchill died in office she would have had to exercise her prerogative to choose his successor. There was no difficulty in choosing his successor. Anthony Eden had been Prime Minister in waiting for a very long time. His decision to plunge the country into war with Egypt over Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal was deeply controversial; even The Queen's closest advisers were divided. Eden's health finally failed and he retired in 1957, to be the succeeded by the shrewd and urbane Macmillan. In his period of office, his government was rocked by the Profumo scandal, and ended with constitutional problems for The Queen. Macmillan underwent an operation and resigned while in hospital. The Queen had the constitutional duty to choose his successor. For once, The Queen's meeting with her Prime Minister took place not in Buckingham Palace but at Macmillan's bedside in hospital. He made it clear to The Queen that Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who was regarded on all sides with genuine affection, would be able to form a government.

Self-deprecating as always, Douglas-Home once said that the Tuesday audiences were like visits to the headmaster's study: he always had to be sure he had done his homework. However, his period of office was short. In the election of 1964 Harold Wilson led the Labour Party to victory. He too quickly learned that The Queen always masters her briefs. At his first audience he was confounded when she asked him about the Milton Keynes New Town project, which he had not yet had
time to study. She also showed an unexpected interest in and knowledge about back-to-back housing in Leeds, where she had opened a new housing estate. Wilson, who had once been a university don, enjoyed explaining the political situation and The Queen enjoyed learning. There were times, however, when the position was reversed and the mature student became the teacher. Wilson became The Queen's most devoted admirer. He was to be Prime Minister from 1964–1970 and again from 1974 to 1976, after Edward Heath's brief period of office.

Changes of government meant changes of ministerial faces at receptions at Buckingham Palace. Like her father, The Queen always behaves impeccably. She is careful to remain impartial, above the party fray, and all her dealings with Commonwealth and Parliament show her to be tolerant, compassionate and pragmatic. Like her grandmother, Queen Mary, she accepts change yet has a deep sense of the value of tradition.

Harold Wilson made one untraditional appointment. In 1974, for the first time, the Captain of Her Majesty's Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms was a woman, Baroness Llewelyn-Davies, who was Government Chief Whip in the Lords. The Captain has always been chosen by the government from the House of Lords and is usually the Chief Whip. So Baroness Llewelyn-Davies received the gold stick of office from The Queen, and the right of direct access to The Queen on any matter dealing with the Corps. The Queen decided that she should not be expected to wear a uniform, but a special brooch was designed as her badge of office.

In 1970 the Labour government was defeated and Wilson was succeeded by Ted Heath. He is not an easy conversationalist, so their early talks at the Palace may have been somewhat reminiscent of those between George VI and Clement Attlee. They were certainly businesslike. Heath came with his fixed agenda and they followed it. He too, however, was eventually melted by The Queen's charm. She discovered that he responded to teasing, and he tells, with a shaking of the shoulders, how firmly she rejected a suggestion from The Queen of Spain that she should attend a concert Heath was conducting in Spain. The Queen did not pretend to share his passion for music. ‘Are you still at it?' she would ask him, waving an imaginary baton.

Then there was the moment, captured on television, when at a Buckingham Palace party he rebuked an American diplomat because America had not sent a personal envoy to Saddam Hussein of Iraq. He himself went, he said, and hostages were released. ‘Ah,' The Queen interjected, ‘but you are expendable.' Mr Heath is delighted to repeat the story.

In 1974 Heath's Conservative government was defeated after the miners' strike and Wilson returned to office. This time, concerned about his health, he did not intend to stay the course.

In 1976 Wilson resigned, to the surprise of the public, although he had confided in The Queen and some others before. There was no constitutional problem this time. It was a smooth transition to James Callaghan. Like Wilson, during his term of office he developed a deep respect and affection for The Queen, admiring her pragmatism and good judgement. He remembers the lighter moments. One warm evening, The Queen suggested they should continue the audience in the Palace garden. As they walked and talked, The Queen picked a rosebud and handed it to him for his buttonhole.

The Queen and Prime Minister usually bring to the Tuesday audiences the agenda for their discussions recommended by their respective Private Secretaries. Callaghan's method was relaxed and their agendas were often forgotten while they chatted about other matters: farming and family, for example.

When Margaret Thatcher with her Conservative government succeeded Callaghan, she brought a new challenge to the Tuesday audiences. It is widely believed that Queen and Prime Minister did not always see eye-to-eye, particularly on the question of the Commonwealth and sanctions on South Africa. But The Queen keeps her counsel and no one really knows. However, their relations were cordial and courteous and Mrs Thatcher won praise at Buckingham Palace for her punctuality at the Tuesday audiences and for her crisp competence. She arrived with her agenda clearly set out and they followed it.

John Major, successor to Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Prime Minister, and the Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, who replaced him in May 1997, were both less experienced in world affairs than The
Queen was herself. The Queen is more than ever before fully qualified for her classic role: to encourage, to warn and to be consulted.

Besides the Prime Minister, there are other political links between Palace and Parliament: members of the royal Household who are appointed on government advice, who change with changing governments, and who also have political duties in Parliament. These are the Treasurer of the Household, the Comptroller of the Household and the Vice-Chamberlain of the Household who are all members of the government Whips' Office in the House of Commons. The Vice-Chamberlain is also responsible for sending a daily report to The Queen on the events in Parliament. There are also officers chosen from among the government and whips in the House of Lords, who represent The Queen at funeral or memorial services, and who meet and greet important visitors to the United Kingdom.

One cabinet minister has a special audience with The Queen: the Chancellor of the Exchequer always sees her on the day before he presents his budget, to tell her of its contents.

The Privy Council

Meetings of the Privy Council are usually held at Buckingham Palace, although when The Queen is in residence at Windsor or Balmoral, the Privy Councillors travel there. When The Queen is absent abroad two or more Councillors of State are appointed to take her place.

The Privy Council has its origin in early medieval times; it is part of the machinery of government. At these meetings The Queen, on the advice of the Council, gives her approval of a vast number of royal proclamations and orders in Council.

Since the reign of Queen Victoria, Privy Councillors have been appointed for life. They now number nearly 400. A Privy Councillor is titled ‘the Right Honourable', and may use the initials PC after his name. Privy Councillors are mostly chosen from members of Parliament; all members of Cabinet must be Privy Councillors, as are the leaders
of opposition parties in both Houses of Parliament. Some judges, archbishops and members of the royal Household may also be appointed. Privy Councillors take the oath of allegiance to The Queen at a traditional ceremony at Buckingham Palace; at the end they retreat backwards from the Royal presence in what Fanny Burney called ‘the retrograde action'.

Nowadays not more than four Privy Councillors are called to a meeting. There are now only two occasions when the whole Council is summoned – on the accession of a new sovereign, when the Council meets in St James's Palace, and when an unmarried sovereign announces his or her proposed marriage. This, it will be remembered, was the occasion which Queen Victoria found so unnerving.

Palace and Commonwealth

The Queen is not only Head of State for Britain, she is also the Head of the Commonwealth and its sixteen member countries. Her Private Secretary is the link between her and the Commonwealth Prime Ministers. From the beginning of her reign The Queen has made it clear that the Commonwealth, as a family of nations, is of major importance to her.

As Head of the Commonwealth she plays no official part in the machinery of its constitutional governments, but she is now a wise and experienced human link between many different peoples, and because of her obvious dedication to the ideal of a family of nations, so sincerely expressed at her coming of age in South Africa, she is greatly respected.

The organization of the Commonwealth, which had been worked out by King George VI, Mountbatten and Attlee, was finally made legal by the Royal Titles Act of 1953. The Indian government had set the pattern: now it is possible for member states to accept The Queen as the symbolic head of their free association, and yet, if they wish, to become republics.