“Elizabeth II’s political views were not aligned with any party”

HASIn the United Kingdom, the constitutional rule is that the British monarch is above politics, expresses no political opinion and accommodates any prime minister, whether Labor or Conservative.

The monarch is therefore a political eunuch. However, the term cannot apply to Queen Elizabeth. She submitted to all conventions but had opinions and a political culture unique to her class and upbringing. But these were not aligned with any party. The prime minister she got on best with was Labor Harold Wilson (1916-1995). A brilliant intellectual, he affected to present himself as an unpretentious Yorkshire man, professing ideas dictated by common sense and displaying plebeian tastes acceptable to all. He refused the request of American President Lyndon Johnson (1908-1973) to send British troops to Vietnam and attempted to have the United Kingdom join the EEC (the future European Union), which was blocked by General de Gaulle.

The Queen closely followed international affairs and read all the dispatches sent by British ambassadors to the Foreign Office. She enjoyed talking with Wilson. In his Memoirs, he evokes the judicious advice given to him by a conservative expert in foreign affairs. He does not name it but had confided with a smile to his assistant that it was the queen.

Tensions with Thatcher

According to Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), who founded The Economist to make it the organ of nineteenth-century liberal capitalism^e century and wrote the now classic work on the unwritten British Constitution, the sovereign is above politics but has “three rights, those to be consulted, to encourage and to warn”.

Every Tuesday the Prime Minister sees the Queen; now he will be the king. They discuss the government’s agenda, international challenges and day-to-day political difficulties.

When Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) ordered the American army to invade and occupy the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada because the government, too leftist, did not suit him, Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) received an urgent phone call to Downing Street. She was informed that the queen would have liked to see her. Her cabinet replied at Buckingham Palace that the Prime Minister was very busy. The royal request turned into an order. The Prime Minister was to report immediately to Her Majesty.

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