Three cheers for Her Royal Wryness
09/05/2007
The Telegraph
Republican America has been captivated by the Queen's timeless charm, unwavering duty and subtle sense of humour. Little wonder, says royal biographer Philip Ziegler
'Others abide our question, thou art free" - Matthew Arnold's celebrated tribute to Shakespeare could as well be applied to the Queen.
The Queen in the US: her humour is one her best qualities
In an age in which it is fashionable to rubbish any British institution, from the Church of England to MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club), the monarchy has not escaped inviolate. It has been mocked for being out of date, abused for its extravagance; if it does nothing it is criticised for inactivity, if it does something it is accused of interference.
Yet almost every attack, however embittered, makes one qualification: the Queen is different.
Even the most hardened republican seems to accept that, while she is on the throne, the monarchy is secure.
This is the more remarkable because it is achieved without spin or artifice. The Queen makes no effort to project a public image: she simply is.
Even the least monarchically minded Briton must look with satisfaction at the press coverage of the Queen's visit to the United States. At every appearance, as is her way, she has contrived to look traditional yet stylish whilst being reassuringly immune to the vagaries of fashion.
But one image above the rest says it all. President Bush, in a welcoming speech as the Queen began the Washington stage of her trip, made a silly slip of the tongue, misdating America's bicentennial, thus making the Queen something over 200 years old.
The Queen looked across at him with a look of quizzical surprise, showing the sense of humour which in private is one of her most endearing qualities.
Recovering with considerable grace, Bush told the Queen: "You gave me a look only a mother could give a child." It was a perceptive remark. The Queen has achieved the status of honorary mother - or even grandmother - to the nation.
It is a role into which she has grown and in which she will continue to grow. The British people like their monarchs to be young or old, better still, very young or very old. Middle age is an interregnum to be got through as rapidly and painlessly as possible.
The Queen did the very young part with consummate grace and weathered the interregnum with a minimum of bother. Now she can enjoy the fruits of longevity.
Her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, in old age put herself out remarkably little to win her people's affection.
Nevertheless that drab, dumpy figure, secluded in her castle at Windsor, perpetually in mourning for a long-dead husband, captured a nation's imagination.
The present Queen is far more visible, far more conscientious in the exercise of her duties, far more obviously human, yet still she has managed to preserve some of the mystery and excitement of monarchy.
Perhaps more than any other individual she symbolises the age through which she has lived: the wonderful vision of her visiting Nasa mission control yesterday symbolises perfectly how she can be simultaneously timeless yet always up to date.
One needs to be quite old to remember the death of her father King George VI, to be able to recapture the poignancy of that slim girl descending from her aircraft to take up, unfairly early, the burdens of the throne.
At the age of 21 she had dedicated herself to the service of her future subjects, but she can hardly have anticipated that the responsibility would be laid on her so soon.
Nor can she have dreamed - perhaps it would have been a nightmare - that some 55 years later she would still be at it: touring the world on gruelling state visits, presiding over innumerable functions, keeping closely in touch with the running of the nation.
During these years her standards have never wavered. Her mother, when she was in her nineties, once collapsed into her car after an interminable day opening this, inspecting that, smiling, smiling, smiling.
One more engagement, 30 miles away, still lay ahead. Her lady-in-waiting pleaded with her to call it off, to plead exhaustion and head for home. "Oh no," said The Queen Mother. "They would be so disappointed. Of course I must go."
When she is in her nineties the Queen's reaction will be just the same. She has never let her people down, and never will. She stands for integrity, duty, common-sense, decency, plain-speaking: home-spun qualities perhaps; unfashionable, even, in a world increasingly ruled by the values of the superficial and the meretricious, but as essential as ever to the welfare of society.
The Queen is not just a symbol. The monarchy is an essential element in what - for want of a better phrase - we call the British constitution. It is the ultimate repository of power - a power which it seems supremely unlikely will ever be invoked but which should never wholly be forgotten.
The Queen does not rule, but she is intimately in touch with those who do.
Successive prime ministers have paid tribute to her wisdom and to the benefits they have drawn from her immense experience.
That is the sort of thing prime ministers are supposed to say and perhaps need not be taken at face value. But in their private papers and in the opinions of those with whom they worked, the same message is conveyed.
Harold Wilson's audiences with the Queen grew longer and longer as his term of office wore on and he would return to No 10 conspicuously elated.
He never divulged what had been discussed but his staff claimed that on several occasions at least they had detected a distinct change of attitude after his conversations in the Palace.
A monarch who sought to interfere with the running of government would be a menace; a monarch who has seen it all before and who can survey events from an angle inaccessible to any politician, can be a priceless asset.
Wilson used to say that the Queen was the only person with whom he could properly discuss affairs of state yet was not after his job.
The Queen has witnessed the dissolution of Empire, the birth of a new Europe, the transformation of almost every aspect of British life.
It has not been the most glorious epoch of our history, but few would deny that at the end of it the vast majority of the people are better fed, better housed and better educated.
This is still a good country to live in: its people are for the most part tolerant, law-abiding, concerned about the plight of the less fortunate. More than any other individual, the Queen embodies those qualities.
Looking back on the history of Great Britain since the Second World War there may be much to regret but not all that much about which we need feel ashamed.
For that the Queen can be held as much responsible as anyone.
Washington goes gaga
The New York Times' White House correspondent couldn't conceal her puzzlement. "Americans are just gaga over this visit," she said.
Sure enough, "Capital Goes Gaga Over The Queen for a Day" was the headline on the front page of the Washington Post the next day. The paper's style section was titled "Queen's presence brings an uncommon glow to the White House". US Today preferred "Queen dines and shines" for its front page.
Sometimes clearly against its better judgment (journalists know that the visit is a public relations coup for the troubled Bush presidency), the US media has bent a collective knee before the Queen.
More than 800 American journalists sought accreditation to cover the trip and the copious coverage has been almost entirely complimentary, often bordering on fawning.
The big three television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) have frequently run live broadcasts. "It's been a media frenzy - we're more interested in the royalty than the British are," said an ABC producer.
Even the liberal New York Times observed yesterday: "On this side of the ocean, the Queen was making Americans go weak in the knees."
It was no exaggeration. Having secured an invitation to the White House state dinner, Robin Roberts, the anchor of ABC's Good Morning America, seemed overwhelmed when she interviewed Laura Bush.
"The excitement continues to build," she gushed. "The White House is taking on an air of royalty this morning.... And I'm telling you, what a delight. I mean, truly, everyone is buzzing around here."
It helped that half of the Queen's visit was in Virginia, arguably America's most Anglophile state. "We are Elizabeth's subjects and she our monarch for a day," announced the Virginian-Pilot when the Queen visited Richmond, the state capital.
Such attitudes have infuriated stalwart republicans. Marc Fisher, a columnist in the Washington Post, invoked the egalitarian spirit of the 18th-century philosopher Tom Paine that inspired the fathers of American independence.
"The hype and hoopla over the royal visit has driven too many of us to forget who we are," he wrote.
"We are no one's subjects. We do not bow to kings and queens. When we forget this, we sully ourselves."
Quoting only a carping piece in the left-wing republican Guardian as evidence, he claimed that "in Britain, our attitude toward the royal visit strikes many as odd".
by Tom Leonard in Washington
------------------
telegraph.co.uk
09/05/2007
The Telegraph
Republican America has been captivated by the Queen's timeless charm, unwavering duty and subtle sense of humour. Little wonder, says royal biographer Philip Ziegler
'Others abide our question, thou art free" - Matthew Arnold's celebrated tribute to Shakespeare could as well be applied to the Queen.
The Queen in the US: her humour is one her best qualities
In an age in which it is fashionable to rubbish any British institution, from the Church of England to MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club), the monarchy has not escaped inviolate. It has been mocked for being out of date, abused for its extravagance; if it does nothing it is criticised for inactivity, if it does something it is accused of interference.
Yet almost every attack, however embittered, makes one qualification: the Queen is different.
Even the most hardened republican seems to accept that, while she is on the throne, the monarchy is secure.
This is the more remarkable because it is achieved without spin or artifice. The Queen makes no effort to project a public image: she simply is.
Even the least monarchically minded Briton must look with satisfaction at the press coverage of the Queen's visit to the United States. At every appearance, as is her way, she has contrived to look traditional yet stylish whilst being reassuringly immune to the vagaries of fashion.
But one image above the rest says it all. President Bush, in a welcoming speech as the Queen began the Washington stage of her trip, made a silly slip of the tongue, misdating America's bicentennial, thus making the Queen something over 200 years old.
The Queen looked across at him with a look of quizzical surprise, showing the sense of humour which in private is one of her most endearing qualities.
Recovering with considerable grace, Bush told the Queen: "You gave me a look only a mother could give a child." It was a perceptive remark. The Queen has achieved the status of honorary mother - or even grandmother - to the nation.
It is a role into which she has grown and in which she will continue to grow. The British people like their monarchs to be young or old, better still, very young or very old. Middle age is an interregnum to be got through as rapidly and painlessly as possible.
The Queen did the very young part with consummate grace and weathered the interregnum with a minimum of bother. Now she can enjoy the fruits of longevity.
Her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, in old age put herself out remarkably little to win her people's affection.
Nevertheless that drab, dumpy figure, secluded in her castle at Windsor, perpetually in mourning for a long-dead husband, captured a nation's imagination.
The present Queen is far more visible, far more conscientious in the exercise of her duties, far more obviously human, yet still she has managed to preserve some of the mystery and excitement of monarchy.
Perhaps more than any other individual she symbolises the age through which she has lived: the wonderful vision of her visiting Nasa mission control yesterday symbolises perfectly how she can be simultaneously timeless yet always up to date.
One needs to be quite old to remember the death of her father King George VI, to be able to recapture the poignancy of that slim girl descending from her aircraft to take up, unfairly early, the burdens of the throne.
At the age of 21 she had dedicated herself to the service of her future subjects, but she can hardly have anticipated that the responsibility would be laid on her so soon.
Nor can she have dreamed - perhaps it would have been a nightmare - that some 55 years later she would still be at it: touring the world on gruelling state visits, presiding over innumerable functions, keeping closely in touch with the running of the nation.
During these years her standards have never wavered. Her mother, when she was in her nineties, once collapsed into her car after an interminable day opening this, inspecting that, smiling, smiling, smiling.
One more engagement, 30 miles away, still lay ahead. Her lady-in-waiting pleaded with her to call it off, to plead exhaustion and head for home. "Oh no," said The Queen Mother. "They would be so disappointed. Of course I must go."
When she is in her nineties the Queen's reaction will be just the same. She has never let her people down, and never will. She stands for integrity, duty, common-sense, decency, plain-speaking: home-spun qualities perhaps; unfashionable, even, in a world increasingly ruled by the values of the superficial and the meretricious, but as essential as ever to the welfare of society.
The Queen is not just a symbol. The monarchy is an essential element in what - for want of a better phrase - we call the British constitution. It is the ultimate repository of power - a power which it seems supremely unlikely will ever be invoked but which should never wholly be forgotten.
The Queen does not rule, but she is intimately in touch with those who do.
Successive prime ministers have paid tribute to her wisdom and to the benefits they have drawn from her immense experience.
That is the sort of thing prime ministers are supposed to say and perhaps need not be taken at face value. But in their private papers and in the opinions of those with whom they worked, the same message is conveyed.
Harold Wilson's audiences with the Queen grew longer and longer as his term of office wore on and he would return to No 10 conspicuously elated.
He never divulged what had been discussed but his staff claimed that on several occasions at least they had detected a distinct change of attitude after his conversations in the Palace.
A monarch who sought to interfere with the running of government would be a menace; a monarch who has seen it all before and who can survey events from an angle inaccessible to any politician, can be a priceless asset.
Wilson used to say that the Queen was the only person with whom he could properly discuss affairs of state yet was not after his job.
The Queen has witnessed the dissolution of Empire, the birth of a new Europe, the transformation of almost every aspect of British life.
It has not been the most glorious epoch of our history, but few would deny that at the end of it the vast majority of the people are better fed, better housed and better educated.
This is still a good country to live in: its people are for the most part tolerant, law-abiding, concerned about the plight of the less fortunate. More than any other individual, the Queen embodies those qualities.
Looking back on the history of Great Britain since the Second World War there may be much to regret but not all that much about which we need feel ashamed.
For that the Queen can be held as much responsible as anyone.
Washington goes gaga
The New York Times' White House correspondent couldn't conceal her puzzlement. "Americans are just gaga over this visit," she said.
Sure enough, "Capital Goes Gaga Over The Queen for a Day" was the headline on the front page of the Washington Post the next day. The paper's style section was titled "Queen's presence brings an uncommon glow to the White House". US Today preferred "Queen dines and shines" for its front page.
Sometimes clearly against its better judgment (journalists know that the visit is a public relations coup for the troubled Bush presidency), the US media has bent a collective knee before the Queen.
More than 800 American journalists sought accreditation to cover the trip and the copious coverage has been almost entirely complimentary, often bordering on fawning.
The big three television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) have frequently run live broadcasts. "It's been a media frenzy - we're more interested in the royalty than the British are," said an ABC producer.
Even the liberal New York Times observed yesterday: "On this side of the ocean, the Queen was making Americans go weak in the knees."
It was no exaggeration. Having secured an invitation to the White House state dinner, Robin Roberts, the anchor of ABC's Good Morning America, seemed overwhelmed when she interviewed Laura Bush.
"The excitement continues to build," she gushed. "The White House is taking on an air of royalty this morning.... And I'm telling you, what a delight. I mean, truly, everyone is buzzing around here."
It helped that half of the Queen's visit was in Virginia, arguably America's most Anglophile state. "We are Elizabeth's subjects and she our monarch for a day," announced the Virginian-Pilot when the Queen visited Richmond, the state capital.
Such attitudes have infuriated stalwart republicans. Marc Fisher, a columnist in the Washington Post, invoked the egalitarian spirit of the 18th-century philosopher Tom Paine that inspired the fathers of American independence.
"The hype and hoopla over the royal visit has driven too many of us to forget who we are," he wrote.
"We are no one's subjects. We do not bow to kings and queens. When we forget this, we sully ourselves."
Quoting only a carping piece in the left-wing republican Guardian as evidence, he claimed that "in Britain, our attitude toward the royal visit strikes many as odd".
by Tom Leonard in Washington
------------------
telegraph.co.uk
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