-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- from a friend; A special report by the PUNCH magazine political team. "No Prime Minister...." The steep decline in relations between the Queen and Tony Blair has baffled many. Now the events that have brought Britain's leaders to an all-time low can be unraveled. ================================================= For months the Queen has been preoccupied with arrangements for celebrations to mark her Golden Jubilee in 2002. She acceded to the throne when her father, George VI, died during the night of February 6, 1952. Buckingham Palace has promised the Queen "a year of celebrations" which will far exceed even those of her Silver Jubilee in 1977. Most of the events will take place in the summer, when people are, as one of the Queen's retainers puts it, "up for a party". To ensure that nothing overshadows the momentous occasion, the Queen summoned her Prime Minister to a meeting at Buckingham Palace to seek his assurance that he will not require her to dissolve Parliament and call a general election in 2002. To the astonishment of those in the know, Tony Blair refused. According to the most highly placed source, Blair was quite blunt about it. The Labour Party was elected on May 1, 1997, and its full term would carry it into the spring of Her Majesty's intended annul mirabilis. He pointed out that, if things continue to go well, the Labour Party will have its election in the summer of next year. But if there is a problem with the economy, the euro, or even a war in which the UK is involved, then he will have to postpone it. In any event, he said, he needed maximum flexibility to decide when he could go to the polls. "Her Majesty was dumbfounded," says the source. "No prime minister in my memory has ever refused a request from her. She never uses her position to exact promises, but this is a very different matter. The year 2002 will be the pinnacle of her sovereignty Furthermore, if there is one event after which she might step down in favour of Prince Charles, then this is it." The source continues: "Fitting in with the monarchy is clearly not part of Mr Blair's agenda any more than Parliament itself is." Blair's stand in the face of a personal request from the Queen has caused great anguish at the Palace. He knows that the death of Princess Diana, the humiliating circumstances in which Prince Andrew's marriage failed and the whole Charles/ Camilla saga have done huge damage to the royal family The Jubilee was seen by the Queen as a way of restoring popularity for the monarchy as an institution. On top of the Queen's fury, it is no secret that she sees Blair as a man who is inadequate for the job. "She may be no great scholar herself but she can recognise intellectual fragility in others," says the source. "She once compared Blair to her late daughter-in-law, declaring that both had `a whim of iron'." Although she lacks the power to order Blair to go to the country next year, she can apply pressure on him from behind the scenes and their regular Tuesday meetings are certain to be frosty encounters unless, or until, he is prepared to offer her an electionfree Golden Jubilee year. Although the forthcoming celebrations are easily the worst point of friction that has arisen between Elizabeth Il and Tony Blair, it is by no means their first. Early in his premiership, Blair let it be known that he was not going to be a royal puppet. Two summers ago he told the Queen that the date she proposed for the Prime Minister's traditional visit to Balmoral was "inconvenient" and he and wife Cherie subsequently travelled to Scotland on a weekend that suited them. Old-stagers saw the writing on the wall, for it had always been accepted that it was the PM who changed his diary to suit the monarch, never the other way around. Courtiers immediately dubbed Blair He Who Must Be Obeyed - a tag which apparently amused rather than annoyed the PM. Last summer, Buckingham Palace had to let it be known - but not via Press Secretary Alastair Campbell - that the PM was not keeping to the traditional hour-long Tuesday audience with the sovereign. A scan of the Court Circular shows that Blair kept the date on only nine occasions during the first six months of last year. Caught on the back foot (which media-obsessed Blair never is), the Palace press office put the word out that Blair was keeping the Queen in touch by telephone instead. But did his calls last an hour? "Er, no comment," was the hesitant, tell-tale reply. Never before had the meetings been treated so casually. It is not only the monarch's opportunity to be briefed on what is going on, but her opportunity to encourage, advise and, where necessary, to use the benefit of her vast experience to warn. She has, after all, dealt with 10 prime ministers during her reign. It was the Queen who told Blair that she was particularly upset when Ian Paisley branded her as foolish for becoming "her prime minister's parrot". She was particularly galled when Rev Paisley added: "To use the monarchy in this way is part of Labour policy to discredit the monarchy" There was evidence of this when Number 10 leaked the news that it was considering replacing the Queen as head of the Commonwealth with an elected president. This was a bid to show that it was in favour of increased democracy, despite Blair's autocratic style. Meanwhile, Blair's spin doctors said the proposal was merely a plan to shake up the cocktail-party circuit - the kind of remark they frequently trot out to make the government popular with the populace. "The Queen is popular, but her role as head [of the Commonwealth] is not hereditary and when her reign comes to an end we need to think about who should replace her," was the ominous political proclamation, sounding a death knell for the globe-trotting the royal family enjoys so much. At the Palace the news was particularly badly received because it was the idea of one of Blair's favourite whizz-kids, Mark Leonard, who said: "If the government is serious about turning Britain into a country that is proud to be multi-cultural and modern, we need to turn the Commonwealth into something that is more than just a hangover from the Empire." Once again a Blairite had made a statement with which the Palace could not possibly argue. The royal family has reluctantly come to accept that it is not only Blair who must be obeyed but also those who have his ear. The story goes that, when he travelled by helicopter to Prince Charles's residence, Highgrove, on a hot day last summer, Campbell went by car and telephoned ahead to notify the household that he wished to use the royal swimming pool "to cool down" on arrival. The heir was angry but did not mention it to Blair over lunch. Instead, he chose his moment to set himself on a collision course with Number 10, condemning the rush to introduce genetically modified foods. It was a political move in the Blair style that even Charles's mother could be proud of. In other instances, the Blair office seems to have gone out of its way to irritate the Queen. It leaked her appointment of Andrew Motion as the new Poet Laureate; without prior consultation, Mo Mowlam invited the Sinn Fein leaders to a garden party where Prince Charles was guest of honour; and lobby correspondents were told that the Duke of Edinburgh thought the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia was wrong. But, until the row over the Jubilee celebrations, nothing hardened the royal family against the Blairites more than the way in which the Prime Minister stepped in at the time of Princess Diana's death to take control and subsequently claim that the party had "saved the Firm" by bringing about a long overdue overhaul. Prince Philip was particularly angry about the way in which Downing Street was chipping away at royal influence by wielding powers it had assumed during a time when the family was shell-shocked not just by Diana's death but by the public reaction to it, which far exceeded expectations of the Queen Mother's inevitable demise. On the face of it, last year's government decision that the Queen will be able to vote in the next general election was a step in the right direction, but in reality it reduces her to the level of any one of her subjects. A Tory by birth, she will be able to cast just one vote in favour of the party she supports. Huffily, the palace responded to this by saying: "Neither the Queen nor other members of the royal family have any immediate plans to use the newly acquired voting rights." Tony Blair's grand plan for a "people's monarchy" clearly meant that the sovereign and her relatives should be equal to her subjects, and Her Majesty was having none of it. Despite the plans of the spin doctors in Downing Street, New Labour did not mean New Monarch. The beginning of the end of any rapprochement between Prime Minister and sovereign was signalled last November when the Queen openly - or as openly as protocol permits - complained about being dragged into politics after she was angered by the tone of the speech written for her for the opening of Parliament. She scolded her courtiers for not being firm with Number 10 while she was in Africa, to ensure the speech was less partisan. Blair had, in effect, directed her to trot out Labour propaganda - and she knew it. On New Year's Eve the Queen went along with previously established instructions and saw in the new millennium at Labour's Dome. It was, perhaps, the last straw. Behind the scenes, the Queen has let it be known that she will have no further part in proving that Tony Blair's is the party of one nation. Her stance is certain to throw Downing Street into a flap. After all, nobody defies President Blair. ========================================== Affection, discomfort, distaste..... five decades of royal relations with No.10 By Paul Donnelley The Queen's first Prime Minister was Winston Churchill, aged 77 when the 25-year-old Elizabeth ascended the throne. The two of them undoubtedly got on. Many felt he was in love with the young Queen. However, Churchill disliked and distrusted Prince Philip. When asked which of her prime ministers she most enjoyed meeting, the Queen said: "Winston, of course, because it was always such fun." To mark Churchill's retirement, the Queen asked him if he would like a dukedom (knowing full well he would refuse). The Palace had already stated that only royals could become dukes and Churchill was sounded out before the meeting, but he wanted to continue sitting in the Commons. � The next occupant of Number 10 was Anthony Eden, who was married to Churchill's niece. He believed the Queen to be "a simple, but very bright and pleasant woman". � Harold Macmillan replaced Eden when the latter resigned after the Suez affair. Like all his predecessors, he was old enough to be the Queen's father. Although she liked Eden, she preferred Macmillan's deferential gallantry. For Macmillan's part, he adopted the Disraelian method of flattering monarchy - he laid it on with a trowel. � Following the Profumo Affair, Alec Douglas-Home disclaimed his peerages on October 23, 1963, to become Unionist MP for Kinross A West Perthshire and Macmillan's successor at Number 10. DouglasHome was probably the closest premier in terms of interests, temperament and background to the Queen. The Bowes Lyonses (the Queen Mother's family) and the Douglas-Homes had been friends for years. � Apart from Churchill, the Queen's favourite Prime Minister was Harold Wilson. Remarked one courtier: "The royals will often get on famously with a bit of a rum cove. Attraction of opposites, suppose." Wilson loved the Queen and she in turn was very fond of him. He felt comfortable confiding in her and spoke to her like he spoke to his Cabinet which, surprisingly, pleased her. Wilson, paranoid at the best of times, was happy to have someone to discuss topics with who had no hidden agenda. � Edward Heath was a different matter, being uncomfortable in the presence of women. He has no small talk and was diffident almost to the point of rudeness. The relations established between the Palace and Labour were wrecked when the Tories came to power in 1970. Just before the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was holding several Britons captive. The Queen teasingly suggested to Heath that he was dispensable and perhaps should be sent to Baghdad in exchange for the hostages. � James Callaghan, like his Labour predecessor, was sentimental when it came to royalty. More formal than Wilson, Callaghan nonetheless enjoyed his weekly meetings and so did the Queen. � If the relationship with Heath was strained, with Margaret Thatcher it was almost at breaking point. Thatcher had been elected as head of a government which disliked inherited wealth, and yet had weekly meetings with someone to whom this was the natural order. At a dinner once, Thatcher and the Queen wore a dress of the same colour, much to the PM's discomfort. She later had an aide call the palace to ask that in future Downing Street would like to be informed in advance of the Queen's attire. The reply was brusque: Thatcher should not worry because "Her Majesty does not notice what other people are wearing". Thatcher was not overly impressed by the Queen's grasp of politics. She once said: "The trouble with the Queen is that she is the type of woman who votes SDP" � John Major, like Harold Wilson, came from a workingclass background and, just as Wilson did, enjoyed a convivial relationship with the Queen. =========================================== visit Punch at: http://www.punch.co.uk/ Visit Mohamed al Fayed at: http://www.alfayed.com/ The Fayed - Diana and Dodi site at: http://www.alfayed.com/dianaanddodi/ ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soap-boxing! 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