The Guardian View on Queen's Consent: The Crown Does More Than It Seems

THE GUARDIAN: End the flummery that enables a Queen’s gambit and ministers making moves that suit the monarch

In Britain the Queen is supposed to act on the advice of her government. The monarch, it is said, merely signs the laws that ministers bring her. The charade is conducted in the manner of a magician, with pomp and ceremony shielding the public so they fail to realise what is going on. The Guardian this week pulled back the curtain and let the daylight in. The truth is that the government often acts on the advice of the Queen.

Under our unwritten constitution, the monarch does have the power to withhold royal assent to a bill. It’s never been used. The Queen, wrote the Victorian thinker Walter Bagehot, "must sign her own death-warrant” if parliament sends her a law to that effect. Yet documents in the National Archives reveal that Her Majesty managed, in secret, to get laws changed – in favour of her personal interest – before they were introduced. The Guardian found four instances between 1968 and 1982 where the palace had lobbied to get the law altered. In 1973 the Queen’s lawyers intervened to allow her to hide her private wealth from the public. » | Editorial | Friday, February 12, 2021

Queen Personally Intervened in the Case of Hate Preacher Abu Hamza Believing 'Her Country and Its Subjects Were Being Denigrated by This Man'
MAIL ONLINE: The Queen contacted the Home Secretary and asked why the cleric was still a free man / She believed he must have broken the law and was 'upset' he had not been arrested / Hamza's appeal against extradition has failed - ending an eight-year legal saga costing UK taxpayers £1m / Judges in Strasbourg threw out his bid to reopen the case yesterday

The Queen directly intervened in the case of radical cleric Abu Hamza and asked the Home Secretary why he had not been arrested for his campaign of hate and violence in Britain.

She was so 'upset' by the content of his hate sermons, she contacted the Home Secretary to ask 'why is he he still at large?'

The Monarch's intervention was revealed today as the hook-handed criminal lost his final appeal against extradition to the United States.

According to the BBC's veteran security correspondent Frank Gardiner, the Queen 'was upset that her country and its subjects were being denigrated by this man who was using this country as a platform for his very violent, hateful views’.

When asked how he knew, he said: 'She told me.'

The security services, including MI5, had first wrongly dismissed the hate preacher as a 'noisy troublemaker' rather than a man bent on inciting violence.

'The Queen was pretty upset that there was no way to arrest him,' Mr Gardiner said.

'She couldn’t understand - there was surely some law he had broken. Well in the end, sure enough, she was right. He was eventually convicted and jailed for seven years for soliciting murder and racial hatred.

‘She spoke to the Home Secretary at the time and said my goodness, why is he still at large?

'He was conducting these radical activities and he called Britain a toilet, he was incredibly anti-British and yet he was sucking up money from this country for a long time and was a huge embarrassment to Muslims - who condemned him.'

The Home Secretary spoken to by the Queen was probably David Blunkett, who held the post from 2001 until 2004, the year Hamza was finally arrested.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the claims made on the BBC's Today programme on Radio 4. » | Martin Robinson | Tuesday, September 25, 2012

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: BBC apologises for revealing Queen's Hamza concerns: The BBC has apologised for revealing that the Queen had privately expressed concern over why Abu Hamza had not been arrested. » | Tom Whitehead and Sam Marsden | Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Blair Listens as Archbishop Condemns Iraq War Decisions
THE INDEPENDENT: The Archbishop of Canterbury today criticised "policy makers" for failing to consider the cost of the Iraq war at a memorial service for the 179 British personnel who died in the conflict.

Dr Rowan Williams, who has previously described the decisions which led to the war as "flawed", praised the "patient and consistent" efforts of troops on the ground.

But he used his address at the national service of remembrance in St Paul's Cathedral to remind his audience that the conflict remained highly controversial.

Among those in the congregation listening to his words was former prime minister Tony Blair, who led the country into war.

Dr Williams said: "Many people of my generation and younger grew up doubting whether we should ever see another straightforward international conflict, fought by a standing army with conventional weapons.

"We had begun to forget the realities of cost. And when such conflict appeared on the horizon, there were those among both policy makers and commentators who were able to talk about it without really measuring the price, the cost of justice."

The Archbishop alluded to the controversial nature of the campaign, known as Operation Telic, which brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets in protest in the run up to the war.

He said: "The conflict in Iraq will, for a long time yet, exercise the historians, the moralists, the international experts.

"In a world as complicated as ours has become, it would be a very rash person who would feel able to say without hesitation, this was absolutely the right or the wrong thing to do, the right or the wrong place to be."

Iraq veterans and bereaved families joined the Queen, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and senior military leaders for the poignant service. >>> Tony Jones and Sam Marsden, Press Association | Friday, October 09, 2009

You Have Blood on Your Hands, Blair Told
THE INDEPENDENT: The former Prime Minister Tony Blair was told today he had "blood on his hands" by a bereaved father at a reception following a memorial service for those killed in Iraq.

Peter Brierley, whose son Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley, 28, was killed in March 2003, refused to shake Mr Blair's proffered hand and said: "I'm not shaking your hand, you've got blood on it."

The former prime minister was ushered away and afterwards Mr Brierley, from Batley, West Yorkshire, said: "I understand soldiers go to war and die but they have to go to war for a good reason and be properly equipped to fight."

He added: "I believe Tony Blair is a war criminal. I can't bear to be in the same room as him. I can't believe he's been allowed to come to this reception.

"I believe he's got the blood of my son and all of the other men and women who died out there on his hands.

"It comes back to me every day, every time I see a coffin come off a plane; it reminds me of what happened to Shaun." >>> Laura Harding, Press Association | Friday, October 09, 2009

Queen to Meet ‘Britain’s Schindler’ in Second Stage of Tour [of the Former Yugoslavia]
Photo of Nicholas Winton, "Britain’s Schindler", courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: The Queen is to meet a man known as "Britain's Schindler" because of his work saving Jews from the Nazis as she continues her tour of the former Yugoslavia.

The monarch will meet Sir Nicholas Winton, 99, as she travels to the Slovakian capital Bratislava.

The Nobel Peace Prize nominee rescued around 670 Jewish Czech children in the run up to the Second World War.

In 1938, Winton, then a young stockbroker, cancelled a skiing holiday to Switzerland and went instead to Czechoslovakia on a friend's recommendation.

There he found camps full of Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi-occupied Sudetenland, and set about trying to help them.

He transported 669 youngsters to Britain before World War II broke out and, without his intervention they would almost certainly have died. >>> By Charlotte Bailey | October 23, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>

Republic Trumps Queen
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: A SLENDER majority of Australians wants the nation to become a republic, with a Herald/Nielsen poll finding little change in public sentiment on the issue in recent years.

A national survey of 1400 voters conducted late last week found that 52 per cent agreed Australia should become a republic. By comparison 40 per cent said it should not, while the remainder were undecided. Republic Trumps Queen >>> By Mark Davis | September 23, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Australia) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Australia) >>>

Islamic Terror Cell 'May Have Been Plotting to Attack Queen'
Image of Aabid Hussein courtesy of the BBC
THE TELEGRAPH: A terror cell caught with details of bomb-making and suicide vests may have been plotting to attack the Queen and members of the Royal family, it can be disclosed.

The cell, which included Britain's youngest ever terrorist, arrested on his way home from his GCSE chemistry exam, was found with information about the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh along with the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex and the Princess Royal.

Also on the list were Princess Michael of Kent, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and The Duke and Duchess of Kent.

Aabid Hussain Khan, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, had compiled pictures, maps and details of the opening hours of official residences from information available on the internet.

There were also details of London landmarks including the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge and the underground as well as the New York and Washington metros and a home-made video of the Washington Memorial and World Bank in the US.

A counter-terrorism source said: "They had details of explosives and poisons along with information about London landmarks and a computer folder on Royal residences. We would be foolish to rule out the fact that they may have been planning an attack."

Detective Chief Superintendent John Parkinson, Head of the Counter Terrorism Unit in Leeds, said the men posed a "very real threat". Islamic Terror Cell 'May Have Been Plotting to Attack Queen' >>> By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent | August 18, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US) >>>

Anxiety of Queen over Shariah Law Controversy
Photos of the Queen and the Archbishop courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: The Queen is distressed by the row over Islamic law which she fears threatens to undermine the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury and damage the Church of England.

According to a royal source, the Queen has not expressed any view on whether Dr Rowan Williams was unwise to say it was "unavoidable" that aspects of the sharia legal system could be incorporated into English law.

But as Supreme Governor of the Church of England she has been dismayed by the controversy that the remarks have generated at such a difficult period in the history of the Established Church, which faces possible schism over the issue of homosexual clergy.

The Queen, who approved the appointment of Dr Williams on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, takes her role as Supreme Governor very seriously. Anxiety of Queen over sharia law controversy >>> By Andrew Pierce

TIMESONLINE:
What Parallel Sharia Means in Practice

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL:
Shariah Is for Everyone! By Henryk M. Broder

A Bishop Pleads for Islamic Law

"Hurray! We're Capitulating!" By Henryk M. Broder

Paving the Way for a Muslim Parallel Society

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

The Queen is Angered by Prince Andrew’s Attack on the White House
THE TELEGRAPH: The Duke of York has angered the Queen and senior politicians with his extraordinary attack on the White House on the eve of his trade mission to the United States.

Downing Street and the Foreign Office were also dismayed by the timing of his comments so close to the Super Tuesday primaries.

The duke's criticism, in a newspaper interview, of President Bush's post-war strategy for Iraq demolished the protocol that members of the Royal Family refrain from public comment on sensitive international and political issues.

In the interview, timed to mark the start of his 10-day mission to the US in his role as a British trade envoy, he said that there were "occasions when people in the UK would wish that those in responsible positions in the US might listen and learn from our experiences".

The aftermath of the Iraq conflict fuelled a "healthy scepticism" towards what is said in Washington, and a feeling of "why didn't anyone listen to what was said and the advice that was given?"

The remarks caused astonishment in Whitehall. The Prime Minister's official spokesman declined to be drawn but both Downing Street and the Foreign Office were irritated.

A senior Whitehall source said: "The remarks are not just unhelpful but the timing could not be much worse as the Super Tuesday primaries unfold.

"If Iraq had been a big issue in those elections his remarks could have been turned into a major diplomatic incident. He of all people should know that."

The Queen, who always studiously avoids politically sensitive subjects, was unhappy at the controversy, according to royal sources. One said: "Of course he should not have strayed into that area." Prince Andrew angers Palace with US attack >>> By Andrew Pierce

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Muslim World All Het Up Over Knighthood for Salman Rushdie

Photo of religious students burning effigies of the Queen and Salman Rushdie courtesy of Times Online

TIMESONLINE: Salman Rushdie should be denied his knighthood because it is an insult to “the sentiments of Muslims across the world” and is creating religious hatred, the Pakistani parliament said today.

Muslim hardliners burnt effigies of the Queen and Rushdie and shouted “Kill him, kill him”, when news of a knighthood for the author of ‘The Satanic Verses’ in the Queen’s Birthday Honours reached the Pakistani city of Multan.

Iran - which forced the writer into a decade in hiding after issuing a fatwa against him in 1989 - has also condemned the honour. Strip Rushdie of his honour, demands Pakistan (more)

THE GUARDIAN:
Rushdie knighthood ‘justifies suicide attacks’

Mark Alexander

Queen Said to Be Left “Exasperated and Frustrated” and “Deeply Concerned” Over 'Meddling' Tony Blair
THE SCOTSMAN: THE Queen has been left "exasperated and frustrated" by Tony Blair's legacy after a decade in office, friends have reportedly told a newspaper.

The Prime Minister's perceived lack of understanding of countryside issues has been a particular grievance, close confidantes disclosed, while many New Labour policies left her "deeply concerned".

Royal sources said that the Queen also believes privately that Blair and his government have meddled unnecessarily in Britain's heritage, including the reform of the House of Lords.

Concerns from military leaders that the armed forces have become "overstretched" by foreign commitments have also said to have worried her.

She suspects that Blair has spent too much time courting the favour of the United States at the expense of her beloved Commonwealth. Queen reveals’ exasperation’ over ‘meddling’ Tony Blair (more) By Nicholas Christian

LA REPUBBLICA:

Londra, la regina "delusa e irritata"
per il bilancio dei dieci anni di Blair

Mark Alexander

”United We Must Always Remain”, says Queen

Photo of The Queen and President Bush at the White House State Banquet courtesy of the BBC

"Administrations in your country and governments in mine may come and go, but talk we will, listen we have to, disagree from time to time we may, but united we must always remain” – The Queen

BBC: The Queen has delivered a strong defence of the special relationship between Britain and the US.

At a White House banquet, she said "the lesson of my lifetime" had been that the partnership "was always to be reckoned with" in defending freedom.

WATCH BBC VIDEO: Bush welcomes Queen in US

Queen praises UK-US partnership

Mark Alexander

Bush Honours Queen

Photo of the Queen courtesy of Google Images

BBC: The Queen was honoured with a 21-gun salute as she met President George W Bush in Washington DC on the final leg of her US visit.

Standing outside the White House, the Queen said Britain and America had a "close and enduring" friendship.

The president said the Queen was "a good person, a strong leader and a great ally".

Later the Queen will be guest of honour at a state banquet and will visit the Children's National Medical Centre.

The state visit has included trips to the site of the first permanent English settlement in the US and the famous Kentucky Derby horse race. Bush honours Queen at White House (Read on)

WATCH BBC VIDEO: Washington welcomes Queen

Mark Alexander

The Queen and Her Rôle

Photo of the Queen in Jamestown courtesy of the BBC

NEWSWEEK: Though much of Elizabeth's role is symbolic, she also subtly wields a personal, but very real, power.

May 7, 2007 issue - On Feb. 6, 1952, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was distraught when he heard King George VI had died. His secretary, John Colville, tried to console him by assuring him he would get on well with the new queen, Elizabeth II: "But all he could say was that he didn't know her, and that she was only a child." She was 25 at the time. A year later, a royal aide confided that Churchill was so fond of her he could "scarcely speak of her without tears coming into his eyes." The Royal Consigliere (Read on) By Julia Baird (Newsweek)

Mark Alexander

The Queen in the States

Photo of the Queen courtesy of the BBC

BBC: The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are visiting the site of the US's first permanent English settlement on its 400th anniversary.

The royal couple will see a museum and archaeological dig at Jamestown, Virginia, accompanied by Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne.

The engagement comes during the monarch's first US tour in 16 years. Queen sees historic US settlement (Read on)

WATCH BBC VIDEO: Red carpet delays royal visit

Mark Alexander