The Queen has been very badly advised. It matters not whether Blair was indiscreet in his book or Brown blew up the economy. It does not matter if Her Majesty hates them both. This is unlikely, but she is in the end, human. What matters is that both are former Prime Ministers and it is the custom in our unwritten Constitution, a strange agglomeration of practices, precedents and statutes, to include living former PMs on big occasions, especially those where other politicians and diplomats are invited. To leave out these two is error enough, but it gets worse. Two others are invited, Thatcher and Major. Neither was without issues at the Palace during their Premierships. The point is they are both Tory. The excluded two are Labour. Oh dear.
Even the Daily Mail, which despises Blair and Brown, has sprung to their defence. In a futile attempt to assuage what appears a childish and gratuitous insult, the Palace is spinning stuff about neither being garter or thistle knights (whose fault is that?) and the Royal Wedding not being a State occasion. No, but is is certainly a Royal one. We are back to the silly nonsense of Diana’s funeral being a ‘private matter’ and no cause to interrupt the Royal holiday at Balmoral. From that potential calamity the Queen was rescued by her then Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
There is a lesson for the Palace in this sorry little episode. It is this. In an absolute Monarchy, the State is the property of the Monarch. In a Constitutional Monarchy (whether written or not) the Monarchy is the property of the State. This includes persons, titles, privileges, property, garters, thistles, weddings; the whole works. That idea was challenged by Charles I, James II and Edward VIII. All lost their crowns. Charles also lost his head. In matters Royal, nothing is private.
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