The Queen: speaking out on Brexit
Forget Davos and its WEF (World Economic Forum), said Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph. For sound common sense, you’re better off listening to Sandringham’s WI (Women’s Institute). It was while speaking to this august body last week that the Queen made an appeal for more harmonious public discourse. “As we look for new answers in the modern age,” she said, “I for one prefer the tried and tested recipes, like speaking well of each other and respecting different points of view; coming together to seek out the common ground; and never losing sight of the bigger picture.” She didn’t mention Brexit, but it was clear what our monarch, whose reign began 20 years before we even entered the European Economic Community, was referring to.
The Queen was wrong to intervene, said Matthew Parris in The Times. On the face of it, declaring that it would be nice if everyone got along better is an “unexceptionable, even trite”, observation. But at a time when Theresa May is selling her Brexit deal as the compromise option, a call to meet in the “common ground” inevitably comes across as coded support for the PM. That’s dangerous for a supposedly neutral monarch. And in any case, it’s wrong to claim that compromise is always the best way forward. There are some debates over contested principles where people can’t meet in the middle. Brexit is a case in point. Remainers and Leavers should “stick to their guns”. “In the end, somebody has to win this one.”
The Queen normally steers clear of politics, said The Guardian. This intervention was provoked by “monarchical self-interest”. She fears that, if events continue on their present trajectory, it’s only a matter of time before her position becomes “dangerously politicised”. The powers vested in the Crown acquire more relevance when Parliament is deadlocked. Tory MPS have already suggested the PM could prevent an extension of Article 50 by asking the Queen to suspend Parliament, or to withdraw royal assent from backbenchers’ bills. The Queen is speaking out because she doesn’t want the crisis to “reach the stage where Crown powers become more than ceremonial, and so more controversial”.