Her Maj canes the Cop-outs

IT should have come as no surprise to see the Queen with a walking stick at Westminster Abbey this week.

I wouldn’t fancy negotiating slippery cobbles wearing patent leather heels and carrying a handbag and flowers.

So it is only sensible that our 95-yearold monarch should start using a cane for a bit of extra security when she’s out on public engagements.

She clearly didn’t want to – you could tell from the way Princess Anne plonked the blasted thing down in front of her when they got out of the car.

And the recently-widowed Monarch must have known that the stick would prompt questions about her health and frailty, and whether it’s time she took a step back. Well, she soon whacked that idea away, didn’t she?

Because on her second outing with the royal cane (left), Her Majesty took a carefullyaimed swipe at world leaders who “talk but don’t do” in the fight to save the planet.

And in doing so our Green Queen proved she is more in step with the Greta Thunberg generation than politicians half her age – and strides ahead of her eco-hypocrite, private-plane-using grandson, Prince Harry.

The Queen was in Cardiff reopening the Welsh parliament when she was filmed “having a private conversation” with the Duchess of Cornwall

and politician Elin Jones about next month’s

Cop26 summit. She’ll be there, with Charles and William but Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro and others have yet to confirm their attendance.

“I’ve been hearing all about Cop,” the Queen said. “Still don’t know who is coming… no idea.

“We only know about people who are not coming… and it’s really irritating when they talk but don’t do.”

I don’t think these were “unguarded comments” caught by a random eavesdropper. The Queen, as a constitutional monarch, can’t express her own opinions publicly.

Foot-draggers

But, occasionally, she dips a toe into political waters by “accidentally”getting overheard. Like when she told a well-wisher the Scots should “think very carefully about the future” in the run-up to the independence referendum.

Or when she sympathised with a police chief who organised the State Visit of Xi Jinping and called Chinese officials “very rude”.

So I think Her Majesty is just as frustrated by climate change inertia as Prince William, who tonight awards the first of his Earthshot prizes. And I suspect her comments were a deliberate kick up the bum for the Cop26 foot-draggers.

Because the steadfast Queen Elizabeth II is most definitely a DOER – one who hasn’t put a foot wrong in 70 years. And now, as she negotiates the final leg of her reign, it would be marvellous to see her getting other leaders in step – by putting a bit more stick about.