A political error of judgment

If there is any constitutional fallout from the prorogation of Parliament, it is certainly not of the Queen’s making. She has performed her duties appropriately and has in no way injected herself into partisan politics: the plaintiffs at the Supreme Court do not question her ability to prorogue but rather the advice she was given. Her Majesty has set a high standard – the standard – for a constitutional monarch. Her engagement in the issues of the day, on the very rare occasions that it happens, is always considered and correct.

Such was the case in 2014 – now under the spotlight – when Her Majesty supposedly “intervened” in the Scottish referendum. What she actually did was tell a well-wisher after church that she hoped voters would “think very carefully about the future”. It was both excellent advice and universally true whatever one’s politics.

The error of judgment comes from David Cameron, who claims that there were discussions with the Queen’s private secretary about an intervention in the Scottish independence referendum and, by implication, that this was it. Mr Cameron was being indiscreet. The relationship between Prime Minister and Queen is meant to be akin to the confessional: the public is not supposed to know what goes on.

Professional politics, however, is all about putting oneself on display, as the excitement around Mr Cameron’s autobiography proves. The problem is that one can never quite control how this public self-analysis is interpreted. As Fraser Nelson writes opposite, when Mr Cameron details the various ways in which the EU let him down, he accidentally makes a pretty good case for leaving the EU. As Remainers have long complained, the Conservative Party has been questioning the direction of the European project and its absurd bureaucracy for years, and there was indeed something paradoxical about Mr Cameron promising a referendum, renegotiating our membership, being rejected by Brussels, and then campaigning ineffectually to stay in.

It is also, of course, absurd that both Labour and the Tories promised to implement the referendum result in the 2017 general election and yet Parliament has done everything it can to keep us in the EU. The constitutional problem is entirely the creation of MPS and prime ministers who have said one thing and done another. The Queen has remained, as always, a paragon of public service.