Operation Purge the Queen’s Diary
Aides told to be ruthless as they scramble for plan to ease punishing pace
SENIOR aides at Buckingham Palace are scrambling to devise a strategy for managing the Queen’s workload after being accused of misleading the public over her health.
Sir Edward Young, the Queen’s private secretary, last night faced calls to ‘be ruthless’ and purge the Monarch’s diary of functions not central to her role as head of state.
Last night it was reported that in future the Queen will be accompanied on events by one of her children or grandchildren.
The Sunday Telegraph said the move was to avoid letting down the public at the last minute in the event of a health scare.
Members of the Royal Family have already begun to increase the number of joint engagements with the Monarch to keep her company during trips. This month, Prince Edward, Princess Anne and Prince Charles have all joined her on visits.
Officials are understood to be drawing up a ‘core’ list of key events that the Queen will prioritise in the next 12 months, including the Platinum Jubilee to celebrate her 70-year reign in June.
Her attendance at the UN climate change summit in Glasgow on November 1 remains in the diary, but a final decision will not be made until later this week.
Meanwhile, the Palace’s communications team is under pressure to be more candid should the 95-yearold Monarch require further visits to hospital.
The Queen’s courtiers faced extensive criticism last week for failing to inform the public that she had been admitted to King Edward VII’s Hospital in London on Wednesday and stayed there overnight for tests. The media was told that she was resting at Windsor Castle and aides only revealed the hospital stay only on Thursday night after news leaked out.
The controversy has shone a spotlight on the growing challenge faced by the Palace in balancing the Queen’s desire to be an active head of state with needing to protect her health.
Royal sources say the easing of Covid restrictions has resulted in a logjam of public events, adding pressure on the Queen’s diary. According to Buckingham Palace’s Court Circular, she has held 13 separate audiences or meetings, attended seven major events and travelled almost 900 miles since leaving Balmoral on October 1. In addition, every day she still reads Government papers and has a long list of private meetings.
‘They have to find some kind of balance,’ said Sally Bedell Smith, who has written a bestselling biography of the Queen.
‘I hope they have learnt from the pretty punishing pace she kept over the course of a month that that is maybe just too much.’
While Prince Philip retired from public life, aged 96, in 2017, the Queen has been determined to carry on working and has been on sparkling form at engagements since his death in April.
She has, however, accepted some changes in recent years. She stepped back from long-haul travel in 2013, and other senior royals have helped to hand out knighthoods and other honours at investiture ceremonies.
‘She doesn’t want to end up constantly in hospital because she is exhausted,’ said royal biographer Ingrid Seward. ‘She will have to do all the big events. It’s the smaller events that she can hand over.’
‘They can divide the duties between other members of the family but Charles has to take a stand and say to his mother, “Enough is enough.”’
Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to the Queen, challenged her senior courtiers to insist that the Monarch becomes more selective. ‘The private secretaries have got to be proactive and ruthless and say, “Ma’am, you can do this, but you can’t do that,”’ he said.