Veteran
News
State United Veteran
On three occasions during Elizabeth's reign, she has had to deal with constitutional problems relating the formation of her UK government. In 1957, and again in 1963, the absence of a formal open mechanism within the Conservative Party for choosing a leader meant that, following the sudden resignations of Sir Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan, it fell to the Queen to decide whom to commission to form a government. As Eden did not proffer any advice on his successor to Elizabeth, she consulted Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, and David Maxwell Fyfe, Earl of Kilmuir, for the opinion of the Cabinet, as well as Winston Churchill, as the only living former Conservative Prime Minister, thus following on the precedent of her grandfather consulting Salisbury's father and Arthur Balfour upon Andrew Bonar Law's resignation in 1923. Unlike the situation with Eden, Macmillan advised the Queen to appoint Alec Douglas-Home, Earl of Home as Prime Minister. Then, in February 1974, an inconclusive general election result meant that, in theory, the outgoing Prime Minister, Edward Heath, whose party had won the popular vote, could stay in office if he formed a coalition government with the Liberals. Rather than immediately resign as Prime Minister, Heath explored this option, and only resigned when discussions on forming a cooperative government foundered, after which the Queen was able to ask the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, Labour's Harold Wilson, to form a government.
Relations with ministers
Carrying on the tradition of her predecessors, the Queen holds weekly audiences with her British Prime Minister – usually on Tuesdays, and with no other advisers – and with her other prime ministers when they and she are in the same country; be they in the UK, she in the minister's respective realm, or both in another country for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. On tours of her non-UK realms, Elizabeth will also generally meet with the leaders of her loyal opposition, and/or the premiers of the states (in Australia) or provinces (in Canada). Since becoming queen, she spends an average of three hours each day "doing the boxes" – reading state papers sent to her from the various departments, embassies, and government offices of her realms; having done this for more than five decades, Elizabeth has seen more of state affairs from an inside view than any other person presently in any of her governments. This, coupled with her many interactions with numerous successive prime ministers from all her realms, as well as with other world leaders, means that when she does express an opinion, however cautiously, her words are taken with gravity.
United Kingdom
Besides meeting with her British Prime Minister on a regular basis, Elizabeth also meets with her other British ministers, as well as the First Minister of Scotland. These ministers take their meetings with the Queen very seriously; one prime minister said he took them more so than Prime Minister's Questions because the Queen was better informed and more constructive than anything he would face at the dispatch box. About her meetings with the Queen, Margaret Thatcher said in her memoirs: "Anyone who imagines that they are a formality or confined to social niceties is quite wrong; they are quietly business-like and Her Majesty brings to bear a formidable grasp of current issues and breadth of experience."
Elizabeth was thought to have had strained relations with Thatcher during the latter's eleven years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; reports throughout the period varied over the extent of this difference and to what degree it was due to concerns over policies of the Thatcher government, or a personality clash between the two women, some going as far as to report the Queen's feelings towards Thatcher as "cordial dislike." Some of this speculation may have emerged from public actions by the Queen, such as when, during a disagreement within the Commonwealth over sanctions on South Africa, Elizabeth made a pointed reference to her role as Head of the Commonwealth, which was then interpreted by the media as a personal criticism of Thatcher's policy of opposing sanctions. None-the-less, despite any differences between them, Thatcher later clearly conveyed her personal admiration for the Queen, and expressed her belief that the idea of animosity between the two of them had been played up because they were both women. In the BBC documentary Queen & Country , Thatcher described the Queen as "marvellous" and "a perfect lady" who "always knows just what to say," referring, in particular, to her final meeting as prime minister with Elizabeth. Following Thatcher's departure from politics, Elizabeth conferred on the former prime minister two personal gifts of the sovereign: appointment to the Order of Merit and the Order of the Garter, and both the Queen and Prince Philip attended Thatcher's 80th birthday party.
It was initially thought that Elizabeth had very good relations with Tony Blair, during his first five years as Prime Minister. However, evidence mounted thereafter that their relationship had hardened as the years passed, until it was revealed in May 2007 that the Queen was "exasperated and frustrated" by Blair's actions, especially what she saw as a detachment from rural issues, as well as a too-casual approach (he requested that the Queen call him "Tony") and a contempt for British heritage. Elizabeth was also rumoured to have shown concern with the over-taxation of the British Armed Forces through overseas engagements, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as "surprise" over Blair's shifting of their weekly meetings from Tuesday to Wednesday afternoons. She was supposed to have raised these concerns with Blair repeatedly at these meetings, though she never revealed her opinions on the Iraq War itself. Further, relations between the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and Blair and his wife, Cherie, were reported to be distant, as the two couples shared few common interests. Elizabeth did, however, apparently admire Blair's efforts to achieve peace in Northern Ireland.
In a BBC documentary broadcast in 1992, Elizabeth R. , the Queen was shown teasing former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath about how he could travel to world trouble spots like Iraq because politicians saw him as "expendable," a comment he found humorous.
Canada
Elizabeth's relations with her Canadian prime ministers have varied throughout the years. Pierre Trudeau seemed to have caused the Queen some concern; Tony Benn said at the time that the Queen expressed to him that she found her Canadian Prime Minister to be "rather disappointing". This was perhaps due to his documented antics around her, such as sliding down bannisters at Buckingham Palace and his famous pirouette behind her back, captured on film in 1977, as well as the removal of various royal symbols from Canada during his tenure as Prime Minister. The Queen was reported, by Paul Martin, Sr., as worrying that the Crown "had little meaning for ." Still, Trudeau advised Elizabeth to attend the 1973 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, held that year in Ottawa; the advice was accepted, and, by several accounts, the meetings were much more productive than the 1971 Singapore conference. It was observed that the Queen performed an important leadership role; the heads of government were much better behaved when she was present.
Martin – who, along with John Roberts and Mark MacGuigan, was sent to the UK in 1980 to discuss the patriation of the Canadian constitution – noted that during this time, the Queen had taken a deep interest in the constitutional debate, especially following the failure of Bill C-60, which affected her role as head of state. The entire party found the Queen "better informed on both the substance and the politics of Canada's constitutional case than any of the British politicians or bureaucrats." However, a result of the constitutional patriation, orchestrated by Trudeau, was the entrenchment of the monarchy within Canada's governing system, after which Trudeau said in his memoirs:
"I always said it was thanks to three women that we were eventually able to reform our Constitution. The Queen, who was favourable, Margaret Thatcher, who undertook to do everything that our Parliament asked of her, and Jean Wadds, who represented the interests of Canada so well in London... The Queen favoured my attempt to reform the Constitution. I was always impressed not only by the grace she displayed in public at all times, but by the wisdom she showed in private conversation."
Australia
In her position as sovereign of multiple states, Elizabeth automatically holds the position of Commander-in-Chief in some of her realms, such as Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In the latter, she also serves as Commandant-in-Chief of the Royal Air Force and Lord High Admiral of the Royal Navy. Since before she ascended to the throne, however, Elizabeth has also been installed as Colonel-in-Chief, Captain-General, Air-Commodore-in-Chief, Commissioner, Brigadier, Commandant-in-Chief, and Royal Colonel of at least 96 regiments throughout the Commonwealth.
As a long reigning and widely travelled monarch, Elizabeth has also been the recipient of a great many honours and awards from various countries around the world, both within the Commonwealth and w