The following letter was published, along with others, in The Daily Telegraph on 10 September, under the heading “Tears of sadness for a Queen who brought joy to every corner of the globe.”
SIR - Queen Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to be wholly above politics. Her father, George VI, sought occasionally to influence cabinet appointments, and vetoed one or two nominations to the Privy Council.
When all political parties began to elect their leaders in the 1960s, the Queen ceased to select the prime minister.
The disappearance of the last vestiges of political power strengthened the Queen’s position as the transcendent symbol of national unity at a time of domestic strife, and she remained, as Churchill put it on her coronation day, “enthroned for ever in our hearts.”
Lord Lexden
London SW1
