Some readers, the more republican among them especially, may be angered at worst and perplexed at least, at our decision this week to adorn the cover with a photograph of Her Majesty the Queen. Not all images are meant to be flattering in an iconic fashion. This particular image narrowly missed, on design and editorial grounds, being accompanied by the headline: “Political Assassin”. One problem with that is that it rather implies the deed is done and dusted. “The Queen’s Gambit” was preferred because the game has not closed. It can be used again by the monarch, under this Government or any future Labour administration. It being the power to influence, or decide, who should be the Prime Minister of this country once the electorate has had its say. Simon Burgess on pages 20-21 examines how this power was subtly used in the downfall of Margaret Thatcher. It is there to be used again and, in times of hung parliaments, its importance is strengthened to the point where it may be decisive. Any idea that the monarchy is little more than a harmless decoration, a novelty left over from our past is misplaced in dangerous sentimentality. It is at the heart of our constitution, unaccountable, expensive and unrepresentative. A tourist attraction should not provide constitutional cover for Prime Ministers to declare war, enact legislation through the Privy Council and sign international treaties without a vote in Parliament. Sooner or later, this country must grow up.
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Michael Foot was brought to life for a moving evening of tributes, reminiscences, laughter and reminders of his legacy as family, friends, colleagues and admirers packed the Lyric Theatre in London’s West End the other night for a celebration of the great man’s life – the poetry, literature, politics, humour, football and his passion for these and more, above all, people. As his friend, history professor Brian Brivati, said, we need Michael’s values with us now. “Somewhere amidst his radical politics, radical poetry, Hazlittian prose, passionate living and speaking, we might construct the real Michael: with tie askew, CND badge undone, dog at heel, stick raised, words spilling out, clutching back copies of Byron and Tribune, and wrapped in his donkey jacket to keep out the wind of eternity. Now that would be a statue worthy of the memory that we honour, celebrate and rejoice.” Wouldn’t it just?
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Labour MP Phil Woolas has been judged guilty by a special electoral court in a case which involved indisputably vile election material. He is exercising his right to challenge the ruling. Harriet Harman, deputy leader of the Labour Party, meanwhile, drives a coach and horses whipped by cowardice in the face of the Daily Mail through the party’s constitution to deliver pre-emptive punishment beyond her given powers. Stalin would have been proud.
