Liz Truss and Queen Elizabeth II, shaking hands, together wrote a new chapter in the history of the United Kingdom. The photos and anecdotes about all those who have passed from the sovereign to be given her special “blessing”
Liz Truss and Elizabeth II, shaking hands, together wrote a new chapter in the history of the United Kingdom.
In common they have the name and a political and social charge of great weight and little else, but their first meeting has the flavor of legendary events.
Truss is the third female premier after Margareth Tatcher and Teresa May; for Queen Elizabeth, Boris Johnson‘s successor is number 15 in a long list of politicians who sat at the desk of the historic Downing Street office in London and who, first and foremost, went to her for the passage of formal deliveries and the royal “blessing“.
Queen Elizabeth met Liz Truss
As announced in anticipation of the meeting, Queen Elizabeth shook hands with Liz Truss at Balmoral Castle, where she resides in the summer.
The health conditions of the sovereign do not allow travel and it was the new premier, in the first hours after the election, who had to travel to reach Scotland and allow the queen to play the very important constitutional role that she covers on occasions such as this.
The shots are informal, but the exchange of pleasantries between Elisabetta and Truss is a fundamental step for the start of the work of the new government.
Thus, Truss will also enter the circle of weekly meetings with the monarch, who, since he has been on the throne, has weekly welcomed all the colleagues who have succeeded one another at the most famous number 10 in the world.
Recently, only health problems have stopped this habit; but it is not certain that Elisabetta cannot maintain relations with the premier remotely, considering that, from the lockdown onwards, she has learned to manage Zoom and other video calling platforms in order not to be left behind with work commitments.
Truss is Prime Minister number fifteen, we said.
To inaugurate the list of politicians who have had the pleasure, the honor, and the honor of interfacing with Queen Elizabeth during the years of their government is Winston Churchill, who for her, a young queen at the beginning, is a guide and a mentor, especially after the death of his beloved father.
Although the queen cannot pronounce herself from a political point of view and always remains impartial when a Prime Minister comes to power, even if she does not meet the requirements that the queen personally would like from a head of government, she has always remained impassive, smiling, and cordial with all those who have alternated in the role.
With Harold MacMillian, premier from 1957 to 1963, things initially start very badly in Balmoral, where, for years, the prime ministers with their respective spouses were invited to spend a weekend in the summer, to pass the tests of a stay in the Highlands with the entire royal family, gathered and ready to test the resistance of the guests, including hunting trips, walks in the Scottish rain and gala dinners.
With Margaret Thatcher, the first woman to fill the position, relations begin in a turbulent way.
Much has been said about the characters and roles of these two women of great charisma, who perhaps could not get along precisely because of this shared trait.
At the end of Thatcher’s mandate, the queen decides to pin her with the Order of The Merit, a high honor, establishing a relationship, if not friendship, at least of great mutual respect.
Thanks to his filmography, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has remained in the annals for his political commitment, but also for the role he played in the period following the death of Lady Diana Spencer in 1997.
To make returning the queen from Balmoral, a key place for her and her family, to London, where an ocean-going crowd awaited the sovereign’s return to Buckingham Palace to honor the memory of Lady Diana, Blair sets in motion an unprecedented diplomatic plan; to him, we owe the expression ” people’s princess ” which still today is associated with the figure of Diana, used in the farewell speech to the nation.
Finally, Boris Johnson. Not exactly a minister capable of conforming to royal etiquette during the weekly meetings with the queen, considering that on more than one occasion a break in the protocol has been reported.
Relations are cracking recently, when the party that Johnson and he organized on the eve of Prince Philip‘s funeral in April 2021 comes to light, moreover in full lockdown period.
An affront and disrespect hard to swallow, for the British people and the queen. Now it’s all in the hands of Liz Truss, the new premier.
