She never stops changing
The older the Queen gets, the more she changes
Hailing the talent of Elizabeth II for dignified adaptation
Right up to the millennium, the idea of turning over the gardens to a pop concert (2002) or a children’s theme park (2006) would have been greeted with derision by senior courtiers (the term ‘courtier’, by the way, is no longer recognised by the Palace). These days, the staff will turn their hand to most things, within reason. Another innovation is the ‘themed day’ to salute a deserving area of British life. A recent example was ‘Science Day’. The Palace was converted into a science park for children and, in the evening, the Queen held a reception for everyone from Professor Stephen Hawking to the county moth inspector for Bedfordshire. When I arrived to watch the preparations, I found two academics from Portsmouth University drilling holes in the ballroom ceiling in order to hang up a 37-foot pterosaur. A few years back, they would have been arrested.
The ballroom itself is unlikely to hold another ball. The Queen has decided it is better suited to modern mass-entertainment. Ballroom dancing is enjoying a comeback on the telly but not at the Palace, where the dance floor is now being covered with functional (though very decorative) carpet tiles. Upstairs, the old Palace hospital wing has just been converted into extra guest suites. Strange as it may seem, the 650-room building has always lacked proper accommodation for the entourage of the modern state visitor (so as not to alarm her guests, the Queen has renamed the hospital wing the ‘Ambassadors’ Floor’). And so it goes on. The royal warrants now even extend to the portable loos at the garden parties. The Palace is devising the first state-recognised qualification for the aspiring Jeeves — the new NVQ in butling.
It’s not quite up there with the Dissolution of the Monasteries. But this reign shows no signs whatsoever of the gentle withdrawal and stagnation one might have expected after 55 years. The Diamond Jubilee is less than five years away. More pop concerts in the garden? How about a Grand Prix round the lake? Don’t rule it out.
Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work by Robert Hardman, Ebury Press, £20; BBC1 Mondays, 9 p.m. Robert Hardman writes for the Daily Mail.
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Suresh Dogra
December 12th, 2007 7:07pmThe Queen is great.It is a personage of her stature that is the strongest argument for the continuation of monarchy in Great Britain.