Robert Hardman

Robert Hardman: My private encounter with David Cameron and the Queen

David Cameron’s revelation that he sought ‘a raising of the eyebrow’ from the Queen during the 2014 Scottish referendum campaign has caused conniptions at the Palace. But it has also eclipsed the royal record of the prime minister who did more to reform the monarchy than any of the Queen’s 14 (and counting) British PMs during this reign — Churchill included. It was Mr Cameron and his chancellor who tore up the 250-year-old Civil List, the moth-eaten system for funding the monarchy, and devised an annual grant pegged to Crown Estate revenues. It was also Mr Cameron who rewrote the laws of succession. Since 1979, there had been 13 failed parliamentary attempts to change a system which enshrined male primogeniture and a ban on marrying Catholics. Even Tony Blair dodged the issue, arguing that it was a ‘complex undertaking’ involving too many countries. Cameron sorted it out in a single afternoon at the 2011 Commonwealth summit. His new book, For the Record, is modest on this, merely observing that the new funding formula was ‘a generous settlement’. The Queen’s relationship with Tony Blair might have made an Oscar-winning film. I sense future historians will be more interested in her dealings with David Cameron.

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The Supreme Court has un-prorogued parliament but the Queen’s speech is still (so far) in the diary for next month. After this mess, she will not be turning up in day dress, as she did last time. Expect the full show — robes, jewels and carriages — to underline the correct constitutional order of things. One tweak, perhaps. The Imperial State Crown is like a 2lb bag of sugar on one’s head. No one will begrudge the Queen a (lightweight) diadem.

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Every now and then, a royal documentary is granted brief access to that private weekly encounter between monarch and PM.

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