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eports in The Times and the Guardian, both of which had said what a flop it had been,
adding that he was glad he and Jenkins had been right in their advice to the Prime
Minister. ‘It was a mistake to say this as she didn’t reply.’
It is a truism that Labour Prime Ministers get on better with their sovereigns than
most of their Conservative counterparts. Elizabeth, like her father (but not her mother),
is truly apolitical; ideology is not and cannot be a part of her mental make-up. Richard
Crossman asked the Clerk of the Privy Council, Sir Godfrey Agnew, ‘whether she
preferred Tories to us because they were our social superiors’. ‘I don’t think so,’ Agnew
replied. ‘The Queen doesn’t make fine distinctions between politicians of different
parties. They all roughly belong to the same social category in her view.’ ‘I think that’s
true,’ Crossman added. Queen Victoria notoriously got on better with the working
classes and servants like John Brown and the Munshi than she did with the aristocracy
and High Society. The High Aristocracy with Whig traditionalists like the Dukes of
Devonshire has tended to look down on the royal family as middle-class philistines.
Hence the Queen got on far better with Harold Wilson than she did with Anthony Eden.
Their shared view of Britain was patriotic and conservative with a small ‘c’. She could
hardly be expected to feel cosy with a radical socialist like Tony Benn, who had
discarded his inherited viscountcy and whose intellectual background and policies aimed
at the destruction of the House of Lords and ultimately the monarchy. She saw and sees
it as her job to get on with politicians of whatever party as the elected representatives
of her people. ‘I respected her as a true professional,’ Barbara Castle said. ‘She was most
conscientious, did her homework. I particularly admired the skill with which she adapted
to each situation, changing ministers and governments.’ ‘It can’t be easy for the Queen
when a Cabinet leaves office,’ she said. ‘She can’t commiserate because that would
reflect a judgement on an incoming government but equally she mustn’t be cold. The
way she got over it was by remembering everything connected with a minister – in my
case, when I was dismissed by the new Labour Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, it was
“How is X hospital [which the Queen had opened] going?” – which kept the
conversation going in a perfectly safe, politically neutral way.’ Alone with her women
guests after dinner at the Palace Elizabeth would inject just the right note of informality.
‘On one occasion she said to me, “Poor Prince Charles has got his ‘O’ level tomorrow
and I must just go and say goodnight.”’ Asked if she ever got an inkling of what
Elizabeth was really thinking, Barbara Castle replied that she never gave anything
away: ‘She was professionally discreet above everything.’ She felt too that there was a
price being paid: ‘You felt as though she never relaxed for a moment – there was a lot of
repression there’, that Elizabeth worked too hard to be correct and that ‘a bit of human
frailty would have been welcome’.
Her consort, on the other hand, was less successful at concealing his opinion of
politicians. Baroness Castle described him as ‘cocky’ and was taken aback by his
behaviour at the official opening of the Severn Bridge. While the band played the
national anthem, Barbara Castle attempted to stand to attention as Philip muttered at
her out of the corner of his mouth, ‘When are you going to finish the M4? You’ve been a