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00:00British Prime Minister Keir Starmer traveling to the White House.
00:18You would expect Sir Keir Starmer to try and strike up some sort of US-UK trade deal.
00:24It will be a meeting of two men who don't necessarily share one view.
00:28The most important meeting between a British Prime Minister and an American president since the Second World War.
00:38Power comes in many forms.
00:42Most obvious, the political power wielded by elected presidents or prime ministers.
00:48Hold on, come in through. Come in through.
00:52But there is another kind of power.
00:55Just watch this.
01:00This is a letter from His Majesty the King.
01:03It's an invitation for a second state visit.
01:08This is really special.
01:09This has never happened before.
01:11This is unprecedented.
01:12Laying it on with a trowel, isn't it?
01:15This is a very special letter.
01:17The King is being used to flatter the American president.
01:22That is really nice.
01:23Because the British government wants to flatter the American president in the hope they'll get a decent deal out of him.
01:29That's quite a signature, isn't it?
01:31Donald Trump obviously falls over backwards when the royal family is mentioned.
01:37I've gotten to know him very well.
01:38If Starmer came and invited Trump to Britain, he'd have shrugged it off.
01:43The fact it's the king appeals to Trump's vanity.
01:47There's a kind of mysticism about monarchy.
01:53And that's what I'm fascinated by.
01:57Good morning, everybody.
01:59This is the real center of today's events.
02:02I seem to have been reporting on the monarchy forever.
02:06This is David Dimbleby.
02:07On lavish weddings.
02:08We're going to be paying tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales.
02:11Traumatic funerals and all kinds of national occasions.
02:15Join us tonight on BBC One.
02:18In all these events, the BBC have been, if you like, the royal ringmasters.
02:23Could you just be the bride, please, and walk out of the abbey?
02:26Helping the monarchy display itself as it wants to be seen.
02:31The lighting is all cock-and-demand.
02:33Are you pro-monarchy, Mr Dimbleby?
02:36Well, I'm pro-television series about the monarchy.
02:41They are at the center of our national life.
02:46And I'm not suggesting that's going to change anytime soon.
02:50But personally, my view is that there are important questions to ask about monarchy,
02:55as the late Queen herself admitted.
02:58No institution should expect to be free
03:01from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support,
03:06not to mention those who don't.
03:08So, I'm going to take her at her word.
03:13I've never talked about any of this before in my life.
03:15I hope it will not have led me into very bad ways.
03:17All those things would have been discussed with the Queen.
03:20Hang on, hang on, hang on. This is hypocrisy.
03:22You are a Dimbleby before you start attacking inherited privilege.
03:25What power do they have?
03:29If people knew the levels of power and influence, they would really question it.
03:37What exactly makes them qualify to run a country like this?
03:41Do they earn their privilege?
03:43It degrades us as a society to say that anybody is born better than anybody else.
03:54Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
03:58And to what lengths will they go to survive?
04:03A day to remember.
04:06It's the ultimate soap, isn't it?
04:08In a world descending into chaos,
04:14with volatile leaders disrupting the old order,
04:19what role is there for our unelected head of state?
04:24Or to put it quite bluntly, what's the monarchy for?
04:28God save the king!
04:30God save the king!
04:32God save the king!
05:02says thank you to her majesty who is out on the balcony of buckingham palace what a moment
05:13the house of windsor the world's most famous family descendants of a line that's reigned for
05:23centuries queen elizabeth ii for seven decades a symbol of stability and restraint the more
05:41opinionated prince charles waiting to be king his wife camilla for years a source of controversy
05:53william and his wife kate hoping to embody 21st century britain
06:02and their son george already being groomed for kingship
06:16just imagine for a moment that a complete outsider
06:19let's say a martian came down to earth and saw all this display there'd be no question in their
06:26mind about it it would be perfectly obvious this monarch must be the most powerful person in the
06:32kingdom and then you discover as you look a bit closer that she's more like the wizard in the
06:39wizard of oz she's not the ruler of britain but what is she then why is she there
06:47and how much power does she actually have
07:00in the past monarchs used to start wars execute their enemies and steal their lands
07:07so here's long your majesty your majesty now of course it's the prime minister who makes the big
07:16decisions and the monarch is meant to remain neutral
07:19so they do meet once a week but what passes between them is a closely guarded secret
07:28good evening your majesty you've had a very long long day
07:32there was one prime minister who said it's an occasion for me to talk to someone who's as
07:37well briefed as i am on what's going on and is not after my job
07:44i was effectively the queen's senior advisor certainly in my time tony blair felt this was an
07:53important part of his week why does the monarch need to know what's going on well it's just the
08:07head of state and you can argue that she shouldn't be um but she is and she does receive all of the
08:13intelligence reports receives all the diplomatic communiques she gets reports from all over the
08:17world from the commonwealth and from our allies and gets a daily report on what's going on in
08:21parliament she has a red box same as a minister so she occupies a role within our government and
08:27you don't object to that well i would suppose the the argument in favor of it would be that
08:32it as head of state she needs to be fully informed about what the state is up to national canine defense
08:37week i didn't know much about tomorrow and i could find out a bit more if you thought it would
08:42that would be an excellent idea i can understand the politicians having lots to say i mean don't
08:53they always but from the queen's point of view what did she have to offer i don't know because
08:59no prime minister has spoken about the audiences and no private secretary has spoken about the
09:05audiences and i'm not going to start now can you tell me about the very first audience of the queen
09:14that you had when you were appointed prime minister you you feel nervous because um i mean it's this
09:20extraordinary moment that you've sort of dreamt about you get into a car and you know you've driven
09:26up the mall and you'll go into the gates and into buckingham palace and it's a a moment of great pride and
09:32great emotion it became such a feature of your week trip up the mall walk up the stairs don't trip
09:39over the corkis wait in the waiting room chatting to the private secretary going in bowing and all
09:44the rest of it sitting down and then the obsession
09:52maybe they never say anything just sat there prime ministers tend to have no one who they can confide in
10:00because they're at the top of a particularly sort of backbiting and poisonous tree and there is no
10:06one who they can go in and say oh everyone's ghastly um you've no idea how difficult it is to be me
10:13and then the sovereign says well yes it's a terribly difficult job i i sympathize and it may be just that
10:19maybe half an hour therapy really i mean it's like a sort of therapy session with the world's greatest
10:25public servant because you're trying to explain to someone who is extremely experienced and has
10:33literally heard it all before the challenge of answering the questions sort of helped you to
10:40clarify sometimes in your mind what the real problem was i don't quite get that i mean you've you have a
10:47cabinet you've talked to them you talk to your ministers you talk to your civil servants and all that
10:51you've been in parliament answering questions and then you come to meet the queen and you come away
10:57oh i'm resolved to do really well on this issue i mean it sounds rather weird your prime minister
11:02i don't think it's it's it's weird at all i mean there's something special about the conversation
11:07with your monarch you know they are you know there's no one else in the room there's nobody listening
11:13there are no minutes nothing ever leaks it's sort of it's a special conversation and it helps it helped me i
11:20find just clarify what i was thinking what i was trying to do even if you don't agree on policies
11:26well you never knew what she really she protected her impartiality and being above politics um
11:35you know religiously so you'd never really get a feeling but you must have an indication of when
11:41you're talking to a person in private whether they're looking at you in a steely way all i would
11:47say she was very careful not to express an opinion no that's different but you can tell whether what
11:52you're saying is being happily received or unhappily received yes did you i'm not going to answer that
12:01you can always tell by the questions people ask what they think you can think you you think you can
12:06um but you don't always mean it doesn't always mean you're right this eu referendum prime minister are
12:13you sure it's a good idea um are you asking me whether i think it was a good idea or well you know
12:22even an actor of your distinction is not capable of that so i'm sorry
12:26but what exactly is impartiality and does it mean never ever expressing an opinion
12:41the sovereign is the right to be consulted the right to encourage the right to warn
12:47every reshuffle for example has to be approved by the sovereign before it's it's announced but you're
12:54talking fiction now because i mean there's no way that the sovereign's going to say no you can't
12:58make so-and-so home secretary it's not fiction in that it it does happen um so what i'm recounting
13:03to you is completely accurate you seriously mean the monarch is a a check on government yes i've seen it
13:11i've seen it multiple times in evidence yes so we'll have a vote on whether to stay in the eu
13:17all those things would have been discussed with the queen oh unquestionably would she have any
13:22influence on the decisions well that i mean can we now say the queen was in favor of this and in
13:27favor of that because the prime minister of the day did it well the sovereign of the day has a
13:32right to be consulted right to encourage a right to warn but very very importantly the prime minister
13:38of the day has a right to say thank you very much but i'm going to pursue a different path
13:43as a historian i think that is shocking really
13:55it's like a whole part of our political narrative is sort of missing
13:59what really is the working relationship between downing street and the palace
14:03is the monarch in a sort of on a sort of daily basis
14:14are those prime ministerial audiences just a nice cup of tea
14:20or actually are they more significant than that
14:26what were the conversations what was the planning what was the the you know the meetings what was
14:30the brief what was the agendas don't you want to know that
14:38the issue here is that one person has access at a much higher level with more influence and
14:43impact than anyone else in the land
14:48and of course this is not just about king or the queen you know so we don't want a future monarch
14:53in however many decades time deciding that they've got a really important issue they care about
14:59and then lobby about it we're all we're all behind you the country's behind you if for 70 years his
15:06mother was a model of neutrality how will charles choose to reign as prime minister i had a number of
15:15meetings with prince charles but then towards the end of my premiership they were starting to think
15:20about how he would do audiences with a prime minister and so i was asked well would you be happy to go
15:27and do an audience with prince charles as well as the audience you do with imagine the queen i said
15:31yes of course i'd be delighted to do that and it was fascinating to to sort of be the as it were
15:37almost the guinea pig um in his thinking about how he'd do the job when you were doing this rehearsal
15:43of what it's like to be king did he express any opinions or did he just listen to you the prince
15:47was i think he's allowed to have opinions and views and challenge and question and i remember saying
15:53i know absolutely the difference between that and then when you're monarch and you have to
15:58take a step above those issues
16:06but will charles find it possible to stay above the issues
16:09judging by his time as king in waiting it may not be that easy
16:21his royal highness prince of wales
16:27there's still an enormous number of areas which need a great deal of attention
16:32young prince charles is a man with strong opinions
16:35a great deal of destructiveness has taken place in terms of throwing the baby out with the bathwater
16:43he doesn't just want to sit there and do nothing cut the odd ribbon have a cup of tea
16:50he travels widely talks to people from all corners of britain yes of course yes i do my very best
16:57and he thinks of himself as giving an ear to those who feel ignored by politicians
17:04i've seen a lot and i've been very touched by the the way people have you know responded
17:09he begins to carve out a role for himself as unofficial spokesman for all kinds of issues
17:16it's just that i feel that certain things have to be said and if you skirt around the issues all the
17:22time how do we ever get anywhere in life do you know what i mean
17:24and charles doesn't just talk about what he thinks i write a lot you know that is a very i found
17:35therapeutic exercise he writes over 2 000 letters a year many to people at the heart of government
17:46well i was working as a special advisor in government and i just had a recollection of one of these
17:54missives from then prince charles coming in and i remember it being treated as though it was some
18:03sort of a holy writ i mean it wasn't quite on a silken pillow but almost and put to the top of the red box
18:09and i just remember thinking at the time that it's astonishing no one else you know whether it
18:14was a hospital or a major piece of public work or another minister even would be treated in quite
18:20that same way if he had something to say it's important that ministers should know about it there is
18:26nothing on god's earth that says that he shouldn't except he gets the privilege that no other citizen
18:32has of being on the top of the letters in the red box yeah well fair enough is it yeah he wrote private
18:41letters i don't think that's unreasonable really yeah i think that's perfectly proper perfectly proper
18:48perfectly proper i think you must assume that ministers completely spineless that if you have
18:54a government policy you want to push through um it doesn't matter if you get a letter from pope
18:59you're still not going to change your policy don't forget this is not the occasional note dashed off
19:07this is a sort of sustained industrial level over many many years it's an incredible weight of
19:13influence being brought to bear and if the other letters that were sent over all these decades were
19:18treated in the same way as the one that i saw then the suspicion must be that the minister paid
19:23immediate attention to them um and may well then have you know changed their diaries or changed their
19:28minds as a result supposing instead of writing memos when he next met the minister said look it's
19:35really dreadful in bradford what's going on i think you ought to look at it would you object to that or
19:39would that be reasonable i think that is reasonable because that is just part of his role advising so
19:45so hang on so what's the difference between saying minister i think you ought to have a look at what's
19:49happening in bradford well and writing a letter saying look have a look at what's happening in bradford
19:53because i think the the example you give would be a one-off example of i experienced this and i
19:59think you ought to know this secretary of state compared to industrial level lobbying around
20:04particular issues that one person has felt to be very important and i mean is he meant to be stung
20:10just go around something well up to a point yes actually but i just think it raises important
20:14questions about how we're governed and how ministers work and access to decision making from
20:20people that deserve to be heard did you come at all years ago i came just before i was leader
20:25it was always known that charles would sound off on his favorite subjects but no one knew what he
20:32actually wrote nor whether he had any influence
20:39in 2005 under the freedom of information act a group of journalists asked to see what the heir to
20:46the throne was saying their requests eventually landed on the desk of attorney general dominic grieve
20:55who read the letters they'd asked for and decided not to publish them when i looked at the letters
21:05it was clear to me that there was nothing in the letters that was remote were remotely improper
21:10what he was doing was communicating with government ministers in confidence about matters which had
21:19been raised with him or which he had seen in the course of his public duties why why if it was if he
21:27was just doing a job that he was entitled to do uh why shouldn't they be published in exactly the same way that
21:35you there would be no publication if i as a government minister wrote a letter to another government
21:40minister but it sounds as though you think that the king and the prince of wales are entitled to
21:47interfering government not to say what they think to advocate why don't you do this why don't you do that
21:53they are and in a democracy we're not allowed to know what they're saying in a democracy you're not
21:58allowed to know what ministers are saying to each other yeah but we can throw them out well you can throw them
22:04out um but at the same time if you want to have the benefit of experience and advice being fed into
22:11government it has to be in confidence it may well be that you can interpret from those letters his own
22:18personal views i think that's correct and they are views which you would not wish to express in public
22:25why because of the need to maintain neutrality public neutrality but that doesn't hang on hang on
22:31this is hypocrisy no you you maintain neutrality in public but in private you say what you think to
22:36a minister and expect them to jump through the hoop there's no expectation in those letters of people
22:43jumping through the hoop but nevertheless you thought publication would undermine his position of
22:50neutrality yes it seems to me what you're saying there is he's not actually neutral and publication
22:57would reveal that no no really no for an unbelievable 10 years the government had fought a legal battle
23:07to prevent the letters being published
23:11it went to and fro and to and fro and finally ended up here in the supreme court
23:19the supreme court has ruled that a series of letters written by prince charles to government
23:23ministers in 2004 and 2005 can be made public as for clarence house here they say they're disappointed
23:30that the principle of privacy has not been upheld i was working for charles at that time
23:38seven years by then that i'd been in the royal household
23:43i can tell you he felt quite sanguine about it i mean he definitely believed in the principle of privacy
23:51he said at some point one has to draw the line good morning sir are you worried about these letters
23:59are you still writing to ministers letters like that have you not been behaving unconstitutionally
24:04by writing letters like that
24:09so why didn't he say i'm not going to fight this let them publish it wasn't his battle to fight it was
24:14it was cabinet office versus guardian newspapers and it all went on in the background it rumbled on
24:20for 10 years you meant that through all that time he was saying well why the hell don't they just
24:24publish it no the point for him was the principle of privacy but he won the media war because nearly
24:33every single newspaper and broadcaster reported that the letters were a damp squib they said nothing out
24:40of the ordinary and nothing that was unexpected of charles or that he hadn't previously said before
24:46i disagree when you read these letters they're based on very strong convictions and a good deal
24:57of knowledge about what he's talking about i mean just to take one example the 8th of september 2004
25:05the prince of wales writes to the prime minister about a tea party that he'd had for
25:10sheree and tony in scotland and he says a great pleasure to meet you for tea um i thought it might
25:16be helpful if as usual i put them in writing support for beef farmers sufficient support for hill farmers
25:25a sense of anxiety that the treasury will try to stop this something to be done about markets the
25:32government must encourage people to buy british the ministry of defense must buy more beef
25:37i did raise an entirely different subject must have been quite a tea party this these links helicopters
25:43um they're very poor in high temperatures they're not working properly in iraq and we must do something
25:48about that too yours ever charles it actually looks like mary and the prime minister doesn't say
25:55in reply just thank you for the cup of tea he writes back a month later thank you very much for
26:00your letter as ever i found your points constructive and thought provoking and dullard i much enjoyed
26:07your speech the other day on climate change yours ever tony so what do these letters tell us they don't
26:13tell us that prince charles as prince of wales was able to influence government policy but it does tell
26:21us that he was determined to do so if he could i was opposed to those letters coming out i didn't
26:29see why they had to i thought there was but they expressed very strong opinions about things uh and
26:35they were put at the top of the red box so they took up ministerial time and that was the objection to
26:40it it doesn't bother me at all really no i mean if i wrote a letter it wouldn't go to the top of the
26:46red box yeah but you're not the prince of wales i'm sure there's plenty of ministers in tony blair's
26:56cabinet who thought that charles was a little bit irritating but his letters are written in a terribly
27:05polite and um humble way it doesn't sorry it doesn't mean they're not powerful that's true i would agree
27:13with that i'm not you know naive if you receive a letter with a crest on the back then your office
27:22might bring it to higher prominence of all the issues charles gets obsessed by one of the front
27:31runners has always been architecture the prince of wales says we could make mankind feel grand again
27:41if we built our cities better he spent decades lobbying relentlessly against the modern
27:47in favor of the traditional there is no need for buildings just because they house computers and word
27:53processes to look like machines themselves here he is saying exactly what he thinks in a 1988
28:00documentary he made with the bbc just look at this out of scale monster and here he is again this time
28:09complaining about a planned extension to the national gallery in london what is prepared seems to me
28:17like a monstrous car bundle on the face of a much-loved elegant friend the design was scrapped
28:24many architects were furious when he called this building a 1930s wireless but charles was unstoppable
28:32my problem is that i have an inherited inability to keep my mouth shut
28:37his critics portray him as an unelected meddlesome prince who has too much power
28:43in 2009 he went so far as to reach out to some royal friends to intervene in a proposed housing
28:51development he didn't like the prince that wrote to the royal family of qatar who owned the site
28:57calling the project unsuitable following charles's actions the original design for more than 600 new homes
29:06was scaled back you'd think by now people must have some idea what i'm trying to do or not
29:15i'm sure he still writes to ministers now i'm sure he does and in one way why shouldn't he
29:24charles always claimed that when he became king he would stop this kind of lobbying
29:30although when he was asked about it in a film to mark his 60th birthday he didn't sound quite so sure
29:38would you be able to go on championing big themes i don't know i don't know i probably not
29:45charles knows he has to say that that as king he'll be above politics but the interesting thing
29:52is is he actually doing it just have a look at this this is the court circular for february the 10th
29:592025 the official record of the king's engagements the king this afternoon visited the duchy of cornwall's
30:06nuns led and development in newquay his majesty viewed site plans at the orchard cafe went on foot
30:14to the community kitchen when eating charity staff walked around met residents started out
30:20it up the one thing it doesn't mention here is the people with him
30:24the king has taken the prime minister and deputy prime minister on a day trip out to cornwall to
30:36visit a sustainable community supported by the royal family's charities highly unusual to see well
30:42not just the king and the prime minister together but also the deputy too yeah normally we might see
30:47them at big national moments of commemoration but this doesn't happen very often and i think if you
30:52want a sign of how the king is is trying to do things differently during his reign this is certainly
30:58one of them we've looked into it and it seems buckingham palace can't come up with any other
31:05instance where a reigning monarch has actually been on an official visit with both a prime minister and
31:12deputy he justifies the influence he has the letters he writes the people he talks to
31:22by saying oh i go around the country and i meet a lot of people and i hear a lot of things and it
31:28would be remiss of me not to pass on those concerns which in my view is completely spurious a completely
31:38spurious argument there is absolutely no reason why his views should be listened to any more than anyone
31:46else is but there is no doubt that he has the access
31:56where are the lines now what can he speak about or is he just literally going to be like you know
32:04shaking people's hands and just sort of doing this sort of royal walk about pleasantries
32:09we nearly called the series what's a king for what is a king for gosh um
32:22well historically of course he was the font of all power
32:26a figure of authority a figure of justice a figure of stability and then over time gradually the monarch
32:41had to accept parliament having more and more power and significance
32:45and then over time and then over time and over time and over time and over time and over time
32:52unlike most countries we don't have a written constitution instead we're governed by what's called
32:58precedent that's to say just long established practice rather than laws saying who does what
33:06and one of the last powers left to a monarch is to summon or dismiss parliament
33:11it's often said this was to make sure prime ministers couldn't declare parliament open or closed for business to suit themselves
33:26at least that was the theory
33:35after britain voted to leave the european union
33:38this supposed power of the monarch was put to the test
33:45several thousand people had gathered in whitehall many to voice their opposition to a no-deal brexit
33:51or leaving the eu
33:55parliament simply couldn't agree on the terms for our leaving the eu
34:00you were in the middle of the brexit brouhaha the conservatives didn't have majority in the house of
34:14commons so you had a government that was not in control in the house of commons you are not
34:22children in the playground you are legislators
34:28amid the chaos the new prime minister boris johnson and his team have an idea they'll silence their
34:37critics by simply shutting down or proroguing parliament prorogation it was something that i as leader of the
34:46house was aware was something that could be used to get back control of the house of commons mr dominic
34:56grieve thank you mr speaker what i picked up were rumors coming from reliable sources who were really
35:06concerned about the impropriety of what he was doing thank you mr speaker as leader of the opposition i felt
35:19what johnson was doing was wrong and unconstitutional the prime minister he wanted to extend the recess
35:27ad nauseam so that he wasn't under any pressure over brexit negotiations mr speaker with permission
35:32i shall make a statement on the mission of this new conservative government much easier not to have
35:37parliament around because parliament could express disagreement could ultimately of course bring a
35:43vote of no confidence in him none of those things are possible when parliament isn't sitting
35:52in order to suspend parliament the government needs sign-off from the queen
35:57so johnson sends a team to her scottish home balmoral by the time we land the news has leaked
36:11and there is an emergency cabinet meeting an emergency meeting of cabinet called at short notice
36:20there was no good reason to suspend a parliament apart from his desire not to be bothered
36:26by a house of commons that might be rebellious his line was that there was nothing left for parliament
36:32to do well that's nonsense it's plain it's plainly nonsense what he's saying is i'd like a period with
36:37no accountability to you the royal household makes things run very smoothly so greeted by queen's prime
36:49secretary you're given coffee or looked after and then you wait until the the queen is
36:56is ready the old corgi was there listening in so the queen was pushing and it was quite funny
37:04seeing one sovereign um having to deal with a recalcitrant dog so then what happens what happens
37:12there is a list of business and the queen says one of two things she says approved or referred
37:20the prime minister would have consulted his attorney general yes he said yes go ahead yes what happens
37:25on the palace side surely somebody there says well this is a bit rum we better consult somebody about
37:31yes yes that would happen normally the connections between downing street and buckingham palace the
37:37constant conversations would have sorted that out in advance why didn't they
37:42there's only so many times that people can say are you sure and get an answer yes we've re-asked the
37:54prime minister and he is sure
37:59and then the decision was made queen said approved that was the approval for the prerogation
38:05so in the last few minutes the queen has given her permission to suspend parliament
38:11it is shut down in parliament we'll shut down the street demonstrations are taking place everywhere
38:19because people are angered and outraged at what is happening
38:27i thought it was improper it was grossly improper what does improper mean to attempt to govern without
38:32the account without accountability to the commons for a lengthy period in the middle of a political
38:39crisis is an unconstitutional act if it was unconstitutional why when these councillors went to see the queen
38:49did she say yes it would have been in my view difficult if not impossible for her to
38:56to not grant the prerogation but hang on it's her one power no it's not modern constitutional principle
39:06is the sovereign acts on the advice of the prime minister you mean the queen had absolutely no
39:11alternative but to say yes but she could have said no but i think that what do you mean when you say
39:16she could have said well she could have refused to do it but then she could refuse to pass a bill
39:20pass by parliament it doesn't happen all the constitutional experts say she did not have a choice in the matter
39:34she could only have said yes so what's the point in asking her if she can only say yes
39:40a good question one of the mysteries of our constitution david
39:43i think that she felt that she would be seen as being too political she was then faced with a
39:54choice do i go with the prime minister or i don't do i go with what is predominantly opposition mps
40:00there were some tories who agreed to us but not very many who have this view
40:04over the next few weeks there were legal challenges to the decision to prorogue parliament
40:16and for the second time in just over four years issues affecting the monarchy ended up in the supreme
40:23court the court is bound to conclude that the decision to advise her majesty to prorogue parliament
40:31was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of parliament
40:39to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification
40:48the queen seemed to make the wrong decision she agreed to boris johnson proroguing parliament
40:54and then had the supreme court say it was wrong to do that yes it was it was illegal yes of course
41:00course she didn't know it was illegal at the time but it did look like a right royal
41:05cock-up didn't it when it happened it's um sort of slap in the face for the queen apart from for
41:11boris johnson it was it was really uncomfortable it was a very uncomfortable time
41:20this is the most modern vivid example
41:22of monarch and parliament and the monarch being called upon to exercise the you know residual rights
41:33that they have
41:36and in a way she didn't perform the function of monarchy at that point
41:43and so what does that show that ultimately parliament absolutely call the shots
41:53so when push comes to shove the sovereign serves the government of the day
42:00and that brings us to a different kind of power the monarch exerts
42:05on their behalf so-called soft power
42:13the royal young britannia bringing the queen to new zealand
42:1730 million people awaiting a royal occasion the city center came to a stop as the royal party ambled
42:23up auckland's main shopping street throughout her reign the late queen was flown around the world
42:29at the behest of successive governments to smile to shake hands and to make small talk with countless
42:39foreign leaders and dignitaries it is an awful lot of abroad president bush and thousands of guests
42:46have welcomed the queen to washington and here in britain she hosted over a hundred state visits
42:52sometimes forced to entertain tyrants like mugabe no doubt through gritted teeth or the odious
43:00ciausescu of romania
43:04she's not doing this because she wants to in fact when she saw him walking in the garden in buckingham
43:09palace it said she actually hid behind the bushes to avoid having to talk to him
43:13she's doing it because the prime minister harrow wilson had been told by ciausescu that a state visit
43:21was the condition for his doing a trade deal with britain
43:24of course there are moments when soft power can be used to great effect to try to heal the wounds
43:49and that was inflicted by history
43:57well her majesty has just touched down at bal donnell airport these are the live pictures
44:02as the plane comes to a halt
44:09well i think we were all anxious about how this visit would be perceived
44:13it was going to make a a big splash we knew that but it had to fall right
44:25it's the first time a british monarch has ever visited the republic of ireland
44:30strong security like nothing seen here before there was huge anticipation a lot of secrecy as well
44:37because there was still you know massive sensitivities about the british sovereign on irish soil
44:45the last time a monarch came here the republic didn't exist
44:50when the queen's grandfather george v visited in 1911 ireland had long ago been colonized
45:00forced to become part of britain
45:02a bloody war of independence followed and a british sovereign would not have been made welcome
45:15i remember the first day there was not quite a funereal silence but it was almost a signal
45:22almost saying we're reserving judgment we're waiting we're watching we're going to see how this goes
45:27the queen and her husband prince philip boarded a bomb-proof bulletproof range rover loaned by the
45:34police in northern ireland for her trip into town we sat in the back of the car everywhere we went we
45:40talked about our kids we talked about all sorts of things and she was very relaxed i never got the
45:47impression from her that there was an ounce of nervousness
45:59we had a big dinner in dublin castle
46:02and the argument then was and i had put it very strongly that i felt that she should say a few words
46:08in irish in the 19th century the british government had done all in its power
46:14to really to wreck the irish language in order to really impose its will on the people
46:23but i felt that if she just said something in irish that that could reach into hearts that were
46:29pretty hard and soften them our people in dublin were oh my god no you can't be doing that now
46:36what if she got it wrong and irish is notoriously difficult
46:39the last i knew was that her majesty would not use any irish language in the speech i was happy enough
46:46with that to be honest
46:47i was in the room at the time and i remember the irish president at the time mary mcclees was sitting
47:05next to the queen and she was she just said wow wow
47:14i literally almost fell out of my seat
47:18i looked straight across and i was looking at edward young who winked at me and then laughed and i knew
47:24the laugh was to tell me we got you i don't think i've ever winked i wouldn't presume to
47:31wink at her is that what the former president of ireland said he says perhaps she's right
47:42historic symbolic words much used but an accurate description of this event's significance
47:49and that created the stepping stone which a year later in june the following year
47:57allowed her majesty the queen to make history on the final day of her visit to northern ireland
48:04the queen inspected a theater in belfast
48:09in previous royal visits to northern ireland there had been vociferous opposition from those who wanted
48:15a united island but over the past 30 years the two sides had finally been reconciled and were now
48:29represented by their two political leaders republican and unionist the man on the left martin mcginnis
48:37had been a commander in the ira the people who had killed the queen's cousin
48:42old mount baton murdered by a remote control ira bomb
48:53shaking hands with mcginnis can't have been easy but it was a masterstroke of soft power
49:06i think the most important thing was that the representative of
49:11what was empire and colony to us would come to make amends
49:19but i also think it was important that it was her
49:22because she had been queen as the empire slowly slowly disintegrated
49:31i think was a real moment
49:33and speaks to the soft power of monarchy and of the queen especially she was theoretically above
49:41politics intrinsically woven into politics but above the grubbiness of politics
49:51the monarchy is a very important part of britain's soft power and ability to build relations with other
49:56countries would it be different if we'd had a president so i don't think a president
50:02if you had an elected president there'd probably be a political figure in some way and people be
50:06looking well what's the political edge why are they doing this which party do they support what's
50:10you know there'd be all those questions
50:15i think an elected president has a lot of influence at home
50:18but in the world that we live in kings and queens and princes and princesses still you know hold the
50:27hello magazine spot when it comes to you know celebrity
50:31and why is that it's history isn't it we still have the big big big overhang of colony and empire and power and majesty
50:46and there is still a kind of mystique isn't there
50:52of course not everyone buys into the mystique of monarchy or its power to do good
51:01down with the crown there are those who think britain should ditch the king
51:06and elect a head of state instead they tend to come out on days like today when they know the royals
51:15are going to be on parade hello and welcome to commonwealth day which is always one of the most
51:21vibrant and uplifting days in the calendar of this historic building we know from polling that republicanism
51:31is more popular than ever before
51:36but it's fair to say it's still a minority cause
51:43these people are nutters they're nutters extremists
51:46i'm i'm uh i'm making a film about the monarchy so i'm in the position of um objectivity
51:52i hope you are and i hope you expose how successful but why do you think why do you think these are
51:57all nutters because they're tiny minority aren't they we have 65 million people in the uk
52:02and there's only what 30 here with the same yellow flags i say now you say now this guy's
52:09paper says a liberal lefty it's a liberal lefty lefty typical you mix in white privileged circles
52:19so you mean i shouldn't be here you should be here but make sure it's objective okay i'll do my best
52:24so with objectivity in mind what do the people here believe why commonwealth day well we really
52:39a fairly benign organization of well it's less to do with the commonwealth more to do with the royals
52:44who turn up and it's an opportunity to protest against the monarchy what do you got against them
52:51against them personally not a whole lot other than the fact that if there were a free and fair
52:54election they wouldn't win um and yet there they are and so they have that arrogance and
52:59presumption to be in that position without any kind of self-awareness the existence of the royal family
53:07is intrinsically harmful to this country and to the freedom of the people of the country in what way
53:14they symbolize the class system they symbolize feudalism they symbolize so many things that are
53:19half about this country yeah i think you know they're just uh the top aristocrats in the country
53:24what exactly makes them qualify to run a country like this
53:33i don't believe in bloodline superiority that is a belief which is incompatible with the existence
53:42of monarchy now i know that i hold political opinions which are a minority in this country including
53:47republicanism it's not a majority belief in this country and i'm fine with that but i think that
53:52there are many more people including supporters of the monarchy who when they think about the idea
54:00that anybody from the royal family is born better over every other child that was born in this country
54:09i think that that may bother them just a bit
54:16is the monarchy at the apex of the british class system or has british class virtually vanished apart from
54:26the monarchy has british class vanished your surname is dimblebee i mean it clearly hasn't but it's not an
54:33inherited job it's not like the monarchy it's not an inherited job and yet the surname may well do some
54:38heavy lifting no no it's inherited talent sure
54:53look inherited wealth privilege and power it is what the monarchy is
54:58i wasn't a monarchist going into the palace i grew up in bridgen in south wales it's not
55:03not particularly fertile ground from pro-monarchy but this somehow works
55:12i think it does a job of being more things to more people than than an elected head of state ever could
55:19be
55:23there's something sort of deeply irrational about our constitution which allows an individual purely
55:29through dint of birth no other reason of merit or anything else to have this incredible influence
55:35and impact on the way we're governed
55:39prime ministers come and go
55:42but the monarch is there for as long as they live influencing weekly the prime minister just because
55:49of who they were born to
55:51the precise power of monarchy is hard to pin down what goes on behind closed doors is shrouded in secrecy
56:06we know they have no real power under the constitution not even it seems to stop actions by our politicians
56:13that turn out to be unlawful we know they have soft power but that's at the service of the government of the day
56:23but i think it would be naive to argue that with their constant access particularly to prime ministers
56:30they have no influence at all over what gets done
56:34if people knew the truth of the levels of power and influence
56:47they would really question it because the only way the monarchy works is everybody either being apathetic
56:56or being feeling very affectionate towards it
56:59if those bonds are broken then there is really no purpose and point of monarchy
57:17and there's much more we don't know about monarchy but perhaps we should the whole question
57:30of money was something that we always had to be extremely sensitive about moderation in all things
57:37that is a huge amount flowing into the private pockets of the royal family well i had quite a few
57:43conversations with the queen about it and did she purr with pleasure when you explained how it would
57:48work and what lengths will they go to to survive if you're born into this position you will have a
57:56duty to behave andrew seems to be in the queen's weak point unbecoming he was a sex offender yeah i'm
58:04sorry i'm sorry i'm being polite and in the sense that he was a sex offender
58:22so
58:34you
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