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00:00British Prime Minister Keir Starmer traveling to the White House.
00:13You would expect Sir Keir Starmer to try and strike up some sort of US-UK trade deal.
00:19It will be a meeting of two men who don't necessarily share one view.
00:23The most important meeting between a British Prime Minister and an American president since the Second World War.
00:33Power comes in many forms.
00:37Most obvious, the political power wielded by elected presidents or prime ministers.
00:43Hold on, I'm coming through.
00:44But there is another kind of power.
00:51Just watch this.
00:55This is a letter from His Majesty the King.
00:58It's an invitation for a second state visit.
01:03This is really special.
01:04This has never happened before.
01:06This is unprecedented.
01:07Laying it on with a trowel, isn't it?
01:10This is a very special letter.
01:13The King is being used to flatter the American president.
01:17That is really nice.
01:18Because the British government wants to flatter the American president in the hope they'll get a decent deal out of him.
01:24That's quite a signature, isn't it?
01:26Donald Trump obviously falls over backwards when the royal family is mentioned.
01:31I've known him.
01:32I've gotten to know him very well.
01:33If Starmer came and invited Trump to Britain, he'd have shrugged it off.
01:38The fact it's the king appeals to Trump's vanity.
01:44There's a kind of mysticism about monarchy.
01:48And that's what I'm fascinated by.
01:52Good morning, everybody.
01:54This is the real centre of today's events.
01:57I seem to have been reporting on the monarchy forever.
02:01This is David Dimbleby.
02:02On lavish weddings.
02:03We're going to be paying tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales.
02:07Traumatic funerals.
02:08And all kinds of national occasions.
02:10Join us tonight on BBC One.
02:13In all these events, the BBC have been, if you like, the royal ringmasters.
02:18Could you just be the bride, please, and walk out of the abbey?
02:21Helping the monarchy display itself as it wants to be seen.
02:26The lighting is all cockatum, eh?
02:28Are you pro-monarchy, Mr Dimbleby?
02:31Well, I'm pro-television series about the monarchy.
02:37They are at the centre of our national life.
02:41And I'm not suggesting that's going to change any time soon.
02:45But personally, my view is that there are important questions to ask about monarchy.
02:50As the late Queen herself admitted.
02:53No institution should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support.
03:01Not to mention those who don't.
03:04So, I'm going to take her at her word.
03:08I've never talked about any of this before in my life.
03:10I hope it all led me into very bad ways.
03:12All those things would have been discussed with the Queen.
03:15Hang on, hang on, hang on.
03:16This is hypocrisy.
03:17You are a Dimbleby before you start attacking inherited privilege.
03:22What power do they have?
03:25If people knew the levels of power and influence, they would really question it.
03:32What exactly makes them qualify to run a country like this?
03:36Do they earn their privilege?
03:39It degrades us as a society to say that anybody is born better than anybody else.
03:49Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
03:53And to what lengths will they go to survive?
03:58A day to remember.
04:01It's the ultimate soap, isn't it?
04:03In a world descending into chaos, with volatile leaders disrupting the old order, what role
04:15is there for our unelected head of state?
04:19Or to put it quite bluntly, what's the monarchy for?
04:23God save the king!
04:25God save the king!
04:33Now we go.
04:34Pay a couple of power on the cluster.
04:37There we go.
04:38No, come on.
04:39There we go.
04:39This is the moment when the UK says thank you to Her Majesty, who is out on the balcony of
05:03Buckingham Palace.
05:05What a moment.
05:06The House of Windsor, the world's most famous family, descendants of a line that's reigned
05:18for centuries.
05:26Queen Elizabeth II, for seven decades a symbol of stability and restraint.
05:34The more opinionated Prince Charles, waiting to be king.
05:42His wife, Camilla, for years a source of controversy.
05:48William and his wife, Kate, hoping to embody 21st century Britain.
05:57And their son, George, already being groomed for kingship.
06:02Just imagine for a moment that a complete outsider, let's say a Martian, came down to earth and
06:17saw all this display.
06:20There'd be no question in their mind about it.
06:22It would be perfectly obvious, this monarch must be the most powerful person in the kingdom.
06:28And then you discover, as you look a bit closer, that she's more like the wizard in The Wizard of Oz.
06:36She's not the ruler of Britain.
06:39But what is she then?
06:41Why is she there?
06:42And how much power does she actually have?
06:54In the past, monarchs used to start wars, execute their enemies and steal their lands.
07:02Now, of course, it's the Prime Minister who makes the big decisions, and the monarch is meant to remain neutral.
07:17They do meet once a week, but what passes between them is a closely guarded secret.
07:23Good evening, Your Majesty.
07:25You've had a very long, long day.
07:27It was one Prime Minister who said, it's an occasion for me to talk to someone who's as well-briefed as I am on what's going on, and is not after my job.
07:39I was effectively the Queen's senior advisor.
07:45Certainly in my time, Tony Blair felt this was an important part of his week.
07:49Here we go.
07:52I don't know if any wizard here.
07:54Yes, it has been, because we're preparing for the European Council.
07:56Of course.
07:57That's Thursday.
07:59Why does the monarch need to know what's going on?
08:02Well, it's just the head of state, and you can argue that she shouldn't be, but she is, and she does receive all of the intelligence reports,
08:09she receives all the diplomatic communiques, she gets reports from all over the world, from the Commonwealth and from our allies,
08:15and gets a daily report on what's going on in Parliament.
08:17She has a red box, same as a minister, so she occupies a role within our government.
08:22And you don't object to that?
08:23Well, I would suppose the argument in favour of it would be that, as head of state, she needs to be fully informed about what the state is up to.
08:31National Canine Defence League.
08:34I don't know much about it at the moment.
08:35I could find out a bit more if you thought it was worth it.
08:37I think that would be an excellent idea.
08:39I can understand the politicians having lots to say, I mean, don't they always, but from the Queen's point of view, what did she have to offer?
08:51I don't know, because no Prime Minister has spoken about the audiences, and no private secretary has spoken about the audiences, and I'm not going to start now.
09:03Can you tell me about the very first audience of the Queen that you had when you were appointed Prime Minister?
09:12You feel nervous because, I mean, it's this extraordinary moment that you've sort of dreamt about.
09:18You get into a car, and, you know, you've driven up the Mall, and you'll go into the gates and into Buckingham Palace, and it's a moment of great pride and great emotion.
09:29It became such a feature of your week.
09:32Trip up the Mall, walk up the stairs, don't trip over the corkis, wait in the waiting room, chatting to the private secretary, going in, bowing on all the rest of it, sitting down, and then the session.
09:41Maybe because they never say anything.
09:51Just sat there.
09:52Prime Ministers tend to have no-one who they can confide in, because they're at the top of a particularly sort of backbiting and poisonous tree, and there is no-one who they can go in and say,
10:03Oh, everyone's ghastly. You've no idea how difficult it is to be me.
10:08And then the sovereign says, Well, yes, it's a terribly difficult job. I sympathise.
10:13And it may be just that. It may be half an hour therapy.
10:17I mean, it's like a sort of therapy session with the world's greatest public servant.
10:21Because you're trying to explain to someone who is extremely experienced and has literally heard it all before,
10:30the challenge of answering the questions sort of helped you to clarify sometimes in your mind what the real problem was.
10:39I don't quite get that.
10:41I mean, you have a cabinet, you've talked to them, you've talked to your ministers, you've talked to your civil servants and all that.
10:46You've been in Parliament answering questions, and then you come to meet the Queen, and you come away,
10:52Oof, I'm resolved to do really well on this issue. I mean, it sounds rather weird, your Prime Minister.
10:57I don't think it's weird at all. I mean, there's something special about the conversation with your monarch.
11:03You know, they are, you know, there's no-one else in the room. There's nobody listening.
11:09There are no minutes. Nothing ever leaks. It's sort of, it's a special conversation.
11:14And it helped, it helped me, I found, just clarify what I was thinking and what I was trying to do.
11:18Even if you don't agree on policies?
11:20Well, you never knew what she really, she protected her impartiality and being above politics, you know, religiously.
11:31So you'd never really get a feeling.
11:34But you must have an indication of when you're talking to a person in private, whether they're looking at you in a steely way.
11:41All I would say is she was very careful not to express an opinion.
11:44No, that's different. But you can tell whether what you're saying is being happily received or unhappily received.
11:51Yes.
11:52Did you?
11:54I'm not going to answer that.
11:56You can always tell by the questions people ask what they think.
11:59Well, you can think, you think you can. But you don't always mean, it doesn't always mean you're right.
12:06This EU referendum, Prime Minister, are you sure it's a good idea?
12:10Are you asking me whether I think it was a good idea?
12:14No, I'm not going to be the Queen.
12:14Well, you know, even an actor of your distinction is not capable of that, so I'm sorry.
12:25But what exactly is impartiality?
12:30And does it mean never, ever expressing an opinion?
12:34The sovereign has the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn.
12:42Every reshuffle, for example, has to be approved by the sovereign before it's announced.
12:49But you're talking fiction now, because, I mean, there's no way that the sovereign's going to say,
12:52no, you can't make so-and-so Home Secretary.
12:54It's not fiction in that it does happen. So what I'm recounting to you is completely accurate.
13:00You seriously mean that the monarch is a check on government?
13:04Yes. I've seen it. I've seen it multiple times in evidence, yes.
13:09So we'll have a vote on whether to stay in the EU.
13:12All those things would have been discussed with the Queen?
13:15Oh, unquestionably.
13:17Would she have any influence on the decisions?
13:19Well, that's...
13:20I mean, can we now say the Queen was in favour of this and in favour of that
13:23because the Prime Minister of the day did it?
13:25Well, the sovereign of the day has a right to be consulted, right to encourage, a right to warn,
13:31but very, very importantly, the Prime Minister of the day has a right to say,
13:35thank you very much, but I'm going to pursue a different path.
13:43As a historian, I think that is shocking, really.
13:47It's like a whole part of our political narrative is sort of missing.
13:54What really is the working relationship between Downing Street and the palace?
13:59How significant is the monarch on a sort of daily basis?
14:06Are those Prime Ministerial audiences just a nice cup of tea?
14:15Or actually, are they more significant than that?
14:21What were the conversations? What was the planning?
14:23What was the, you know, the meetings?
14:25What was the brief?
14:26What was the agendas?
14:28Don't you want to know that?
14:29The issue here is that one person has access at a much higher level
14:37with more influence and impact than anyone else in the land.
14:41No, I've been dreading.
14:43And, of course, this is not just about king or the queen, you know,
14:46so we don't want a future monarch in however many decades' time
14:50deciding that they've got a really important issue they care about
14:54and then lobby about it.
14:56We're all behind you. The country's behind you.
14:59If, for 70 years, his mother was a model of neutrality,
15:04how will Charles choose to reign?
15:08As Prime Minister, I had a number of meetings with Prince Charles,
15:11but then, towards the end of my premiership,
15:14they were starting to think about how he would do audiences
15:17with a Prime Minister.
15:20And so I was asked, well, would you be happy to go and do an audience
15:23with Prince Charles as well as the audience you do with Her Majesty the Queen?
15:26I said, yes, of course, I'd be delighted to do that.
15:28And it was fascinating to sort of be the, as it were, almost the guinea pig
15:33in his thinking about how he'd do the job.
15:36When you were doing this rehearsal of what it's like to be king,
15:39did he express any opinions or did he just listen to you?
15:42The Prince of Wales, I think, is allowed to have opinions and views
15:45and challenge and question.
15:47And I remember saying, I know absolutely the difference between that
15:51and then when you're a monarch and you have to take a step above those issues.
16:00But will Charles find it possible to stay above the issues?
16:04Judging by his time as king-in-waiting, it may not be that easy.
16:16His Royal Highness, Prince of Wales.
16:21There's still an enormous number of areas which need a great deal of attention.
16:26Young Prince Charles is a man with strong opinions.
16:31A great deal of destructiveness has taken place
16:34in terms of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
16:38He doesn't just want to sit there and do nothing,
16:41cut the odd ribbon, have a cup of tea.
16:45He travels widely, talks to people from all corners of Britain.
16:50Yes, of course, yes, I do my very best.
16:52And he thinks of himself as giving an ear
16:55to those who feel ignored by politicians.
16:59I've seen a lot and I've been very touched
17:01by the way people have, you know, responded.
17:04He begins to carve out a role for himself
17:07as unofficial spokesman for all kinds of issues.
17:11It's just that I feel that certain things have to be said
17:15and if you skirt round the issues all the time,
17:17how do we ever get anywhere in life? Do you know what I mean?
17:22And Charles doesn't just talk about what he thinks.
17:26I write a lot.
17:28You know, that is a very, I find, therapeutic exercise.
17:34He writes over 2,000 letters a year,
17:39many to people at the heart of government.
17:41Well, I was working as a special advisor in government
17:46and I just had a recollection of one of these missives
17:50from then Prince Charles coming in.
17:55And I remember it being treated
17:56as though it was some sort of a holy writ.
17:59I mean, it wasn't quite on a silken pillow, but almost,
18:02and put to the top of the red box.
18:04And I just remember thinking at the time
18:07that it's astonishing, no-one else, you know,
18:09whether it was a hospital or a major piece of public work
18:13or another minister even,
18:14would be treated in quite that same way.
18:16If he had something to say,
18:18it's important that ministers should know about it.
18:21There is nothing on God's earth that says that he shouldn't.
18:24Except he gets the privilege that no other citizen has
18:28of being on the top of the letters in the red box.
18:31Yeah, well, fair enough. Is it? Yeah.
18:35He wrote private letters. I don't think that's unreasonable.
18:39Really? Yeah, I think that's perfectly proper.
18:42Perfectly proper? Perfectly proper.
18:44I think we must assume that ministers are completely spineless.
18:48That if you have a government policy you want to push through,
18:52it doesn't matter if you get a letter from the Pope,
18:54you're still not going to change your policy.
18:59Don't forget, this is not the occasional note
19:01dashed off.
19:02This is a sort of sustained industrial level
19:05over many, many years.
19:06It's an incredible weight of influence being brought to bear.
19:10And if the other letters that were sent over all these decades
19:13were treated in the same way as the one that I saw,
19:16then the suspicion must be that the minister
19:17paid immediate attention to them
19:20and may well then have, you know,
19:22changed their diaries or changed their minds as a result.
19:25Supposing instead of writing memos,
19:27when he next met the minister, said,
19:30look, it's really dreadful in Bradford, what's going on.
19:32I think you ought to look at it.
19:33Would you object to that or would that be reasonable?
19:36I think that is reasonable because that is just part of his role advising.
19:40So hang on.
19:41So what's the difference between saying,
19:43minister, I think you ought to have a look at what's happening in Bradford,
19:45and writing a letter saying, look, have a look at what's happening in Bradford.
19:49Because I think the example you give would be a one-off example of,
19:53I experienced this and I think you ought to know this, Secretary of State,
19:56compared to industrial level lobbying around particular issues
20:00that one person has felt to be very important.
20:03And I mean, is he meant to be shtung?
20:05Just go around shtung?
20:06Well, up to a point, yes, actually.
20:08But I just think it raises important questions
20:10about how we're governed and how ministers work
20:12and access to decision-making from people that deserve to be heard.
20:17Did you come at all years ago?
20:18I came just before I was leader.
20:20Yeah.
20:21It was always known that Charles would sound off on his favourite subjects,
20:25but no-one knew what he actually wrote,
20:28nor whether he had any influence.
20:34In 2005, under the Freedom of Information Act,
20:38a group of journalists asked to see
20:40what the heir to the throne was saying.
20:44Their requests eventually landed
20:47on the desk of Attorney General Dominic Grieve,
20:50who read the letters they'd asked for
20:52and decided not to publish them.
20:56When I looked at the letters,
21:00it was clear to me that there was nothing in the letters
21:03that were remotely improper.
21:05What he was doing was communicating with government ministers
21:10in confidence about matters which had been raised with him
21:16or which he had seen in the course of his public duties.
21:20But why, if he was just doing a job that he was entitled to do,
21:26why shouldn't they be published?
21:28In exactly the same way that there would be no publication
21:32if I, as a government minister,
21:34wrote a letter to another government minister.
21:36But it sounds as though you think that
21:38the King and the Prince of Wales
21:40are entitled to interfere in government,
21:44to say what they think, to advocate.
21:45Why don't you do this?
21:47Why don't you do that?
21:48They are.
21:48And in a democracy,
21:49we're not allowed to know what they're saying.
21:51Well, in a democracy,
21:52you're not allowed to know
21:53what ministers are saying to each other.
21:56Yeah, but we can throw them out.
21:57We can't throw the King out.
21:58Well, you can throw them out.
21:59But at the same time,
22:01if you want to have the benefit of experience
22:05and advice being fed into government,
22:07it has to be in confidence.
22:09It may well be that you can interpret
22:12from those letters his own personal views.
22:14I think that's correct.
22:16And they are views
22:17which he would not wish to express in public.
22:20Why?
22:21Because of the need to maintain neutrality,
22:24public neutrality.
22:24But that doesn't...
22:25Hang on, hang on, hang on.
22:26This is hypocrisy.
22:27No, it's not.
22:28You maintain neutrality in public,
22:30but in private,
22:31you say what you think to a minister
22:32and expect them to jump through the hoop.
22:34There's no expectation in those letters
22:37of people jumping through the hoop.
22:39But nevertheless,
22:40you thought publication
22:41would undermine
22:43his position of neutrality.
22:46Yes.
22:46It seems to me what you're saying there
22:48is he's not actually neutral
22:50and publication would reveal that.
22:53No.
22:54No.
22:55Really?
22:55No.
22:57For an unbelievable ten years,
23:00the government had fought a legal battle
23:02to prevent the letters being published.
23:04It went to and fro and to and fro
23:09and finally ended up here
23:11in the Supreme Court.
23:14The Supreme Court has ruled
23:15that a series of letters
23:16written by Prince Charles
23:18to government ministers
23:18in 2004 and 2005
23:20can be made public.
23:22As for Clarence House here,
23:23they say they're disappointed
23:25that the principle of privacy
23:26has not been upheld.
23:28I was working for Charles
23:31at that time.
23:33Seven years by then
23:35that I'd been in the royal household.
23:38I can tell you
23:39he felt quite sanguine about it.
23:43I mean,
23:44he definitely believed
23:45in the principle of privacy.
23:47He said at some point
23:48one has to draw the line.
23:50Good morning, sir.
23:51Are you worried about these letters?
23:54Are you still writing to ministers
23:55letters like that?
23:57Have you not been behaving
23:58unconstitutionally by writing letters like that?
24:04So why didn't he say,
24:06I'm not going to fight this?
24:07Let them publish it.
24:08It wasn't his battle to fight.
24:09It was Cabinet Office
24:11versus Guardian newspapers
24:13and it all went on in the background.
24:15It rumbled on for ten years.
24:16You meant that through all that time
24:18he was saying,
24:18well, why the hell
24:19didn't they just publish it?
24:20No.
24:20The point for him
24:21was the principle of privacy.
24:24But he won the media war
24:26because nearly every single newspaper
24:30and broadcaster reported
24:31that the letters were a damp squib.
24:34They said nothing out of the ordinary
24:36and nothing that was unexpected
24:38of Charles
24:39or that he hadn't previously said before.
24:45I disagree.
24:46When you read these letters,
24:48they're based on very strong convictions
24:51and a good deal of knowledge
24:53about what he's talking about.
24:55I mean, just to take one example,
24:56the 8th of September, 2004,
25:00the Prince of Wales writes to the Prime Minister
25:02about a tea party that he'd had
25:04for Cherie and Tony in Scotland
25:07and he says,
25:08it was a great pleasure to meet you for tea.
25:10It was a great pleasure to meet you for tea.
25:10I thought it might be helpful if, as usual,
25:14I put them in writing.
25:16Support for beef farmers, sufficient support for hill farmers,
25:20a sense of anxiety that the Treasury will try to stop this,
25:25something to be done about markets,
25:27the government must encourage people to buy British.
25:29The Ministry of Defence must buy more beef.
25:32I did raise an entirely different subject.
25:34It must have been quite a tea party, this.
25:36These Lynx helicopters,
25:38they're very poor in high temperatures.
25:41They're not working properly in Iraq
25:42and we must do something about that too.
25:44Yours ever, Charles.
25:46It actually looks like Mary.
25:48And the Prime Minister doesn't say, in reply,
25:51just thank you for the cup of tea.
25:52He writes back a month later,
25:54thank you very much for your letter.
25:56As ever, I found your points constructive and thought-provoking.
26:00And dullard, I much enjoyed your speech the other day
26:03on climate change. Yours ever, Tony.
26:05So, what do these letters tell us?
26:07They don't tell us that Prince Charles, as Prince of Wales,
26:11was able to influence government policy.
26:14But it does tell us that he was determined to do so
26:18if he could.
26:22I was opposed to those letters coming out.
26:24I didn't see why they had to.
26:25I thought that was, you know.
26:26But they expressed very strong opinions about things
26:30and they were put to the top of the red box
26:31so they took up ministerial time.
26:33And that was the objection to it.
26:35It doesn't bother me at all.
26:37Really? No.
26:39I mean, if I wrote a letter,
26:40it wouldn't go to the top of the red box.
26:43Yeah, but you're not the Prince of Wales.
26:48I'm sure there's plenty of ministers in Tony Blair's cabinet
26:52who thought that Charles was a little bit irritating.
26:56But his letters are written in a terribly polite and humble way.
27:04Sorry, it doesn't mean they're not powerful to a minister.
27:07That's true. I would agree with that.
27:09I'm not, you know, naive.
27:11If you receive a letter with a crest on the back,
27:15then your office might bring it to higher prominence.
27:19Of all the issues Charles gets obsessed by,
27:25one of the front-runners has always been architecture.
27:32The Prince of Wales says we could make mankind feel grand again
27:36if we built our cities better.
27:38He spent decades lobbying relentlessly against the modern
27:42in favour of the traditional.
27:44There is no need for buildings,
27:46just because they house computers and word processors,
27:49to look like machines themselves.
27:51Here he is saying exactly what he thinks
27:54in a 1988 documentary he made with the BBC.
27:59Just look at this out-of-scale monster.
28:02And here he is again,
28:03this time complaining about a planned extension
28:06to the National Gallery in London.
28:08What is proposed seems to me like a monstrous car-mungle
28:14on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.
28:17The design was scrapped.
28:19Many architects were furious
28:21when he called this building a 1930s wireless.
28:24But Charles was unstoppable.
28:27My problem is that I have an inherited inability
28:30to keep my mouth shut.
28:31His critics portray him as an unelected, meddlesome prince
28:35who has too much power.
28:37In 2009, he went so far as to reach out to some royal friends
28:44to intervene in a proposed housing development he didn't like.
28:47The prince wrote to the royal family of Qatar,
28:51who own the site, calling the project unsuitable.
28:54Following Charles's actions, the original design,
28:58for more than 600 new homes, was scaled back.
29:02You'd think, by now, people must have some idea
29:06what I'm trying to do or not.
29:10I'm sure he still writes to ministers now.
29:13I'm sure he does.
29:14And in one way, why shouldn't he?
29:19Charles always claimed that when he became king,
29:21he would stop this kind of lobbying.
29:25Although when he was asked about it in a film to mark
29:28his 60th birthday, he didn't sound quite so sure.
29:32Would you be able to go on championing big themes?
29:36I don't know.
29:36I don't know.
29:38I probably not.
29:42Charles knows he has to say that,
29:44that as king, he'll be above politics.
29:46But the interesting thing is, is he actually doing it?
29:50Just have a look at this.
29:51This is the court circular for February the 10th, 2025,
29:55the official record of the king's engagements.
29:58The king this afternoon visited the duchy of Cornwall's
30:01nan's lead and development in Newquay.
30:05His majesty viewed site plans at the Orchard Cafe,
30:08went on foot to the community kitchen,
30:11went eating charity stuff, walked around, met residents,
30:14da-da-da-da.
30:15The one thing it doesn't mention here is the people with him.
30:25The king has taken the prime minister and deputy prime minister
30:29on a day trip out to Cornwall to visit a sustainable community
30:33supported by the royal family's charities.
30:35Highly unusual to see, well, not just the king and the prime minister together,
30:39but also the deputy too.
30:41Yeah, normally we might see them at big national moments of commemoration,
30:44but this doesn't happen very often.
30:47And I think if you want a sign of how the king is trying to do things
30:51differently during his reign, this is certainly one of them.
30:54We've looked into it and it seems Buckingham Palace can't come up with
30:59any other instance where a reigning monarch has actually been on an official visit
31:05with both a prime minister and deputy.
31:12He justifies the influence he has, the letters he writes, the people he talks to,
31:17by saying, oh, I go around the country and I meet a lot of people
31:21and I hear a lot of things and it would be remiss of me not to pass on those concerns,
31:29which in my view is completely spurious, a completely spurious argument.
31:36There is absolutely no reason why his views should be listened to any more than anyone else's.
31:41But there is no doubt that he has the access.
31:51Where are the lines now?
31:53What can he speak about?
31:56Or is he just literally going to be like, you know,
31:58shaking people's hands and just sort of doing this sort of royal walk about pleasantries?
32:04We nearly called this series What's A King For?
32:12What is A King For?
32:15Gosh.
32:17Well, historically, of course, he was the font of all power.
32:21A figure of authority, a figure of justice, a figure of stability.
32:33And then over time, gradually, the monarch had to accept parliament having more and more
32:39power and significance.
32:40And then over time, the monarch had to accept the rights of the monarchs.
32:47Unlike most countries, we don't have a written constitution.
32:51Instead, we're governed by what's called precedent.
32:54That's to say, just long-established practice rather than laws, saying who does what.
33:01And one of the last powers left to a monarch is to summon or dismiss parliament.
33:06It's often said this was to make sure prime ministers couldn't declare parliament open
33:14or closed for business to suit themselves.
33:21At least, that was the theory.
33:30After Britain voted to leave the European Union,
33:33this supposed power of the monarch was put to the test.
33:40Several thousand people had gathered in Whitehall,
33:43many to voice their opposition to a no-deal Brexit or leaving the EU.
33:50Parliament simply couldn't agree on the terms for our leaving the EU.
33:55You were in the middle of the Brexit, brouhaha.
34:06The Conservatives didn't have a majority in the House of Commons.
34:10So you had a government that was not in control in the House of Commons.
34:16You are not children in the playground, you are legislators.
34:20You are not children in the House of Commons.
34:22You are not children in the House of Commons.
34:23Amid the chaos, the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his team have an idea.
34:30They'll silence their critics by simply shutting down or proroguing parliament.
34:38Prorogation, it was something that I, as leader of the House,
34:42was aware was something that could be used
34:45to get back control of the House of Commons.
34:50Mr Dominic Grieve!
34:53Thank you, Mr Speaker.
34:55What I'd picked up were rumours coming from reliable sources
35:00who were really concerned about the impropriety of what he was doing.
35:05Thank you, Mr Speaker.
35:12As leader of the Opposition, I felt what Johnson was doing was wrong and unconstitutional.
35:18The Prime Minister.
35:19He wanted to extend the recess ad nauseam so that he wasn't under any pressure over Brexit negotiations.
35:26Mr Speaker, with permission, I shall make a statement on the mission of this new Conservative government.
35:31It's much easier not to have parliament around because parliament could express disagreement,
35:36could ultimately, of course, bring a vote of no confidence in him.
35:40None of those things are possible when parliament isn't sitting.
35:47In order to suspend parliament, the government needs sign-off from the Queen.
35:54So Johnson sends a team to her Scottish home, Balmoral.
35:58By the time we land, the news has leaked and there is an emergency cabinet meeting.
36:09An emergency meeting of cabinet called at short notice.
36:15There was no good reason to suspend a parliament apart from his desire
36:20not to be bothered by a House of Commons that might be rebellious.
36:24His line was that there was nothing left for parliament to do.
36:27Well, that's nonsense. It's plainly nonsense.
36:31What he's saying is, I'd like a period with no accountability to you.
36:38The royal household makes things run very smoothly.
36:42So, greeted by the Queen's Prime Secretary, you're given coffee, you're looked after,
36:47and then you wait until the Queen is ready.
36:53The old corgi was there listening in.
36:55So the Queen was pushing.
36:58And it was quite funny seeing one sovereign having to deal with a recalcitrant dog.
37:03So then what happens?
37:05What happens, there is a list of business and the Queen says one of two things.
37:10She says, approved or referred.
37:15The Prime Minister would have consulted his Attorney General.
37:17Yes.
37:17He said, yes, go ahead.
37:19Yes.
37:20What happens on the Palace side?
37:21Surely somebody there says, well, this is a bit rum.
37:24We'd better consult somebody about it.
37:26Yes, yes, that would happen.
37:27Normally, the connections between Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, the constant conversations,
37:34would have sorted that out in advance.
37:36Why didn't they?
37:40There's only so many times that people can say, are you sure, and get an answer.
37:47Yes, we've re-asked the Prime Minister and he is sure.
37:54And then the decision was made.
37:57The Queen said, approved.
37:59That was the approval for the prerogation.
38:02So, in the last few minutes, the Queen has given her permission to suspend Parliament.
38:07If you shut down in Parliament, we'll shut down the streets!
38:11Demonstrations are taking place everywhere because people are angered and outraged at what is happening.
38:22I thought it was improper. It was grossly improper.
38:24What does improper mean?
38:25To attempt to govern without accountability to the Commons for a lengthy period in the
38:33middle of a political crisis is an unconstitutional act.
38:36If it was unconstitutional, why, when these councillors went to see the Queen,
38:44did she say yes?
38:45It would have been, in my view, difficult, if not impossible, for her to not grant the prerogation.
38:54But hang on. It's her one power.
38:57No, it's not.
38:58Modern constitutional principle is the sovereign acts on the advice of the Prime Minister.
39:04Do you mean the Queen had absolutely no alternative but to say yes?
39:07Well, she could have said no, but I think that that would...
39:10What do you mean when you say she could have said no?
39:11Well, she could have refused to do it, but then she could refuse to pass a bill passed by Parliament.
39:16It doesn't happen.
39:21All the constitutional experts say she did not have a choice in the matter.
39:29She could only have said yes.
39:31So what's the point in asking her if she can only say yes?
39:35Good question. One of the mysteries of our constitution, David.
39:41I think that she felt that she would be seen as being too political.
39:48She was then faced with a choice. Do I go with the Prime Minister or do I go with what is predominantly
39:54opposition MPs? There were some Tories who agreed to us, but not very many, who have this view.
40:01Do I go with the Prime Minister?
40:04Over the next few weeks, there were legal challenges to the decision to prorogue Parliament.
40:11And for the second time in just over four years, issues affecting the monarchy ended up in the Supreme Court.
40:19The Court is bound to conclude that the decision to advise Her Majesty to prorogue Parliament was unlawful
40:27because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification.
40:39The Queen seemed to make the wrong decision.
40:46She agreed to Boris Johnson proroguing Parliament and then had the Supreme Court say it was wrong to do that.
40:53Yes.
40:53It was illegal.
40:54Yes.
40:55Of course, she didn't know it was illegal at the time.
40:58But it did look like a right royal cock-up, didn't it, when it happened?
41:02It's a sort of slap in the face for the Queen, apart from for Boris Johnson.
41:08It was really uncomfortable. It was a very uncomfortable time.
41:11It was very uncomfortable. It was very uncomfortable.
41:15This is the most modern, vivid example of monarch and Parliament and the monarch being called upon
41:23to exercise the, you know, residual rights that they have.
41:31And in a way, she didn't perform the function of monarchy at that point.
41:36And so what does that show? That ultimately, Parliament absolutely called the shots.
41:48So when push comes to shove, the sovereign serves the government of the day.
41:55And that brings us to a different kind of power the monarch exerts on their behalf.
42:03So-called soft power.
42:06The Royal Yacht Britannia bringing the Queen to New Zealand.
42:1230 million people awaiting a royal occasion.
42:15The city centre came to a stop as the Royal Party ambled up Auckland's main shopping street.
42:20Throughout her reign, the late Queen was flown around the world at the behest of successive governments
42:27to smile, to shake hands, and to make small talk with countless foreign leaders and dignitaries.
42:37It is an awful lot of abroad.
42:39President Bush and thousands of guests have welcomed the Queen to Washington.
42:42And here in Britain, she hosted over 100 state visits, sometimes forced to entertain tyrants like Mugabe,
42:52no doubt through gritted teeth, or the odious Ceausescu of Romania.
42:56She's not doing this because she wants to.
43:01In fact, when she saw him walking in the garden in Buckingham Palace, it said she actually hid behind the bushes to avoid having to talk to him.
43:08She's doing it because the Prime Minister, Harry Wilson, had been told by Ceausescu that a state visit was the condition for his doing a trade deal with Britain.
43:20That's soft power, wielded by the sovereign.
43:27Sound familiar?
43:27This is a letter from His Majesty the King. It's an invitation for a second state visit.
43:35Of course, there are moments when soft power can be used, to great effect, to try to heal the wounds inflicted by history.
43:48Well, Her Majesty has just touched down at Baldonnel Airport. These are the live pictures as the plane comes to a halt.
44:04I think we were all anxious about how this visit would be perceived.
44:09It was going to make a big splash, we knew that, but it had to fall right.
44:18It's the first time a British monarch has ever visited the Republic of Ireland.
44:25Strong security like nothing seen here before.
44:29There was huge anticipation and a lot of secrecy as well, because there were still, you know, massive sensitivities about the British sovereign on Irish soil.
44:40The last time a monarch came here, the Republic didn't exist.
44:44When the Queen's grandfather, George V, visited in 1911, Ireland had long ago been colonised,
44:55forced to become part of Britain.
44:59A bloody war of independence followed, and a British sovereign would not have been made welcome.
45:05I remember the first day there was not quite a funereal silence, but it was almost a signal,
45:17almost saying we're reserving judgement. We're waiting, we're watching, we're going to see how this goes.
45:22The Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, boarded a bomb-proof, bulletproof Range Rover loaned by the police in Northern Ireland for her trip into town.
45:32We sat in the back of the car everywhere we went, we talked about our kids, we talked about all sorts of things, and she was very relaxed.
45:42I never got the impression from her that there was an ounce of nervousness.
45:46We had a big dinner in Dublin Castle, and the argument then was, and I had put it very strongly,
46:01that I felt that she should say a few words in Irish.
46:05In the 19th century, the British government had done all in its power to really to wreck the Irish language,
46:12in order to really impose its will on the people.
46:18But I felt that if she just said something in Irish, that that could reach into hearts that were pretty hard and soften them.
46:27Our people in Dublin were, oh my God, no, you can't be doing that, now what if she got it wrong?
46:32And Irish is notoriously difficult.
46:36The last I knew was that Her Majesty would not use any Irish language in the speech.
46:40I was happy enough with that, to be honest.
46:55I was in the room at the time, and I remember the Irish president at the time, Mary McAleese,
46:59was sitting next to the Queen, and she was, she just said, wow, wow.
47:04I literally almost fell out of my seat.
47:13I looked straight across, and I was looking at Edward Young, who winked at me and then laughed,
47:18and I knew the laugh was to tell me, we got you.
47:24I don't think I've ever winked. I wouldn't presume to wink at her. Is that what the former
47:28president of Ireland said? No, Mary McAleese says. Perhaps she's right.
47:37Historic, symbolic, words much used, but an accurate description of this event's significance.
47:45And that created the stepping stone, which a year later, in June the following year,
47:51allowed Her Majesty the Queen to make history. On the final day of her visit to Northern Ireland,
47:59the Queen inspected a theatre in Belfast.
48:04In previous royal visits to Northern Ireland, there had been vociferous opposition from those
48:09who wanted a united Ireland.
48:17But over the past 30 years, the two sides had finally been reconciled,
48:23and were now represented by their two political leaders, Republican and Unionist.
48:29The man on the left, Martin McGuinness, had been a commander in the IRA,
48:35the people who had killed the Queen's cousin.
48:40Earl Mountbatten, murdered by a remote control IRA bomb.
48:48Shaking hands with McGuinness can't have been easy, but it was a masterstroke of soft power.
48:56I think the most important thing was that the representative of what was empire and colony to us
49:10would come to make amends.
49:14But I also think it was important that it was her,
49:17because she had been queen as the empire slowly, slowly disintegrated.
49:23I think it was a real moment,
49:30and speaks to the soft power of monarchy, and of the Queen especially.
49:34She was theoretically above politics, intrinsically woven into politics,
49:39but above the grubbiness of politics.
49:46The monarch is a very important part of Britain's soft power and ability to build relations with other
49:51countries. Would it be different if we'd had a president?
49:55So I don't think a president...
49:57If you had an elected president, there'd probably be a political figure in some way,
50:00and people would be looking, well, what's the political edge?
50:02Why are they doing this? Which party do they support?
50:04What's, you know, there'd be all those questions.
50:10I think an elected president has a lot of influence at home.
50:13But in the world that we live in, kings and queens and princes and princesses
50:20still, you know, hold the hello magazine spot when it comes to, you know, celebrity.
50:27And why is that?
50:28It's history, isn't it?
50:32We still have the big, big, big overhang of colony and empire and power and majesty.
50:41And there is still a kind of mystique, isn't there?
50:47Of course, not everyone buys into the mystique of monarchy or its power to do good.
50:53Start with the crown! Start with the crown!
50:57There are those who think Britain should ditch the king
51:01and elect a head of state instead.
51:03Start with the crown! Start with the crown!
51:06They tend to come out on days like today,
51:08when they know the royals are going to be on parade.
51:12Hello and welcome to Commonwealth Day, which is always one of the most vibrant
51:17and uplifting days in the calendar of this historic building.
51:20We know from polling that republicanism is more popular than ever before.
51:31But it's fair to say it's still a minority cause.
51:38These people are nutters, right?
51:39No, nutters. Extremists.
51:42I'm making a film about the monarchy, so I'm in the position of objectivity.
51:47I hope you are, and I hope you expose how successful we should be.
51:50But why do you think these are all nutters?
51:53Because they're a tiny minority, aren't they?
51:55We have 65 million people in the UK, and there's only, what, 30 here,
51:59with the same yellow flags.
52:00I say it out! You say it now!
52:04This guy thinks it's a liberal lefty.
52:08Liberal lefty.
52:09A BBC lefty, typical.
52:11You mix in white privileged circles.
52:14So, you mean I shouldn't be here?
52:15You should be here, but make sure it's objective, OK?
52:19I'll do my best.
52:25So, with objectivity in mind, what do the people here believe?
52:31Why Commonwealth Day?
52:33Well, we...
52:34It seems to be a fairly benign organisation of...
52:36Well, it's less to do with the Commonwealth, more to do with the royals who turn up.
52:40And it's an opportunity to protest against the monarchy.
52:44What do you got against them?
52:45Against them, personally, not a whole lot, other than the fact that if there were a free and fair
52:49election, they wouldn't win. And yet, there they are, and so they have that arrogance and
52:54presumption to be in that position without any kind of self-awareness.
52:58The existence of the royal family is intrinsically harmful to this country
53:05and to the freedom of the people of the country.
53:07In what way?
53:09They symbolise the class system, they symbolise feudalism,
53:13and they symbolise so many things that are harmful about this country.
53:15Yeah, I think, you know, they're just the top aristocrats in the country.
53:19What exactly makes them qualify to run a country like this?
53:28I don't believe in bloodline superiority. That is a belief which is incompatible
53:36with the existence of monarchy. Now, I know that I hold political opinions which are a minority
53:41in this country, including republicanism. It's not a majority belief in this country,
53:45and I'm fine with that. But I think that there are many more people, including supporters of the monarchy,
53:52who, when they think about the idea that anybody from the royal family is born better over every other
54:03child that was born in this country, I think that may bother them just a bit.
54:08Is the monarchy at the apex of the British class system, or has British class virtually vanished,
54:20apart from the monarchy? Has British class vanished? Your surname is Dimbleby.
54:26I mean, it clearly hasn't. But it's not an inherited job. It's not like the monarchy.
54:30It's not an inherited job, and yet the surname may well do some heavy lifting.
54:34No, no, no. It's inherited talent. Sure.
54:48Look, inherited wealth, privilege, and power, it is what the monarchy is.
54:53I wasn't a monarchist going into the palace. I grew up in Bridgend in South Wales. It's not
54:58not particularly fertile ground from pro-monarchy. But this somehow works.
55:07I think it does a job of being more things to more people than an elected head of state ever could be.
55:18There's something sort of deeply irrational about our constitution, which allows an individual,
55:24purely through dint of birth, no other reason of merit or anything else, to have this incredible influence
55:30and impact on the way we're governed.
55:34Prime ministers come and go.
55:37But the monarch is there for as long as they live, influencing weekly the prime minister,
55:43just because of who they were born to.
55:46The precise power of monarchy is hard to pin down.
55:54What goes on behind closed doors is shrouded in secrecy.
56:01We know they have no real power under the constitution, not even, it seems,
56:06to stop actions by our politicians that turn out to be unlawful.
56:10We know they have soft power, but that's at the service of the government of the day.
56:18But I think it would be naive to argue that with their constant access, particularly to prime ministers,
56:25they have no influence at all over what gets done.
56:29If people knew the truth of the levels of power and influence,
56:42they would really question it.
56:45Because the only way the monarchy works is everybody either being apathetic
56:51or feeling very affectionate towards it.
56:54If those bonds are broken, then there is really no purpose and point of monarchy.
57:13And there's much more we don't know about monarchy.
57:23But perhaps we should.
57:25The whole question of money was something that we always had to be extremely sensitive about.
57:30Moderation in all things.
57:32That is a huge amount flowing into the private pockets of the royal family.
57:38Well, I had quite a few conversations with the queen about it.
57:40And did she purr with pleasure when you explained how it would work?
57:44And what lengths will they go to to survive?
57:47If you're born into this position, you have a duty to behave.
57:54Andrew seems to be in the queen's weak point.
57:56I'm becoming. He was a sex offender.
57:58Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm being polite. And in the sense that he was a sex offender.
58:10I'm trying to handle my mental mornings.
58:27I'm feeling.
58:27I'm feeling like I'm being.
58:28The first thing you've raised about her in touch
58:30is a very strong sting.
58:31Every thing, the fourth thing you did is when.
58:33You've got always arms right around me.
58:34I might be walking behind him.
58:35That's a very strong start.
58:36No one's
58:37We haven't looked at me.
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