Episode Info
- Season10
Hosted by Christina Ruffini and Sir Richard Dearlove
Guest
Episode Summary
As the world gathers to mourn Queen Elizabeth II, co-hosts Julia Macfarlane and Former Chief of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove, a longtime Crown servant, reflect on the life and times of Britain's longest-reigning Monarch.
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Transcript
INTRODUCTION
Mcfarlane: Here on One Decision, we want to take this moment to pay tribute to her majesty, Queen Elizabeth the second, who died Thursday, September 8, just two days after discharging her most important constitutional duty as sovereign, accepting the resignation of Boris Johnson and making a new prime minister of Liz Truss. She was 96 years old and the longest serving monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and head of state of more than a dozen nations around the world. I'm Julia McFarlane. My co-host, Sir Richard Dearlove, is the former chief of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.
Dearlove: Although it was expected, one was very saddened by the news. I mean I was born in 1945, she came to the throne in 1953, well the coronation was in June 1953 and she's been as it were a feature of my life ever since I've been a sort of conscious being. So it's very hard for someone like me to imagine the United Kingdom without the Queen being around and she has been such a seminal and important figure in the life of the nation.
Mcfarlane: And I mean she was your boss wasn't she?
Dearlove: Well technically I was a crown servant for much of my career, therefore called the Queen Her Majesty's, yes, and that was a great privilege and I think one does feel a huge sense of loss now she's gone but she, well I think the thing I'd like to say, she was amazing at being the queen. I mean look there is no job description and somehow she grew into that role and without many, I think very very few missteps throughout the whole of her life, she just had a sort of magic touch when it came to being the Queen and doing what the Queen had to do and if you try to write that down on a piece of paper it's almost impossible and yet she was brilliant at interpreting the role in relation to the nation and I think her achievements given that she lived through a period of extraordinary change in the United Kingdom and able to remain and probably at her death she's never been more adored or more popular. And that's truly a remarkable achievement.
A LIFE OF DUTY
Mcfarlane: Given the fact that she lived to such an old age, she really had to slow down in her final years. But before that started, before that all that happened, there were some crazy statistics, you know, for a certain period, the queen was reported to have more engagements than there were days in a year annually. And she has been described as one of the most hardworking monarchs ever. And that is of course, one of the main things that people have been saying as they've been reflecting on her long life is her commitment to duty and just how hard she did work. She was constantly holding audiences, meeting people, carrying out the important soft power that really is sort of the key to what the monarchy is. Symbolism and the apolitical soft power force that you hold as a reigning king or queen these days. And so I think one thing that a lot of people outside of this country don't really realize is how often she has tended to pop up. I mean, the first time that I saw the queen, I moved to this country in 1997 because my parents met in Indonesia and we lived in Southeast Asia for a few years. And we came back the year that Diana died. But I first saw her a few years after that when I was at big school and we went to the Braemar games. And of course, she was at the Braemar games every year. And then the year after that, she went past my house in Old Aberdeen to do something at King's College Chapel in Aberdeen University. And then after that, saw her in Edinburgh, and she sort of, she pops up from time to time. My parents said just a few years ago, they went to a garden party hosted by the Queen, something that my mother was hugely ecstatic about. She spent ages picking up her outfit and grumbling at my father to find a smarter suit. And then of course, through my job as a journalist, I've seen the Queen sort of quite a lot. I've had to cover a lot of events that she was present at. But I think a lot of people have seen the Queen, maybe even have met the Queen. And so there is a special relationship between a lot of Brits and even those Brits who are not in favor of a monarchy that they want an elected head of state. And they've had mixed feelings about this week. A lot of people have had such a well of respect for this woman, for working so hard, for doing so much.
Dearlove: Well, I think she's just been amazing in terms of her energy and the intensity of her program and commitments and you're quite right. I mean she was amazing in putting herself about you know engaging in civic life at the local level, being seen and I mean not necessarily being accessible but being a presence and I think this was just a remarkable achievement and I mean the fact is you know she was receiving the new Prime Minister two days before she died. She never stopped and she never stopped working and you know she fulfilled her commitment and her duty way beyond the letter. I mean just so extraordinary the intensity of her program and her commitments and yeah I mean I think many of us had the privilege of meeting her, spending time with her.
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
Mcfarlane: Tell us about your personal experience with the Queen.
Dearlove: Well I met her quite a lot but my professional relationship, whether I'm going to talk about that, it would not be correct. You can't do that. I'll mention two issues. One, wife and I went as private guests to stay at Windsor Castle and attend a private dinner with a small number of guests with Prince Philip and Her Majesty. I mean it was an extraordinary experience mainly because they were such attentive hosts. They were not sort of distant. They really made a big effort you know to put their guests at ease, to make sure you had an enjoyable evening. The Queen took us personally to the Royal Library to show us the da Vinci drawings in the collection and other wonderful things in the library. You know at midnight they were still up talking to their guests laughing and having a good time and it was an absolutely incredible experience and difficult you know to describe how special it was and you know we were all accommodated and looked after beautifully by the royal staff and it was a very special occasion. But the other thing I will say is when her mother died, the Queen Mother, she lay in state in Westminster Hall, the same place in Parliament where she will lie in state when the coffin arrives and you will be able, I mean I'm sure there'll be thousands of people who want to file past and pay their respects and I'm not sure how that's going to be organized. I had been to pay my respects to the Queen Mother and on my way there there were queues of people across the bridges and I noticed that someone had sprayed some graffiti on one of the walls on one of the bridges across the Thames that said Queen mum, my mum and it happened to be a day on which I had an audience with the Queen and the first thing I said, ma'am I would like to pay my, you know give you my condolences on behalf of the death of your mother, ma'am, but I think I have something to tell you which I'm sure no one else will tell you. I've just seen some graffiti in London sprayed on one of the London bridges that says Queen mum my mum and I said I think that's a very moving, and she was very very moved and emotional about that and it was rather wonderful.
Mcfarlane: I'd say it's such a touching moment and I mean a wonderful sort of expression of her humanity.
Dearlove: That's the only anecdote I'm going to tell.
THE MONARCHY AND EMPIRE
Mcfarlane: And I think the elephant in the room is the complicated relationship that this country and many countries in the Commonwealth have with the monarchy. And while many have been paying tribute to the queen for a life well lived and a life full of commitment to duty and public service. A lot of people have used it to raise the issue of whether the monarchy firstly is an anachronism in the twenty first century. But also, a lot of people have a complicated relationship with the monarchy and by extension the Queen because of Britain's imperial past. I mean, what do you think that, I suspect I know the answer to your question before I ask it, but do you think that a constitutional monarchy is fitting in the twenty first century? And how should King Charles handle Britain's imperial past? And I think it's something that is very much worth bringing up because it is something that I'm afraid to say is not taught in our schools. We have sort of buried the dark horrors of Britain's imperial history and we haven't yet faced up to it have we?
Dearlove: I'm not sure I agree with you. I think that this is something of a modern, a post modern trope actually and I'm not of that view at all. I think the UK has dealt pretty satisfactorily on the whole with its imperial past. Every nation that's been an empire has skeletons in the cupboard. We have handled that reasonably well, I'm not saying perfectly. We have detached ourselves and I've been quite heavily involved in that in Africa from our former empire with sophistication, with elegance, with attention to the rights of the peoples who were previously part of the empire. And I think to sort of beat up on ourselves now is not a sort of healthy approach to history because you know you can't change it and the values and rules of the seventeenth eighteenth nineteenth century were difficult and different and not of our time but to judge the past by the values of the time seems to me anomalous. And so I think that what is important in as it were the residue of empire is the Commonwealth and in fact the Commonwealth is a surprisingly healthy and alive organization which doesn't have a political purpose but there are many other areas in which it can work positively you know whether it's education, it's conservation, whether it's aspects of climate change and it is an extraordinary sort of rainbow collection of different nations, different cultures and different peoples. And so far you know, it has survived and actually it has a rather brighter future than many may have thought ten years ago.
Mcfarlane: You've been listening to a special episode of One Decision, marking the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, 09/08/2022. She was 96 years old. From me and the team, thank you for listening.
