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• Die Queen
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Beschreibung:
September 1, 1997.The world wakes up to the tragic news that Princess Diana, former wife of the heir to the British throne and the most well-known woman in the world, has died in a car crash. It’s an event that shocks the public around the globe. By the following day, floral tributes to the young princess lie outside Buckingham Palace. But, Buckingham Palace is empty. The royal family, ensconced in Balmoral Castle in Scotland, remains stoic in its response to the tragedy. Theirs is a world of tradition; where protocol is paramount and public displays of emotion frowned upon. The family will grieve in private, the Princess’s young sons, William and Harry, protected from the media’s hungry curiosity at their Scottish home. It’s appropriate, reasons the Queen, that it should be a private matter. Diana was no longer a member of the Royal family and this is not a matter of state. Even Diana’s family has requested a private funeral. Prince Charles is deeply shaken by the news and goes to Paris to bring home the body of his former wife. The Queen and her family may have retreated behind the walls of Balmoral, but for Tony Blair the event will mark his coming of age as an international political figure. Just three months into his premiership following a landslide Labour victory in May, the young prime minister senses something is changing among the British public. The famous British reserve with its stiff upper lip and sang froid seems to be melting away. In its place comes a wellspring of emotion, an out-pouring of emotion for the lost Princess, of a magnitude not seen before in Britain. It’s as though the whole nation has lost a sister, a mother or a daughter. She was, as Blair calls her in a televised press conference the day her death is announced, “The People’s Princess”. These words touch few chords with the residents at Balmoral. When Blair suggests a public funeral would be more appropriate, the Queen bristles as he suggests this might allow the people to “share in the grief”. The very idea makes her flinch. She reminds him that this is a family funeral and not a fairground attraction. By Monday, the floral tributes outside Buckingham Palace are several feet deep. Blair’s right hand man Alistair Campbell is revelling in the idea that the Queen is unable to gauge the mood of the people while Blair is gaining popularity for his gestures of sympathy, and predicts “Blair steps in to save the Monarchy from itself” headlines. But the PM cannot help but feel a pang of loyalty. Meanwhile, Charles is giving Blair his full support, eager to distance himself from the Royals who the press is branding chief culprits in the affair in a bid to deflect blame from itself. When the Queen is told that the plan is for a public funeral based on the Queen Mother’s and which, to boot, will include a line-up of popular celebrities whom her late daughter-in-law used to frequent, it is a blow to her authority. But, it won’t be the only one: there are more concessions to accommodate public grieving for Diana, a public that is increasingly venting its anger against the family with abusive phone calls to Balmoral. It seems to the Queen that the Princess is being just as troublesome after death than before. It seems this whole affair has revealed a side to the British public that the Queen never imagined possible, a side she is at pains to understand. This readiness to give in to emotion is also infecting her son, Charles, who has begun to test her patience with his spinelessness in the face of adversity. At least amid the spare beauty of the Scottish countryside that surrounds Balmoral and in the company of her faithful corgis, she can draw breath; at least this is a world she understands and feels comfortable in. As preparations for the funeral begin, in anticipation of over two million people descending on London, by Tuesday there is another issue of protocol that comes up. There are rumbles in the press about the flagpole above Buckingham Palace, there’s a glaring absence of a flag at half mast. Blair suggests they fly the flag even though it breaches protocol. In Balmoral, the Queen and Prince Philip are getting increasingly frustrated at this upstart Prime Minister’s advice and his son’s weak-willed acquiescence. By Wednesday, the press is sharpening its attacks on the family. “Show us there’s a heart in the House of Windsor!” shouts one tabloid; “Time to change the Old Guard!” screams another. The pressure on the royal household is slowly starting to show and not just with the staff. While out driving in the countryside, the Queen’s car breaks down and, suddenly alone, she breaks down in a rush of anger, frustration and sadness. With his aides as well as his wife encouraging him to take up the reformist baton, Blair asks the Queen to come down to London to face the public and “share its grief”. She objects to any pandering to media pressure; the public, she is convinced, will soon stop this hysteria and revert to a more dignified British approach to the tragedy. But it seems the British no longer do things the old way and the realisation that she may be out of touch is slowly dawning on her. Thursday morning brings good news and bad: the good news is that Blair has soared in popularity, more liked than Churchill and the bad news is the press headlines, criticising the Queen for her behaviour. It’s too much for Blair, a man whose monarchist sympathies come to the fore. As the day of the funeral draws nearer, he urges the Queen to follow a plan of action which might appease the press and the public and avoid a constitutional crisis.