Neither the post-cataclysm United Kingdom Interim Emergency Administration, nor its more inclusive Unity Administration of the United Kingdom, could have been brought into being or made to function in any meaningful way without bending the unwritten British constitution in hitherto untested ways; or without the kind permission of the Queen. The UKIEA had been presented to her as a fait accompli; the UAUK — which Margaret Thatcher viewed as an abomination of an acronym but there was nothing she could do about it at the moment — had come into being with explicit Royal Ascent. Her Majesty had, however, suggested two modifications to existing practices. One, given that in the current circumstances no Prime Minister could claim an incontrovertible democratic mandate that audiences with herself should be between the Prime Minister and senior representatives of both the main parties to the UAUK. Two, in the event that there was a failure to reach a clear consensus on a major matter of policy no decision should be taken without the parties first consulting her. The Prime Minister and the rest of the UAUK served at ‘Her Majesty’s pleasure’ and Her Majesty, in her capacity as the one remaining inalienable symbol of national identity and unity, while aloof from the rough and tumble of party politics, had no intention of being a purely symbolic hands off Head of State in a time of ongoing crisis unimagined by, and unimaginable to, the generations of constitutional lawyers who had slowly, surely over the centuries constructed the fabric of the British constitution.
“You’ll be looking forward to discovering what mischief the twins have been up to when you get back to Cheltenham?” The Queen put to her Prime Minister as soon as she had ushered her guests into the cluttered neo-Edwardian drawing room of the old house.
“Yes, you Majesty,” the Angry Widow agreed. She had only met her Monarch face to face half-a-dozen times but already she felt a real emotional bond with and for the other woman. It helped immeasurably that they were of an age — she was thirty-eight and the Queen only a few months younger — and that they had been brought together by unthinkable disasters. “I gather Prince Philip’s recovery continues apace?”
“Oh, indeed,” her host said, forcing a brave smile. “His doctors tell me it will be at least another fortnight before we can bring him home. I’m having one of the ground floor rooms — the billiard room — somewhat knocked about to accommodate him. He won’t be walking again for some weeks and months, I fear.”
After the attack on Balmoral the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh had almost died on the operating table. Later, doctors had warned they might need to amputate his right leg above the knee. Now at last the patient was on the long road to recovery. Prince Andrew, the Queen’s three year old youngest son had been killed in the attack on Balmoral less than two months ago; but the Monarch’s grief was her own, private affair.
“Charles and Anne visit their father every few days,” the Queen continued, brightening a little, “I think that cheers him up as much as anything. Oh, and Sir Julian’s missives from the Mediterranean never fail to perk him up somewhat, too.” The small woman with the direct, unfussy gaze met her Prime Minister’s eye. “As I am sure Sir Julian’s dispatches cheer us all in these testing times.”
Margaret Thatcher momentarily lowered her eyes.
“Yes, indeed, Ma’am.”
The Queen and her three guests seated themselves. The politicians waited for a sign to formally begin the audience.
“I have read with interest the papers you kindly forwarded to me last evening,” the small, calm woman who was probably the only reason the nation hadn’t completely fractured in the last year prefaced. “I concur entirely with your views Prime Minister, and look forward the welcoming the new United States Ambassador. I will be happy to entertain Ambassador Brenckmann, his wife and Secretary of State Fulbright when they arrive in the United Kingdom. Like you, I think the prompt re-establishment of ‘business as usual’ with our American allies is an essential first step to restoring some kind of coherent World order. After I have spoken with Ambassador Brenckmann and Mr Fulbright perhaps we should compare notes?”
This last remark was said with a ghost of a smile playing on the Queen’s lips. She had privately confided to her new Prime Minister that she had no intention of ‘dragging the monarchy back to the age of Victoria and Albert’ when Prime Ministers danced around Royal Prerogatives, never quite convinced they weren’t wasting their time. Her role in the governance of her Realm had been temporarily modified of necessity; but there would be no question of her ever dabbling in politics.
The Queen fixed her latest Home Secretary in her sights.
“I hear your speech at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow was well received last night, Mr Jenkins?”
“Thank you, Ma’am.” Strangely, the son of a Welsh coal miner was much more relaxed in his sovereign’s presence that either of his colleagues, both of whom were more accustomed to the setting that he found himself in on that cold January morning. “It was an interesting experience being the ‘warm-up’ act for my Right Honourable colleague.”
“You went down very well,” Margaret Thatcher interjected. While she was enormously bolstered by the near rapturous reception she received every time she spoke in public it was also a little unnerving. She wasn’t doing anything special and as yet, she’d achieved nothing concrete in her short premiership except succeeding in splitting her own Party down the middle. She felt a fraud; everywhere she went she was being feted to the rafters and she didn’t begin to understand why.
“It is good of you to say so, Prime Minister.”
The Queen switched her attention back to Margaret Thatcher.
“Am I right in thinking the Dreadnought incident is still an issue of contention?”
“Yes, Ma’am. The vessel is in Gibraltar at this time. The Flag Officer Submarines is satisfied with Commander Collingwood’s After Action Report and the outcomes of the interviews carried out in Gibraltar with the submarine’s senior officers. The First Sea Lord has indicated to me that he sees no need for a formal Board of Inquiry. The United States House of Representatives plans, of course, to appoint a ‘Commission’ to investigate the loss of the USS Scorpion. I have made it clear to President Kennedy that there are no circumstances under which I will allow Commander Collingwood, or any of his officers to testify to the this — most likely quasi political-judicial — ‘Commission’ on United States soil.”
The Queen nodded her satisfaction.
She changed the subject.
“I believe a preliminary digest of the reports of the survey teams sent into the areas which suffered the greatest damage in the war is now available?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Roy Jenkins confirmed. “I have prepared several papers for your perusal in this respect but if I may, I will jump straight to the, er, ‘headlines’.”
“By all means, Home Secretary.”
Roy Jenkins collected his thoughts for a moment, brushing a hand over his balding pate and adjusting his horn-rimmed glasses. He had brought notes with him, more as a prop than an aide-memoire. He was a man well used to ordering his ideas and meticulously planning their concise, unambiguous expression.
“Radioactive contamination remains at dangerously high levels only in the immediate vicinity of the sites of ground blast strikes. Two of these sites are in East Anglia, the others are in the approximate areas where the towns of Chatham and Gravesend used to be. Elsewhere, it was possible for survey teams to complete provisional expeditions across and within the most badly damaged areas. There were several incidents where survey team members were accosted by people living in or bordering the survey areas. Most of these incidents involved people mistaking team members for ‘bandits’ on ‘sorties’ out of damaged areas stealing food or attempting to enlarge their ‘territories’. Shot were fired on only two occasions but nobody was injured. However, it has been a generally successful exercise and the results are not by any means uniformly discouraging. It is our conclusion that although our initial casualty estimates were broadly correct, it is clear that a significant number of people initially survived in out-lying bombed areas, and have subsequently moved back into the partially devastated areas.”