Elizabeth II’s devotion to the Commonwealth

It’s a question which would inevitably surface during any serious discussion of Queen Elizabeth II: who was her favourite prime minister?

Unlike her grandfather, George V, who was clear that he favoured Ramsay MacDonald (and told him so), or George VI, for whom Winston Churchill was the clear winner, Elizabeth II always kept us guessing. Was she, too, a Churchill devotee? Some say she harboured a greater fondness for her first Labour PM, Harold Wilson, and not just because he was good company and shielded her from the republican wrath of his own MPs. He did not, unlike Churchill, outstay his welcome but timed his resignation to divert attention from the collapse of Princess Margaret’s marriage. Others point to Sir Alec Douglas-Home on patrician Scottish landowning grounds.

I could never be certain. I would, though, be a good deal more confident in nominating her least favourite PM – Edward Heath.

It was not the industrial chaos of the Heath years which counted against him. Nor was it the fact that his bachelor small talk was confined to two subjects for which the Queen had minimal enthusiasm – sailing and classical music. What really tipped the scales on the debit side was the fact that Heath treated the Commonwealth – and its leaders – with contempt.

It sounds clichéd to talk of the Queen’s devotion to the Commonwealth but it was palpably true. To her dying day, she viewed it as one of the great personal achievements of her reign that this geopolitical experiment turned out to be such a success. For, regardless of all its current ailments, her ‘family of nations’ continues to be a multi-layered force for good in a troubled world (with a waiting list).

She saw the Commonwealth play a key role in redrawing the post-war map of the world, particularly in Africa.