HISTORY will be made this week as the longest-serving monarch in British history appoints her 15th Prime Minister.
The mind reels at the procession of PMs who have come and gone in that 70-year reign. From Churchill to Boris.
Even game-changing leaders who won three General Elections in a row — Thatcher, Blair — seem like mere footnotes to this second Elizabethan age.
For almost all of us, the Queen has been on the throne all of our lives.
It is a shock to be reminded that, when we look at that familiar face, we are witnessing living history.
Whoever wins the mud-wrestling match between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak — the vote is declared tomorrow — they do not become PM until they have met the Queen on Tuesday.
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She does not choose who runs the country. But it is still Her Majesty’s Government.
Much is being made of the fact the Queen, for the first time in her reign, will appoint the new PM at her summer home of Balmoral, Aberdeenshire, rather than Buckingham Palace, where she has appointed all of her previous 14 PMs.
The Queen’s recent mobility problems are being cited as the reason she is staying in Scotland rather than making the 1,000-mile round trip south.
But surely the fact she is knocking on for 100 is reason enough for her to shake Liz or Rishi’s hand wherever she likes.
I guarantee that, at 96, any other head of state on the planet would be delegating to somebody else to do it. But not our Queen. While she lives, she serves. And what a contrast to Mr and Mrs Meghan, who bowl up in the UK today.
As the UK announces its new PM, Meghan — 41 — will be delivering the keynote address to a global summit of youth leaders in Manchester. The Meghans then jet to Germany for an Invictus Games ceremony before returning to London on Thursday for the WellChild Awards. There are no plans to see Harry’s brother, father or grandmother.
Because Harry and Meghan are now bitterly estranged from the Royal Family — and yet, bizarrely, still very much a part of it. Indeed, their lucrative brand is built upon the magic dust of royalty. And slagging it off.
But now even America grows bored of mouthy Meghan and her ginger glove puppet. Her assertion that her wedding to Harry was celebrated like the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa has had even gullible Yanks weeping with derisive laughter.
But Harry and Meghan can’t stop yakking about how rotten it all is — the Royal Family, the UK, the allegedly unbridled racism of the British Press.
“Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with people that love my child?” Meghan demanded in her latest interview.
In fact, any British journalist that ever used that racial slur — about anyone — would be sacked on the spot.
And Meghan offers no evidence that anyone in the British Press has ever used that disgusting word.
But somehow it hardly seems to matter any more. The Duchess of Sussex can say what she likes — no matter how wrong — and from Oprah Winfrey down, some fawning, forelock-tugging supplicant will let her remarks go unchallenged.
The law of diminishing returns means nothing can ever match the impact of that Oprah interview. But the Queen should not have to endure Meghan’s burst pipe of poison. It is unspeakably cruel of her and Harry to spew their poison when the Queen is in the final years of her life.
When the Palace talks about the reason the Queen is staying in Scotland to meet Truss or Sunak, they talk of Her Majesty’s “episodic mobility issue”.
But the heartbreaking truth is that the Queen is in the last years of a life that has been devoted to serving her country — where she has been the centre of goodness, stability and all that is best about us.
She should have been free to live these years in peace and quiet, surrounded by her dogs and a loving family. Instead, she has suffered almost constant turmoil.
Her middle son, Andrew, deserves his share of the blame. But most of the dirt thrown at the Royal Family over the last few years has come from two ageing brats in California — the spoilt, self-pitying, publicity-ravenous Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Ironic, of course, because without their royal connections, Meghan and Harry are just an Old Etonian thicko and a B-list actress. But with those royal connections, they become global superstars, multi- millionaires who have made a fortune by throwing dirt at all the Queen stands for.
For causing stress and pain in the final years of her life, Harry and Meghan show no shame, remorse or regret. That is why these brats should be stripped of their royal titles. They no longer deserve their titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
For all the hate they have shrieked about the Royal Family and this country, they deserve to be boring old farts Mr and Mrs Meghan from California.
Now, that really would have them dancing in the streets.
AS the cost-of-living squeeze bites, social media stars like Love Island’s Molly-Mae Hague are said to be “infuriating” followers with their lavish, bling-encrusted lifestyles.
To anyone offended by these lush lives, I would draw their attention to the button on their phones marked “unfollow”.
See that? Press it.
QATAR is one of only a tiny minority of countries in the world that count homosexuality as a capital crime.
So, isn’t it a bit awkward to have gay icon David Beckham – cover star of gay mag Attitude in 2002 – making a promotional video on the joys of Qatar?
Not at all!
Because Becks neglected to share his Qatar propaganda – “Qatar really is an incredible place!” – with his 75million followers on Instagram.
Funny, that.
I like Beckham. He is a national treasure and should have been knighted years ago.
But he really can’t have it both ways.
David either cares about the fact that Qatar will execute you for being gay.
Or he cares just that little bit more about the dosh.
CHARLIE WILSON, who has died at 87, was a Marine, a Scot, a boxer, lover of the horses and a Fleet Street legend.
A former editor of The Times, I met Charlie when I was a washed-up music journalist and he was the boss of Mirror Group Newspapers.
He saw something in me when nobody else in the world did – including myself.
He took me out to lunch, introduced me to the youngest editor in Fleet Street – the twenty-something Piers Morgan – and turned me into a national newspaper columnist.
So, Charlie Wilson changed my life.
He gave me a job, a future, a new career. And this tough, unsentimental, endlessly kind man would cackle with laughter to know that I write these words with tears streaming down my face.
Thanks for everything, Charlie, and may you rest in peace where the horses run free.
WHEN Emma Raducanu won the US Open last year without dropping a set, she became the only qualifier to win a tennis grand slam – EVER.
It is a success story so unlikely, it recalls the first Rocky film.
So, after Raducanu was knocked out of this year’s event in the first round, it is time to reflect that she is still only 19 years old.
Cut this young woman some slack. It is true that Emma has not repeated her jaw-dropping success of 2021. But then neither has anyone else.
THE bin workers strike has left uncollected rubbish piling up all over Scotland – except outside the front door of the Scottish National Party’s thin-lipped supremo, Nicola Sturgeon.
As councils and binmen across Scotland bicker in their bitter industrial dispute, the First Minister’s Residence, Bute House, has its rubbish collected by a private firm. Convenient.
The SNP blames Labour councils for the strikes. Labour blames the SNP, so obsessed with a second independence referendum they forgot that they have a country to run.
What is truly shocking is that nobody is blaming it all on the English.
TAYLOR SWIFT won three gongs at MTV’s video awards.
If they gave out an award for best frock, Taylor would have won that, too.
THE country sits on layers of shale which could provide gas for a lifetime. With energy bills about to cripple millions of household budgets, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have both committed to restarting fracking – if local communities agree.
Oh, the big if! What a cowardly cop-out.
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We need a PM who is committed to fracking and who will make it happen. Wind, solar and hot air are not going to do it. We need fracking and a renewed love for nuclear power stations.
Alternatively, we can rely on that nice Mr Putin to keep us warm.
