Queen Elizabeth II - Professor Vernon Bogdanor FBA CBE

The reign of Elizabeth II has been the longest in British history. www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an...
It has coincided with the transformation of the mystical monarchy into a welfare monarchy, and the development of a multi-racial Commonwealth, which currently comprises 54 independent nations and nearly a third of the worlds population. The Crown has grown stronger both at home as a symbol of the nation, and in the Commonwealth as a symbol of a diverse group of countries nations co-operating together for the common good.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an...
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[@sgray4health]

How fortunate to have run across this series by Professor V, Bogdanor. Thank you. Only wish I could have attended any or all of these.

[@Totalfog]

😊 0:20

[@cryptoniandream1278]

Amazing Leader

[@takeoverusa]

Bravo, great lectured tremendus insight and perspective. Thank you Mr. Bogdanor

[@kimberlyperrotis8962]

The late Queen understood the British people well because she understood all people well. We all value the same things: family, health, opportunity, education, prosperity, freedom of religion, thought, and speech, an equal stake in the community and last, but not least, dignity. She loved and respected all people by seeing the best in them, and those values that make us all so alike, and it showed every day of her life. Love is everything there is.

[@martintapia9374]

🌟 outstanding lecture

[@fburton8]

God bless Her Maj.

[@BillKing8888]

I wondered if they ever called her Maj of the Raj?

[@ericspence805]

I noticed a slight mistake: the Queen is not Queen of ALL the Commonwealth monarchies, but only of her Commonwealth Realms. Tonga, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malaysia, and Brunei are also Commonwealth monarchies, but they have their own monarchs as head of state & their own native royal families.

[@lynnhauenstein4136]

Well for others besides historical OCD s folks, doubt anyone cares Commonwealth picky rules, even in commonwealth. Who is what. Well long before covid as problem, as an American even in 1990s, , well known no travel to Pakistan , Hong Kong, without VISA, aka special permission, but our northern cousins Canadians allowed. Now for me an American curiosity about World,, How do know who is in commonwealth. Besides Commonwealth Games.. If asked on game show...the countries who play Cricket, or Polo. Are part of Commonwealth, old Empire.

[@BillKing8888]

@@lynnhauenstein4136 I suppose that members of the Commonwealth care who their head of state is!

[@BillKing8888]

I thought of Lesotho too. Maybe he means there are no African monarchies which had the Queen as their head of state.

[@jameswilliams7026]

Well spotted

[@stephenmcbroom7443]

QUEEN ELIZABETH II A GREAT LADY!!!!

[@venkataraghotham7586]

I like this series of lectures

[@ba0cbmft]

Three hours a day of mandatory bureaucracy... Divinity or prison?

[@robertbeniston]

Around 10.50 I suppose there is no difference between a Scotland that has it's own parliament and independance and retains the monarchy and nations like Canada and Australia which also have their Independance and Monarchy except that physically Scotland is joined to England. History has produced the situation that exists now and not a different one. So if history continues and changes occur-so be it. Does it matter if Scotland functions as do Canada and Australia as an independant nation presumably in the commonwealth?

[@benedictcowell6547]

I have the conviction that the power of the monarchy should augmented by the reform of the powers of the privy council and to remove allbu four of the present administration, and that all but the prime minister should remain on the privy council and the supreme court should decide on the question of what is consistant with the conventions evolved for the protection of liberty and to prevent the conventions being exploited or manipulated as the present Tory Party does by flagrantly abusing the quintessential principles of parliamentary democracy.

[@lenwilkinson672]

The land wasn’t stolen,it has never belonged to anyone in the first place,It has been acquired by those who were lucky enough to get there first. Your comment is incorrect.

[@chrisw6704]

Again I was a frustrated by Professor Bogdanor (although I have to admit I haven't seen his Queen's 90th birthday lecture). I had hoped he would have discussed in more detail the constitutional difficulty the Queen had as both head of state and head of the Commonwealth, in particular the area he only touched on where the Conservative government 1979-90 was out of step with other Commonwealth countries in relation to South Africa. There was no discussion of the Queen's role as head of state of these independent country who had a very different view to her UK government. Nor did we have a discussion on being a distant head of state and any role she has in advising, warning and supporting her non-UK advisor. There was a complete absence of discussion about the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, which is not only a Commonwealth country but one whose head of state is HM. At the time there was speculation that there was a frosty relationship between the Queen and her UK PM. We do have available the recording of the subsequent telephone between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. There was no mention of the Queen's view on social unrest. I am thinking particularly of that during the Miners Strike of 1984/5 when there was leakage to the Sunday Times by the Queen's press secretary. In his lecture on George V Professor Bogdanor commented that the King was angry that Winston Churchill repeated a private conversation he had had with the King at a dinner party. Yet only a few months before this lecture we had a similar situation happen when the prime minister David Cameron spoke of the Queen 'purring' a the news that Scotland had voted to remain within the UK. As head of state and representative of the nation of all her official state visits I would say the most important one was to the Republic of Ireland in 2011. Given the difficult relationship between the UK and Ireland pior to and post independence, a period of around 30 years of 'Trouble' in the North and the only non-UK country with a border to our, this was a defining moment for a monarch above that of an elected president who would no doubt have had party political allegiances and history. The speech at the state dinner hosted by the president of Irish Republic given by the Queen admitted the failing of her governments in relation to Ireland - we have to remember that at that dinner the Prime Minister of the UK and First and Deputy Ministers of Northern Ireland were present. There was the symbolic visit to Croke Park and Peace Gardens.

[@chrisw6704]

Ps to my comment. I think Professor Bogdanor is factually wrong and misleading when he says the Conservative Party elect their prime ministers. They do not they elect their party leaders. The appointment of the prime minister is in the hands of the Queen, whilst this may seem to split hair if the Professor had thought back to 22 June 1995 John Major the prime minister resigned as leader of the Conservative Party whilst remaining prime minister. So we had a period between his resignation and re-election as party leader when he was PM without leading his party. He also fails to really give an account what happened in 1963. Harold Macmillan was ill in hospital with prostate trouble and he was convinced he was going to die, the Queen visited him in hospital and he resigned. She asked him for his advice on successors and he gave her two names on a paper. No doubt then soundings were taken, but the Queen did not appoint the prime minister solely by her own choosing, her prime minister had advised. When the Queen dies the cry will "The Queen is dead, long live the King" indicating that there is no break in the monarchy. Likewise we do not have periods without prime ministers. A prime minister stays in office whether they have won or lost an election until another is appointed. As Professor Bogdanor very briefly said Ted Heath tried in vain to form a coalition with the Liberal and had to move over for the minority government of Harold Wilson. But constitutionally more interesting was probably that which happened in 2010 where Gordon Brown (wrongfully castigated by the likes of the Sun and Daily) had to stay in office until the coalition of Conservative and LibDem agreed that they would form a government. What Professor Bogdanor fails to say and I remember it explicitly whilst HM stayed away, her Sir Christopher Geidt the private secretary to the Queen observed the discussions and no doubt was helpful in advising.

[@fumikobirks8195]

Professor Bogdanor makes light of a curious incompatibility in the Queen's position: monarch of the UK (plus several former, but not all, former dominions) and 'Head of the Commonwealth'. Some of the Commonwealth countries are effectively dictatorships frequently at odds with Britain. She remains 'head' of this disparate organisation but possesses no leadership function. The Commonwealth is held together not by the Queen's personality but largely by British taxpayers' money. At the same time she has exercised the power of a monarch by pressurising the assembled heads of the Commonwealth countries to accept Prince Charles as her successor as head of this organisation.

[@chrisw6704]

@@fumikobirks8195 You are totally right. I am not sure it was a wise decision to so blatantly pushing the Commonwealth into recognising Prince Charles as her successor as head when he becomes King. There was certainly friction between the monarch and Margaret Thatcher over South Africa where the Queen as head of State of a number of countries in the Commonwealth had to deal with them having very different views to Thatcher as did the Commonwealth in general. I have become less and less impressed with Bogdanor over time.

[@bilinguru]

He keeps his all his lectures to one hour with one unifying theme. The detail you desire would make that impossible. Great lecturers, of which he is undeniably one, instill a desire in those who hear them to learn more about the subject on their own. Sounds like he has done this for you. So, I’d say the “frustration” you feel, is in fact a thirst for greater knowledge he has instilled in you, and for which you ought to be grateful.

[@pippipster6767]

Off with their heads ...

[@alancassell566]

When the Queen dies in 2028..it will all fall to pieces..

[@alancassell566]

I woz wrong.. 2022..

[@chel3SEY]

He positively quivers with deference and submission to the Queen here. Quite pathetic.

[@theon9575]

She did once dismiss a democratically elected government in Australia without even consulting the then duly-elected Prime Minister of Australia. So much for her alleged support of Prime Ministers, Professor. And even now, almost 50 years later, she won't release relevant correspondence because there's nothing to hide 😂🤣👍🏻 And the proud idea of a "Commonwealth" is odd, anyway. It's was a fine sounding name when "empire" became unfashionable, but what wealth, exactly, is held in common by these former English colonies? Most of them were plundered of their wealth by her UK as invading colonialist power, as in India, South Africa, Burma etc., except for Australia where the original inhabitants were simply declared non-existent ('terra nullius" 😂) and the land was stolen in the name of her predecessor.

[@joelg83]

By convention, a prime minister can't keep office if he can't provide supply. That's convention and Gough couldn't do that.

[@EdMcF1]

Recent days have shown that the Queen is not apolitical, her disingenuous comments on the COP26 conference in Glasgow in November 2021 about going above politics have put her wholly in the political arena. She should be removed forthwith from the UK Crown.

[@Filip-ko8wl]

Hardly, the UK has long been commited to fighting climate change, the queen encouraging world leaders to unite and come to an agreement is not a political move

[@alphabetaomega265]

What exactly did she say?