\nthe summer or early autumn of 1986 I was commissioned by the NY Times <\/i>– Magazine, I think I remember
\n– to write a piece on the queen and her then prime minister, who was Margaret
\nThatcher. There had been some trivial business about the two of them wearing
\nthe same dress, and this led to a piece in the (British) Sunday Times<\/i> saying there was some tension between the two 60
\nyear-olds. The tiff has been dredged up for the Jubilee and you can read a
\nsummary of it at http:\/\/www.thesundaytimes.co.uk\/sto\/Magazine\/Interviews\/article1041265.ece<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span> <\/p>\n On making enquiries among friends, I The Here I But <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s my contribution to the Jubilee. In the summer or early autumn of 1986 I was commissioned by the NY Times – Magazine, I think I remember – to write a piece on the queen and her then prime minister, who was Margaret Thatcher. There had been some trivial business about the two of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-c3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.dailyexpress.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/10\/285x214\/143320_1.jpg?resize=285%2C214\")
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
\ndiscovered that there was some truth in the story that the queen had a down on
\nMrs T, and that the Iron Lady was miffed herself. My sources were impeccable.
\nOne of them was a cabinet minister, the Rt. Hon. John Biffen (who later became
\nLord Biffen and a personal friend, though I did not know him then). John Biffen
\nwas only the highest-placed of the several sources I had for the story that the
\nqueen and the PM were not seeing eye-to-eye over foreign policy.<\/span><\/p>\n
\ncrux of the matter was economic sanctions on the South African government. The Commonwealth,
\nwhich represented what was left of the British Empire, was pressing hard for
\nthe UK to put in place sanctions against the South African apartheid regime.
\nThe queen, I was told, felt strongly that Britain should not only back the
\nCommonwealth nations in this, but even give the lead. Maggie didn’t give a toss about the Commonwealth.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nshe came up against the hard face of the monarchy: it is my<\/i> Commonwealth, said the queen. We shall do what is required. And
\nshe meant it.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nduly wrote this up for the NY Times<\/i>,
\nand explained the significance of what was nothing less than a constitutional
\nclash. Moreover, I think I remember that I was even allowed to identify some of
\nmy sources. It was a dynamite story.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nit was not published – “spiked” as we used to say. The reason: one of the NY Times<\/i> editors had a flat in London,
\nwhere he often stayed. He swanked about his inside knowledge of Britain and
\nBritish politics, and this just didn’t strike a chord with him. He couldn’t see
\nan argument over the Commonwealth as being even mildly interesting, let alone
\nof sovereign-shaking importance. That it was true, a scoop for the NY Times<\/i> and the first-ever indication
\nof the queen having a controversial opinion about anything not to do with race
\nhorses just didn’t float his boat. So I was paid a $300 kill-fee instead of the
\n$3,000 contract-fee. And readers of the NY
\nTimes<\/i> missed out on this story, not because it wasn’t fit to print, but
\nbecause it didn’t fit an editor’s prejudices.<\/span><\/p>\n