Today was the State Opening of Parliament in the UK where the monarch announces the government’s legislative program for the coming session. Because the opening has been delayed while Theresa May attempted to find an agreement with the Northern Irish protestants, the usual pomp and circumstance was toned down. As part of this, the Queen did not wear robes and the crown but a very fetching almost floral print dress with a blue coat. Rather than the crown, she wore a blue hat to match the coat. This had flowers with yellow centers and looked very like the EU flag.
The speech and timetable are so paired down as to only really timetable legislation consequent on the Brexit decision. Some Tory commentators pointed out that the hat was in the colors used by the jockey on one of her favorite horses that was running at Royal Ascot. That would have been possible except she changed between the speech and Ascot where she wore a yellow hat. The “flag hat” went viral on Twitter.
One user on Twitter argued: "All her clothes are carefully considered with optics and message in mind. Absolutely not coincidental."
Another stated: "Can't be a coincidence. The Queen's too astute for that. She can always point out that it's true blue, with golden bits on hat for a crown."
This is not the first time the Queen has upstaged May in the past few weeks. She went to visit the victims of the Manchester bombing and the emergency and medical personnel who treated them. She went to a community center to visit victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and those helping them. She also held a minute’s silence at Buckingham palace for the Grenfell dead prior to her “birthday present” from the Army, the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony and issued this statement.
"Today is traditionally a day of celebration," she said. "This year, however, it is difficult to escape a very sombre national mood.
As a nation, we continue to reflect and pray for all those who have been directly affected by these events.
During recent visits in Manchester and London, I have been profoundly struck by the immediate inclination of people throughout the country to offer comfort and support to those in desperate need.
Put to the test, the United Kingdom has been resolute in the face of adversity. United in our sadness, we are equally determined, without fear or favour, to support all those rebuilding lives so horribly affected by injury and loss."
May’s reaction to both was late and inappropriate to the mood of the country, proposing more draconian laws when the overwhelming theme was “this should not change us”. This afternoon, she had to apologise in the Commons for the poor response to the fire.
Speaking in the House of Commons as MPs debate the Queen's Speech, the Prime Minister said there had been failures "local and national" in the hours immediately after the fire.
"Let me be absolutely clear: the support for the families on the ground in the initial hours was not good enough ", she said. "People were left without belongings,without roofs over their heads, without even basic information about what had happened, what they should do and where they should go to seek help
"That was a failure of the state, local and national, to help people when they needed it most. As Prime Minister, I apologise for that failure."
It may be interesting to note that the last time Elizabeth gave the Queen's Speech in “civvies” was after the February 1974 general election. That was called by the PM Edward Heath in the middle of a miners’ strike. It was supposed to resolve “who governs Britain?" but instead resulted in a hung parliament with no overall majority — the answer to Heath’s question was clearly “you don’t”. Heath’s minority government limped on until a new election in October that year which saw Heath defeated and Harold Wilson of Labour in charge. May went into the June 2017 general election asking for an increased majority to form a “strong and stable government”. This time the “you don’t” seems to be coming from the lady in the blue hat.