The Queen has been accused of deliberately intervening in the Scottish independence referendum in September. In the days leading up to the poll, the Queen made a ‘gaffe’ by telling a member of the public she hoped ‘people will think very carefully about the future’, but there are now suggestions her actions were no accident.
Officially she was entirely neutral on the subject of independence but the comment suggested she supported the ‘No’ side. This was despite the Scottish Government saying that it would have retained the Queen if they became independent.
The claim that she was deliberate in her comments came from Alan Cochrane, Scottish editor of the The Telegraph. He described the incident as “completely deliberate and put-up job by the Palace” because police had broken with the usual rules and allowed a journalist to be within earshot of the Queen when she met the public.
He said: “My old pal Jim Lawson was the only reporter outside Crathie Kirk when the royal party came out, and, as usual, he and the photographers were corralled some way away from Her Majesty and the usual crowd of royalists who gather there every Sunday.
“But on this occasion, the police were told that the press – Jim and the snappers – could go over to where they could hear what was going on, and that’s how the story about the Queen’s remarks got out.
“It was a bit of a coup for the Palace and the Queen herself. There is absolutely no doubt that she did it deliberately; and knew exactly what the effect would be – it was the splash everywhere.”
Shortly after the Scottish voted by 55 to 45 percent to reject independence David Cameron was forced to apologise for exposing the Queen as having been strongly in favour of Scotland remaining in the UK.
He described himself as “extremely sorry and very embarrassed” after he was recorded suggesting to Michael Bloomberg the Queen “purred down the line” when he told her Scotland had voted no.
There was never really any serious suggestion that she was in favour of independence but she has prided herself on being politically neutral on everything. She was criticised for this when she signed the Lisbon Treaty into law, despite it being strongly opposed by the British people.