London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Queen remains ‘very much in charge’ even as Charles makes speech

Analysis: Despite watching from home on TV, constitutionally the monarch was still calling the shots

A Queen’s speech without a queen; two future kings and a queen consort in waiting; the state opening of parliament was the most public and formal manifestation yet of “Operation Transition”, which has been quietly going on inside Buckingham Palace for several years.

For the first time in two centuries, an heir to the throne read aloud the words compiled by the government at this most ceremonial of spectacles.

The crucial difference between George IV, standing in for his mentally incapacitated father George III , and Prince Charles, seated not on the sovereign’s throne but on the consort’s throne once used by his father Prince Philip, is that the latter is not a formal regent.

Charles, in Admiral of the Fleet uniform rather than the robes of state, the imperial state crown representative of sovereign placed on a table in front of where the Queen’s throne would have been, was there as a counsellor of state.

Flanked by the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke of Cambridge, he was instructed by his mother through Letters Patent, to perform this role and for this day only. The Queen, meanwhile, was understood to be watching on TV from Windsor Castle.

But we do not, according to the constitutional expert Prof Vernon Bogdanor, have a “de facto regency”.

“A regency requires three out of five dignitaries, the Prince of Wales, the lord chancellor, the Speaker of the Commons, the lord chief justice and the master of the rolls, to certify that the Queen is permanently – permanently – incapable of carrying out her duties. That judgment would no doubt be made on doctor’s advice. There is no evidence that this is the case,” said Bogdanor, professor of government at King’s College, London and author of The Monarchy and the Constitution.

“The criterion is objective. The Queen cannot simply say: ‘I cannot carry out my duties.’ A voluntary decision she could in theory take is abdication.” But this, he said, was unlikely given her pledge to the nation in 1947.

Said by Buckingham Palace to experience “episodic mobility issues”, the Queen has cancelled many engagements over several months. With such uncertainty surrounding her physical capabilities, decisions are now being made on a day-to-day basis.

The Letters Patent, issued under section 6(1) of the Regency Act 1937, are a useful instrument in such circumstances, allowing her to entrust counsellors of state to deputise as and when.

“The counsellors of state, unlike the regent, have no decision-making powers; in particular they cannot act on any matter on which the sovereign has the right to question government policy or to make suggestions about it. This is symbolised by the fact they can never act singly,” said Bogdanor.

There are currently four: Charles, William, Harry and Andrew. The latter two are clearly problematic at present. And there are certain core constitutional functions that, unless there is a regency, cannot be delegated; such as giving royal assent to legislation, appointing a prime minister, the weekly meeting with the PM and appointing and dismissing governor generals.

Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Prince William at the state opening of parliament on Tuesday.


The presence of William, attending his first state opening also as a counsellor of state, and Camilla, will be seen as by Buckingham Palace as demonstrating the crown is in safe hands as the Queen progressively withdraws from public life.

“She is very much in charge. Charles is deputising for her as he has done before,” said royal historian and author Robert Lacey. “We are very far from regency. That implies a surrender of authority, which just isn’t in her nature. She was born and grew up at the knee of the founder of the house of Windsor. She saw this system being created and she understood it instinctively when she called George V ‘Grandpa England’”.

William’s presence was “significant”, Lacey said, in demonstrating continuity.

The Sussexes’ decision to decamp to the US had resulted in Charles and William becoming closer than ever, he said. The Covid pandemic, too, may have made this transition easier. The Queen, who once said she has to be seen to be believed, may be spending most of her time at Windsor Castle, but has mastered the video technology to ensure she is still seen carrying out virtual engagements.

“So two possible disasters, the split between the brothers and the pandemic, actually work to the advantage of the new system in the future, bringing Charles and William together more as a team and giving the Queen a way to be seen that didn’t exist before,” Lacey added.

On the two previous occasions the Queen has missed state openings,in 1959 and 1963 due to pregnancy, the lord chancellor had read the government-drafted speech, as was the case when Queen Victoria did not attend. If that had been the case today, it would have meant Dominic Raab performing the duty.

But the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 altered the role of lord chancellor, downgrading it from a position incorporating the role of Lord Speaker.

“The current lord chancellor is in the Commons. An alternative might have been the Lord Speaker of the Lords, Lord McFall. But the Prince of Wales gives the right degree of symbolism and pageantry to the occasion in my view,” said Bogdanor. “Today was a constitutional innovation. But any solution would have been a constitutional innovation.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
×