Liz Truss might rue a previous Conservative government’s ruling that the King had not just a right but a ‘duty’ to make his views known
Liz Truss is Britain’s third prime minister in just over three years. This degree of instability is the product of the modern Conservative party’s refusal to confess its mistakes and to correct them. Instead, the Tories appear obsessed with blaming opponents for their repeated failure to deliver on their promises. The death of Queen Elizabeth II is a chance for the prime minister to reset this attitude in a number of controversial and unresolved matters. The monarch’s passing – and the outpouring of affection for the late Queen – hints at a yearning for a more unifying public conversation. Ms Truss must also be aware that the evolving nature of monarchy, and the arrival of an opinionated King Charles III, sets the stage for possible public conflicts between ministers and the crown.
The first might come over Northern Ireland and Brexit. The King’s view that “no man is an island” in the run-up to Britain’s departure from the EU was interpreted as a rebuke to those who saw these islands’ destiny as independent from the continent. It was also widely remarked this week that the King seemed more at ease with Sinn Féin, which wants to remove Northern Ireland from his kingdom, than with the Democratic Unionist party, which is desperate to remain in it. This might be because of the rupture in the political settlement caused by the DUP’s boycott of the power-sharing pact following its rejection of the Northern Ireland protocol.
