Random Jottings

Random Summer

Oh the sun is shining and has been for a few days now and it is warm and oh thank goodness. We have had so much rain and cold that I honestly thought the summer would never arrive.

I have been busy so apologies again for my lack of posting. I did mention that my blogging would be much more sporadic these days but this is a bit too sporadic so here I go.

Well, first of all with the summer comes tennis and cricket and you all know how much I love both.   Last week I went to Queen's Tennis with Felicity AKA the Other Grandma. I had to miss last year as my hip was disintegrating but now I have my new one it is ALL GO. We had good seats and the weather was wonderful and the grass was green and everyone at Queens is so welcoming and friendly. I love it.

We struck gold as that day we were there as Jack Draper, the new British No Uno was playing Carlos Alcaraz. Jack had just won his maiden ATP title the previous week and everyone was so happy for him. Nobody expected him to beat the Wimbledon and Queens Champion but we hoped he would do well. So when he won the first set and the crowd leapt to their feet and yelled (needless to say I was yelling louder than anybody else) we all assumed that he would end up losing in 3 sets. OK so he won and everyone went potty and it was all absolutely wonderful.  Next day he was beaten by Tommy Paul, the eventual winner this year, who is more used to grass play than Alcaraz, but it was just great to be there.

I love people watching and Queens is a great place for this - there were so many lovely summer dresses and outfits on display all flowery and floats and so elegant. There was a lack of the Hooray Henry types there this year, I daresay they were all in the gin tent, just lots of good tennis fans having a good time.

BUT there is always one/two and this one/two was sitting in front of us. This couple came in, both in their fifties/sixties at a guess. The lady was smartly dressed but wearing a brown outfit of trousers and top that did nothing for her, with dyed red hair and very brown eyebrows. The husband had a droopy moustache and he just drooped all over. I know I am sounding dreadfully caustic by the way.

First match on court. The lady opened her make up bag and proceeded to accentuate eyebrows, put on eye shadow and lipstick, none of which was necessary as she already had a lot of powder etc already applied. She then put it all away and pulled out her phone and started scrolling. She did this throughout the entire match and not once did she look up. I am afraid that all of us in the row behind her got an attack of the giggles when we caught each other's eye.  End of the match they went out.

Fast forward to the Draper/Alcaraz match and, once again, when it started out came the make up bag and then the phone. Totally oblivious to the fact that everyone around her was shrieking and screaming. She glanced up now and then and after the first set they got up and left never to be seen again.

I say, as I say each year when I witness this kind of behaviour, WHY? I know how much those seats cost so why bother?

A lovely lovely day though.

Drove home the next day and, natch, as I was on the North Circular, traffic was tedious and slow and when I was nearly home and wanted to turn on the road to Colchester, I spotted that two of those awful car carriers were in front of me and going at about 10 mph so I decided to hop off and go cross country. Found a winding B road and off I went. Got a bit lost but I knew I would hit a signpost soon and it was a simply gorgeous day and I did not really care. Found a way in the end.

While I was away I was having my bedroom decorated and came back to pristine white celing and paintwork and simply gawjus turquoise walls.   Peeps blinked when they saw the colour I had chosen but it looks wonderful and so pleased with it. Before I went to London I spent two days clearing the room and on my return spent two days putting it right.

I am, therefore, doing nothing this week but lolling and watching tennis on the tv and reading Regency romances.  Somebody recommended Mary Balogh to me and I simply love them. Have already got through about ten and plenty more to go.

I am in no mood for serious reading right now..

I hope you are all well and enjoying sun too.

 

Queen Victoria and her Prime Ministers - Anne Somerset

in 1964 Elizabeth Longford  published a biography of Queen Victoria which was the first warts and all story of her life. Lady Longford, who was fairly well connected,  was granted access to materials that others had not been privy to and the book made fascinating reading. I still have my copy on my shelf. I was fascinated by QV who came across as a feisty, opiniated, humerous, bad tempered, irritable woman. In other words, human. All biographies up to then had been extremely reverential.  

Since then I have more or less read every book written about her - her servants, the food she ate, her relations with her family spread across Europe, her marriage (the more I read about Albert the less I like him), and now we have a book about her prime ministers throughout her long reign written by Anne Somerset.

Queen Elizabeth II had fifteen prime ministers during her reign. Queen Victoria had fourteen.

The weekly meetings between Queen Elizabeth were one on one and during her long reign very little information regarding these discussions were leaked.   There was the odd newspaper article surmising which one she liked least or best but most of this was speculation and we never knew the Queen’s thoughts on her individual ministers.   The late Queen kept a daily diary but whether this will ever see the light of day is doubtful.

On the other hand Queen Victoria wrote copious diary and journal entries and she certainly did not hold back on her opinions, likes and dislikes of her ministers. This book makes fascinating and hugely entertaining reading as well as giving detailed and enlightening political backgrounds to each government tenure.

Her first Prime Minister after  ascending the throne at the age of 18 was Melbourne, a dashing, handsome and sophisticated man with whom it is widely agreed she fell in love. One courtier felt their relationship had something sexual about it, but after years of being supressed and under the influence of her mother and Conroy, the Comptroller and rumoured lover of the Duchess,  at Kensington Palace who made her life a misery, I think it was more likely that she just developed what we would now call a crush on him.  He was charming and used to dealing with women and it was inevitable that she would become somewhat obsessed with him. They spent hours together each day. The author makes the point that for all Melbourne’s worldly success there was an emotional void in his life which Victoria filled completely.   Charles Greville commented “I have no doubt he is passionately fond of her as he might be of a daughter if he had one, and the more because he is a man with capacity for loving without having anything in the world to love”

Inevitably, after her marriage to Albert, Melbourne was not so important to her as hitherto and years later when she read her old journals and her entries regarding Lord M, as she called him, she annotated the pages with the comment “I cannot forbear remarking what an artificial happiness mine was then and what a blessing it is I now have in my beloved husband real and solid  happiness which no politics or worldly reverses can change”

After her marriage Prince Albert tried to make sure that the Crown was above politics and Victoria should not show her partisanship.  The Bedchamber Crisis in which Victoria refused to changer her ladies in waiting forced Robert Peel to give up the idea of forming a government and bringing Lord M back into power.   A blatant misuse of sovereignty and one which Albert wanted to ensure did not happen again.

Robert Peel was her next Prime Minister and after her initial dislike of him, the Queen and the Prince Consort became close friends and she appreciated him as a man of integrity.

What is fascinating about this book is the blatant disregard the Queen and, yes Albert too, gave to non interference as their opinions on what the government should or should not do were made very clear, much to the exasperation of the Cabinet.   Both of them loathed Lord Palmerston who as Foreign Minister totally ignored anything they said and blithely went his own way.  He sounds a complete loose cannon but at the same time a hugely entertaining character.

Gladstone she did not get on with at all and the Queen said that he “spoke to her as if addressing a public meeting”

Disraeli flattered and enchanted her calling her the Faery an affectionate nickname in keeping with his allusions  to a Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was affectionate and reverential “but simultaneously contained the merest hint of mockery”.   After all it was he who said that with Royalty flattery should be laid on with a trowel.    As a way of ensuring that the Queen supported him and agreed with his policies it was a masterstroke though some of his colleagues sometimes felt he went too far.

After Albert’s death Victoria, though engulfed in grief, did not neglect her royal duties though the public perception was that she was the Widow of Windsor and spent her days in seclusion and mourning. In fact, it has always been clear to me that once free of Albert’s controlling yoke and feeling inferior to his superior intellect, she blossomed.   Her grasp of policy and her thoughts and comments show that she understood more than was assumed and, as the years went by, her vast knowledge, as with Queen Elizabeth II, were of great help to her various government ministers.

She interfered, she badgered, she cajoled and at times members of the House of Commons and the Cabinet were infuriated by her and this is why I love her. Sounds as if at times she drove them mad.

One thing which I observed  while reading this admirable book is that nothing changes. A coalition government in 1852 had cracks in it from the start as Lord John Russell held the position of Foreign Secretary on the understanding that Lord Clarendon would take over “whenever Lord John ought to be relieved from it”.  However, Lord John had other ideas and he had believed that Aberdeen, the then Prime Minister, would step down and make way for him and went into a terminal sulk when he failed to do so.

Shades of Blair and Brown….

At the time of writing we are in the throes of campaigning for a General election and it is clear from reading the current newspapers and listening to debates and discussions from all parties, that nothing has changed. The ins and outs, rivalries, back biting and double dealing shown by all concerned during Victoria’s reign, are mirrored today.  

It is a truly dispiriting thought…..