FOR the big events, the Royal Household will often spend days preparing the Queen’s outfit.
Her wardrobe for the opening of the London Olympics in 2012 was months in the planning.
Despite the rushed and slightly subdued nature of yesterday’s State Opening of Parliament, much thought will undoubtedly have gone into what Her Majesty wore as she set out the Government legislative agenda, which was, unsurprisingly, dominated by Brexit.
So what to make of the blue hat with the yellow studs? Depending on how you looked, it could almost resemble the flag of the EU .
Certainly plenty of people watching thought exactly that.
“Queen delivers speech outlining Brexit plans wearing a hat that looks suspiciously like a EUROPEAN flag” bellowed the Daily Mail.
“Clearly the EU still inspires some in the UK” the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiatior Guy Verhofstadt tweeted.
“Loving the Queen’s EU bonnet....” said the Great British Bake Off’s Sue Perkins.
“Ridiculous of course to suggest that Elizabeth Saxe-Coburg-Gotha or her husband Prince Philip of Greece might in any way be pro European” Twitter user Otto English wrote.
Last year the Queen was accused of being a secret Brexiteer, with The Sun claiming she had told Nick Clegg that the EU was heading in the wrong direction.
A complaint by the Royals to the Independent Press Standards Organisation was upheld. At the time a Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The Queen remains politically neutral.”
Yesterday’s speech was the first time in 43 years that the Queen hasn’t worn the Imperial State Crown at the opening of Parliament.
At 91, she can be forgiven not wanting to wearing the neck-straining 2.5lb crown and its 2901 diamonds.
But the reason given by Buckingham Palace was not age, or because it might seem indecent in this era of austerity, nor was it because the Queen was heading straight off to Royal Ascot after delivering the gracious address written for her by Theresa May.
It was, the Royal Household said, all down the unexpected clash with last Saturday’s Trooping the Colour.
All the Queen’s horses and all the Queen’s men simply didn’t have enough time to master two tricky ceremonial events so close together.
So Her Majesty arrived in a car and much of the tradition and regular pageantry was quietly dropped.
The Imperial State Crown was still there, driven in a separate car, and then held aloft by a state official.
One other change from the traditional was Prince Charles acting as his mother’s consort.
Buckingham Palace said her husband, the 96-year-old Prince Philip was taken to hospital on Tuesday for “treatment of an infection arising from a pre-existing condition”.
The palace added that he was in “good spirits”.
The Duke of Edinburgh announced in May that he was to retire from royal duties this autumn. He was last seen with the Queen on Tuesday at the opening on Ascot.
Some tradition did survive though – the Government sent a whip to Buckingham Palace, where he was held hostage until the Queen returned from Parliament.
Another regular feature of the Queen’s speech is Dennis Skinner’s heckling of Black Rod, the official sent by the Queen to summon MPs.
“Get your skates on, the first race is half past two,” he shouted.
The last time the Queen’s Speech was quite so laid back was in March 1974 when Harold Wilson defeated Edward Heath in a snap election.
That was the first of two elections to be held that year.
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