I’ve been watching The Crown, which I think is excellent. In episode five of season three Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister, decided to devalue the pound. And bunch of aristocrats and plutocrats decided the sky’s falling and think it’s time for a coup. To this end they contact Lord Mountbatten, who has just been fired from his post as head of the British armed services, and ask him to lead (serve as a figurehead for) the coup. He decides it can succeed only if the Queen agrees to go along with it. Wilson gets wind of the plot and alerts the Queen. She summons Mountbatten.
This is their conversation, starting at roughly 43:05 into the episode:
LORD MOUNTBATTEN: Your Majesty.Notice this bit:
You asked to see me.
QUEEN ELIZABETH: I did.
MOUNTBATTEN: Well, great minds think alike.
As it happens, I was planning to drop by myself,
on a matter of great importance.
I'm getting a feeling that I've not had since Dieppe,
that I'm walking into a trap.
ELIZABETH: I'd like to think you had that sinking feeling on another occasion recently,
when going to see your friends at the Bank of England.
Is it even true?
MOUNTBATTEN: Yes, I did go to lunch at the Bank of England to meet and listen to people who are horrified by what's happening to the country.
A horror I hope you share.
ELIZABETH: Perhaps.
But conspiring with them is not the solution.
MOUNTBATTEN: It is the beginning of a solution.
Why are you doing this?
Why would you protect a man like Wilson?
ELIZABETH: I am protecting the Prime Minister.
I am protecting the constitution.
I am protecting democracy.
MOUNTBATTEN: But if the man at the heart of that democracy threatens to destroy it, are we supposed to just stand by and do nothing?
ELIZABETH: Yes.
Doing nothing is exactly what we do,
and bide our time,
and wait for the people that voted him in to vote him out again, if indeed that is what they decide to do.
MOUNTBATTEN: Mm-hmm. [CLEARS THROAT.]
ELIZABETH: I'm sure you find it near impossible to do nothing and to not have the role and responsibilities you've always had.
You were born to be busy and to lead.
But you still have a huge role to play in this family.
A father figure to my husband.
An uncle and a guide to me.
A king to make in Charles,
not to mention a brother to your sister.
When was the last time you even visited her?
Cheered her up?
That would be a greater service to the Crown than leading unconstitutional coups.
ELIZABETH: Perhaps.
But conspiring with them is not the solution.
MOUNTBATTEN: It is the beginning of a solution.
Why are you doing this?
Why would you protect a man like Wilson?
ELIZABETH: I am protecting the Prime Minister.
I am protecting the constitution.
I am protecting democracy.
Mountbatten refers to Wilson specifically, but Elizabeth replies in terms, not of the man, but of his position in the government; and she refers to the constitution and to democracy.
That’s a small matter, but it quite explicitly makes the distinction between an individual human and the post that individual happens to occupy within the state. That’s a distinction that, in America, Donald Trump has trampled to the ground.
* * * * *
See my earlier post, Trump, Gibbs & NCIS, and the Queen @3QD.
I obtained a transcription of this episode from Springfield! Springfield!, https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=the-crown-2016&episode=s03e05.
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