2nd January 2005
THE Queen's shocking breach of neutrality in her Christmas message would, in any normal week, have led to a major scandal. It still should.
Just like the BBC, Buckingham Palace seems to think that staying clear of open support for a political party is all that is needed to avoid bias.
But now that the three big parties agree about almost everything, leaving millions with no voice in Parliament, there are many deeply divisive issues that the Monarch should stay out of if she wants to be above politics.
Her claim that diversity is 'a strength and not a threat' is an endorsement of multiculturalism rather than full integration. This is a controversial project which a growing number of reasonable people reject. It is her most explicit public statement since her equally unwise endorsement of the Government's surrender to the IRA in 1998.
Personally, I should be delighted if the Queen did come off the fence openly and oppose the European Union, Anthony Blair's destruction of Parliament and the dismantling of the Armed Forces. But she doesn't, though some interpretations of her constitutional position suggest she should.
We are told that she is above politics.
I fear it is the other way round. Rightly fearing abolition by New Labour, she seeks to appease them. It won't work.
They will get rid of the Crown as soon as they think they can get away with it.