Coronavirus: Number 10 plays its trump card: The Queen

Queen Elizabeth will take on a frontline role as champion of the UK’s lockdown when she speaks to the nation in a rare address early on Monday.

The British monarch Queen Elizabeth will take on a frontline role as champion of the government’s lockdown policies when she speaks to the nation in a rare special address on Monday (AEST).

She will call on Britons to “take pride” in how they have responded to the coronavirus emergency and to prove that the attributes of “self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country”.

In the address, at 5am on Monday (AEST), Queen Elizabeth will also urge people to consider how future generations will look back and admire the response of Britons “of this generation” for being “as strong as any”.

The government has encouraged the Queen to speak now for fear that Britons may otherwise begin to lose heart over lockdown restrictions as the weather turns warmer. One government source said on Saturday that ministers regarded the 93-year-old monarch as their “trump card” in persuading wavering citizens to stick to government guidelines.

People take their daily exercise in a deserted Greenwich Park in south London. Picture; AFP.

“We can’t stress enough that if we ignore the guidelines, the risk of infecting someone is high and lives will be lost,” the source added. “We are at the absolutely crucial time. We can’t afford to give up now.”

Downing Street has also welcomed the address as a much-needed national morale boost. “We have asked the country to make huge sacrifices and life is very difficult at the moment for a great many people,” a senior official said. “Hearing from Her Majesty the Queen at this time is an important way of helping to lift the nation’s spirits.”

It will be only the fourth time that the Queen has delivered a special address in her 68-year reign. She recorded the four-minute message in the White Drawing Room of Windsor Castle, where she is self-isolating with Prince Philip, 98.

Special measures were taken on the advice of the Queen’s doctors to minimise the risk of infection. Only one BBC cameraman, wearing protective gear, was allowed into the state room during filming; the rest of the crew remained in another room, following the proceedings via speakers.

The Queen, who remains in good health, will tell an expected audience of millions that she is speaking at “an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our country; a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all”.

She will thank National Health Service workers and express condolences to the families of victims. She is expected to refer to past periods of national anguish, including the Second World War, and will tell viewers and listeners: “I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say that the Britons of this generation were as strong as any.”

The last time the Queen delivered an unscheduled national address was on the eve of the funeral of her mother, Queen Elizabeth, who died aged 101 in March 2002. Before that she spoke after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, and expressed pride in Britain’s armed forces during the Gulf War in 1991.

Royal sources said the message was “very much written by the Queen herself”, working with her private secretary, Edward Young, and in consultation with Downing Street. On Friday the Queen, who will celebrate her 94th birthday later this month, held her first “virtual” Privy Council meeting via video link.

A senior Number 10 official said the Queen and her prime minister, Boris Johnson, had been “speaking regularly” by telephone, while officials from both Buckingham Palace and Downing Street had discussed the address. “The Queen is the best judge of when to talk to the country and we absolutely agree that now is the right time,” the official said.

In a written message last month, the Queen declared that “my family and I stand ready to play our part” during the crisis. Prince Charles, 71, has recovered after testing positive for COVID-19. On Friday, he opened the NHS’s new Nightingale hospital in east London via video link from Birkhall, his home in Scotland.

Sunday is expected to be the Duchess of Cornwall’s final day in quarantine, and it is thought she will rejoin the royal family’s efforts to keep up morale this week. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have also spoken by phone to several NHS workers, among them colleagues of Amged El-Hawrani, the ear, nose and throat specialist who died in hospital in Leicester last month after contracting the disease from his patients. He was the first frontline NHS staff member to lose his life to COVID-19.

The message will be broadcast at 8pm BST on television, radio and the royal family’s social media platforms.

The Times