Tony Blair Remembers Telling The Queen To Convey Out After Diana’s Death

Before we left London we got to sit down with sir Tony Blair he's recently been knighted he served as Britain's prime minister for 10 years starting in 1997 and he said Not only was the queen wise and perceptive but she always had her finger on the pulse of her people and we started the conversation when I asked sir Tony about their final recent.

Meeting you just saw her majesty the queen a few months ago at lunch how did you find her well the extraordinary thing which is why I was I was surprised when she passed away I mean she was ungrateful you know she she was uh she had a problem with her leg so physically.

Um she was obviously frail and she's 96. but in in terms of how she was she was an amazing form she was warm and humorous and she she kept a very very keen and sharp eye on the country and how it was changing and what his people thought right up until the end for 10 years former Prime Minister.

Tony Blair had the rarest of access one-on-one weekly audiences with the queen meeting her alone hundreds of times what did you learn about her from that very rare Vantage Point people often asked me about the politics you know did what were her politics and I say to people I really don't know and then they will often take me aside.

Privately afterwards and saying no but really what we're at politics she was above it above politics when I was appointed prime minister I remember she said to me her first words to me my first prime minister was Winston and that was before you were born so she had this extraordinary grip on history did that put you in your.

Place as a young branch no I mean I I because it was so strange for me because as a little child and I remember standing in the street and waving my little flag as she as she drove by um yeah so it was a for someone in my generation she was all we'd know and we'd grown up with her and therefore when you would you know.

Suddenly her prime minister yes it's a pretty it's a pretty humbling moment what if anything surprised you about her once you got to really know her she was extraordinarily gracious in private and always you know exuded this this sympathy um this understanding that you know.

Whatever face you were putting on underneath there was a lot of turmoil and anguish as there are involved in these positions the queen herself faced such turmoil 25 years ago in the days after Princess Diana's death then a new prime minister Blair said to have helped persuade the queen to more fully embrace the public outpouring events even.

Dramatized in a Hollywood movie so what would you suggest prime minister some kind of a statement she was an exceptional and gifted human being was it difficult to to have be in that tricky position with the queen when you had just come in it was difficult but here's the thing I mean she for her she was trying to balance what she had to do.

As a queen what she had to do as a grandmother and she was acutely aware that she had two young children who had lost their mother in terrible circumstances and who were grieving and who needed to be looked after in the end she understood because always her Duty came first that she had to respond to this extraordinary.

Outpouring of grief about Princess Diana but grief and unlike her own passing now mixed with and maybe anger's too strong a word but but a sense that that something had happened that shouldn't have happened and that Diana had been taken from people who really did did love her she really.

Didn't need me to tell her she sensed it and then she responded and when she responded she responded perfectly she got the tone absolutely right you spent many many visits in her beloved Balmoral and people say that is where she was closest to being the regular person she perhaps one day wished or thought she could be it's the tradition that every.

Year the Prime M inister goes and spends a weekend in September at Balmoral with with the queen and with the family and my my first September was was then just shortly after Princess Diana died and the tradition is when you go out into the grounds and you have a barbecue that the.

Royal Family do everything right they leave the table they serve the food they do the washing up afterwards uh I mean I I was a you know still obviously a very new prime minister very nervous at being there and it was a completely surreal event where you know the queen was was serving me the food and I wasn't allowed to even go.

And get her get the plate remember going back to sitting in the in the room in balmora afterwards that was I can't believe what what just happened it must have been surreal that was when I realized it was uh extraordinary thing to be a prime minister you were there Saturday in the front row among six other former Prime Ministers what was it.

Like to say King Charles III formally Ascend to the Throne all of us have grown up only knowing the queen so a change of Monarch is is a huge thing for the country it sort of gives you a sense of of our for us at least our history um the long nature of our.

Country's identity and and traditions let's talk about King Charles what kind of Monarch do you think he will be I think he'll be a great moment I think that he he's a very caring person he was way ahead of his time he was talking about climate change when when most people didn't even know what the word meant so I think he's got.

All of that experience and yeah he he's he's watched his mother and he he knows he knows now he's in a different position in our country we have a phrase the president say the state of the union is strong the state of the monarchy under King Charles what would you say oh it's definitely strong there's always a.

Debate all the time that runs throughout any modern country with with a monarchy because in one sense it's a it's a complete anomaly in a in a world that's not very deferential that dislikes hierarchy that distrusts class that often frowns upon tradition but on the other hand I think this was the Queen's genius in a way was to combine that.

Tradition with being comfortable with the modern world this is part of our tradition we enjoyed the tradition you know we know what it does in terms of unifying our country and and you know I know I think the monarchy is strong and I think he will he will keep it.

Strong wow I missed her 10 years so you got to figure about roughly 500 or so one-on-one meetings with Queen Elizabeth you felt like you learned everything about the queen and then you hear that she actually served Tony Blair his meal and wouldn't let him touch a plate I.

Love hearing these stories about found world because apparently it was Prince Philip on the barbecue and if I wanted to guess like you didn't get up they were the hosts they did everything he said even the Queen Mother yeah that was Queen Elizabeth's mom she was help serving as well that was really insightful she's supposed to be very.

Very sharp former prime minister Gordon Brown said there was a time he went in there and some cabinet minister somebody had resigned he didn't know yet yeah but the queen did and he was totally mortified that she was more up on the news than he was it was also interesting to hear that she was above politics yeah yeah she didn't.

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