YahooNews surfaced a Saturday story from The Telegraph titled “Liz Truss knew before she stood up in the Commons that Queen Elizabeth was gravely ill.” After some preliminaries,
Ms Truss was first informed of the state of the Queen’s health early on Thursday morning, when Simon Case, Cabinet Secretary, interrupted a meeting to break the news. In Balmoral, concerned aides to the Queen had also raised the alarm with those around Prince Charles. The monarch’s burgundy-liveried helicopter was dispatched from Windsor at 6.48am to collect the heir to the throne from Dumfries House in Ayrshire. Charles arrived at Balmoral by 10.30am.
[…]
By the time Ms Truss’s convoy swept into Parliament from Downing Street 20 minutes later, at 10.50am, Mr Case was already beginning to ratchet the Downing Street and wider Whitehall machine into action. It wasn’t just the Prime Minister who was new to her role – Ms Truss had begun her first day in No 10 on Tuesday with a clear-out of staff and her new crop of aides were only beginning the process of settling into their new roles.
Helpfully, Mr Case, as a former private secretary to Prince William, is steeped in royal protocol, as well as the mechanics of Whitehall. The civil service machine showed how “incredibly effective” it can be at times like this, said one member of staff.
Ms Truss was in her Commons office, yards from the Commons chamber, making the final preparations for her statement, when she was informed that the Queen’s death was believed to be “imminent”.
The news was greeted with “shock, immense sadness and incredulity”, said one source.
The sequence of events helps to account for the sombre expression on Ms Truss’s face as she entered the chamber shortly before 11.40am, when she exchanged brief words with Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Commons Speaker, before making her way to her place on the front bench. It also explains why Mr Zahawi’s later intervention did not cause visible shock or surprise.
[…]
A quarter of an hour later, a statement from Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen’s doctors were “concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision”. The statement added: “The Queen remains comfortable.”
Ms Truss reconvened her staff to finalise a second speech that afternoon – a response to the unfathomable loss of the monarch with whom she had expected to attend weekly audiences as Prime Minister.
At 4.30pm she was in the Prime Minister’s flat above No 11 Downing Street when a telephone call came through from the Palace. It fell to Mr Case to pass on the message: the Queen had died. The forewarnings earlier in the day did little to diminish the magnitude of the news.
The following day, Ms Truss was escorted through Buckingham Palace for her first audience with the new King. Following an initial curtsy, the Prime Minister offered her “very, very sincere condolences” and the new monarch described how his mother’s death was, “The moment I’d been dreading – as I know a lot of people have.”
Now, an aide suggested, the Prime Minister will turn to the task of helping to “guide the country through this extraordinary period over the next 10 days and beyond”.
The Queen was a world-historic figure, serving as the symbol of her country and the Commonwealth for seven decades. So, obviously, a lot of people are saddened by her passing. And, surely, having to lead the country through this period of mourning a day after being sworn in as Prime Minister is a tremendous task. I have no wish to diminish any of that.
Still, while I understand the event inspiring “immense sadness,” surely “shock” and “incredulity” were not warranted at the death of a 96-year-old who has been ill for years? Her passing was inevitable, not “unfathomable.”
Major newspapers have obituaries of noteworthy figures prepared when they hit a certain age. Famously, the authors of some of these obituaries have predeceased their subjects. Surely, the vast apparatuses of the British civil service and royal household have been planning QEII’s passage for years, if not decades. Having done otherwise would be malfeasance.
Indeed, I would be shocked and incredulous if Whitehall didn’t have a speech ready for the last several PMs for this occasion, with only minor editing necessary to accommodate precise circumstances of the passing and the styles of the occupant.
