Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom: Encyclopedia II - Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom - Personality and image

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom - Personality and image

Elizabeth has never given press interviews, and her views on political issues are largely unknown except to those few heads of government who have private conversations with her. She is also regarded privately as an excellent mimic. Rather conservative in dress, she is well-known for her solid-colour overcoats and decorative hats, which allow her to be seen easily in a crowd. Although she attends many cultural events as part of her public role, in her private life Elizabeth is said to have little interest in culture or the arts. Her main leisure interests include horse racing, photography, and dogs, especially her Pembroke Welsh Corgis.

Elizabeth has given an annual Christmas Message to the Commonwealth every year apart from 1969 since she became Queen.

In diplomatic situations Elizabeth is extremely formal, and royal protocol is generally very strict. Though some of the traditional rules for dealing with the Monarch have been relaxed during her reign (bowing is no longer required, for example) other forms of close personal interaction, such as touching, are still discouraged by officials. At least two people are known to have broken this rule, the first being Paul Keating, Prime Minister of Australia, when he was photographed with his arm around the Queen in 1992 (and was afterwards dubbed the "Lizard of Oz" by the British media). The second was Louis Garneau, who did the same ten years later. [1] However the Queen took no offence at their actions, and Keating stayed as the Queen's guest in her private Balmoral home.

Her former prime ministers speak highly of her. Since becoming Queen, she spends an average of three hours every day "doing the boxes" — reading state papers sent to her from her various departments, embassies, and government offices.^[2] Having done so since 1952, she has seen more of public affairs from the inside than any other person, and is thus able to offer advice to Tony Blair based on things said to her by John Major, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, Harold Macmillan, Edward Heath, Winston Churchill and many other senior leaders. She takes her responsibilities in this regard seriously, once mentioning an "interesting telegram" from the Foreign Office to then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill, only to find that her prime minister had not bothered to read it when it came in his box.

Always a popular figure in the United Kingdom, not to mention other countries, opinion polls have almost always shown that she has an excellent approval rating, often higher than that of her elected Prime Ministers.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Personality and image", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki