THE QUEEN IN SCOTLAND
HER Majesty’s final act as the head of state was carried out at the Scottish home she loved, when she welcomed Liz Truss at Balmoral and officially asked her to form a new government.
It was the first time in the Queen’s reign the ancient ceremony known as “kissing hands” was carried out north of the Border.
A photo released showed the monarch smiling as she shook hands with her 15th Prime Minister in the drawing room of her Highland retreat.
The 96-year-old monarch was wearing a Balmoral tartan skirt and grey cardigan, while clutching a walking stick.
The Queen was well used to working with politicians in Scotland.
There were five first ministers of Scotland during Elizabeth’s reign but for her first 47 years on the throne, there was no such position.
Scotland was represented by a secretary of state in the
Westminster Government and the Scottish Office in Whitehall.
All this changed with devolution in 1999 when the Scottish Parliament, dissolved after the Act of Union in 1707, was reconvened in Edinburgh although initially it was called the Scottish Assembly.
Donald Dewar, the Scottish secretary of state in Tony Blair’s government, resigned his Westminster seat to stand for the new institution and was elected its first first minister in a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats.
When, in October 2000, Dewar died unexpectedly of a brain haemorrhage, HM did not attend his funeral in Glasgow Cathedral but sent a wreath and was represented by the then Prince of Wales.
Obviously there were no weekly Westminster-type chats between monarch and FM in Holyrood Palace but the Queen opened every new session of our Parliament and met each first minister not only when they initially took office but usually at the start of her annual summer week at Holyrood Palace.
First ministers are, according to the convention, nominated by the
elected members of the Scottish Parliament before being officially appointed to their position by the reigning monarch.
It is, of course, unthinkable that as a constitutional Queen, she or her successors would overrule the Parliament’s wishes.
Dewar was followed briefly by Labour’s Henry McLeish and
subsequently Jack McConnell, who occupied the office between November 2001 and May 2007.
In 2004, he was by the Queen’s side when she declared its permanent new home, across from Holyrood Palace, finally open.
When Labour lost the 2007 Scottish election, the SNP formed a minority government and their