Gus O'Donnell Quotes

Lord Palmerston, John Henry Temple, had been the Foreign Minister. He had a style which like President George W. Bush, was perceived by foreign governments to be condescending and insulting. His policies were generally in line with the Prime Minister’s desires and the Queen’s but he was involved with one negative incident after another. England had sunk to it’s lowest public opinion assessment European had seen in years. The Queen was very distressed. Palmerstone a very senior and popular politician with a great deal of experience resented this young girl micromanaging his policies and statements. On several occasions he went ahead with a policy “forgetting” to clear it with the Queen in advance. To the degree the Queen had a political enemy, Palmerston was it. He controlled an important bloc of Prime Minister John Russell’s narrowly ruling party. When the Queen talked to the Prime Minister about firing the Foreign Secretary, Russell always pointed out that while there were ample grounds for firing, pragmatically he might not be able to hold a majority without the Foreign Secretary in the Cabinet. The Queen had great respect for Russell and did not wish the government to be in a crises so she repeatedly put up with Palmerston’s gaffs and insult. After a few years the political situation changed and Palmerston was no longer critical to the government and at his next incident the Prime Minister and the Queen agreed to terminate the Foreign Secretary. The quotation shows the Queen wanting the Prime minister to avoid embarrassing the man who had vexed her for several years. She was very “lady-like” and showed no interest in payback or vengeance. Many historians argue that if she were a male king, Palmerston would have been gone long before regardless of the cost as he had challenged the monarch. However, perhaps a female national leader does not have the instinct from the rutting male mammals that men seem to show when they deal with rivals. Palmerston was eased out of office with great praise and thanks from the Prime Minister and the Queen.

When Disraeli first entered politics and tried to run for Parliament the notion that he would ever become Prime Minister was very unrealistic to everyone except Disraeli. In addition to no political experience at the time, he came from a Jewish background at a time when anti-Semitism was very common and acceptable to England. Even if he were not inexperienced and Jewish, he was not part of the British aristocracy and was not socially connected. He also had no large business and industrial connections and no important family connections. However, he was a marvelous writer and speaker, a very fast learner, and turned out to be a political natural. Most historians rate him as one of the two or three greatest British Prime Ministers.

He was very concerned about a democracy in Ireland where he was concerned that Parliament would not behave responsibly and also did not have the technical or professional skills to manage a state.

He was reacting to President Donald Trump's demands of Personal Loyalty of his appointees. Trump was a businessman who ran provate (not public) corporations where it was not unusual for the owner to demand personal loyalty of all his key employees. He had not historical knowledge of experience with public service in America where, unlike campaigns, all officials take an oath of loalty to the Constitution and the nation and not to the President. Trump had fired the then FBI Director who was investigationg his campaign for illegal contacts with the Russians, which Trump regarded as an act of disloyalty, especially when the Director refused to pledge his loyalty to Trump.