Staying in Touch

The COVID 19 epidemic has hit the upper reaches of the British Political elite, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in quarantine after testing positive for the virus. Queen Elizabeth went into quarantine last week due to the spread of the virus, raising questions about her health. With both her son and heir Prince Charles and the Prime Minister testing positive there is concern for the Queen’s health since she met face to face with both of them prior to their diagnoses. Eyebrows were raised this week when the Queen and Johnson conducted their weekly audience by phone—not because of the personal distancing, but because of the age of the phone the Queen was using. For those doubting stories of the Queen’s legendary frugality her use of a telephone device that first came into service 61 years ago should be reassuring. It is a GPO model 706. This is in keeping with the way the Queen was portrayed in the movie The Queen. In that film, viewers may recall, there is a scene in Balmoral Castle in Scotland where the Queen and Prince Philip are seated in a den watching news of Princess Diana’s death on a television set that looked like it was at least 20 years old.