The Royals with Roya and Kate - Monarchs, Prime Ministers and inside Balmoral

Episode Date: July 5, 2024

"I have just returned from Buckingham Palace, where I accepted an invitation from His Majesty the King to form the next government of this great nation" said Sir Keir Starmer, but what exactly is the relationship between monarch and Prime Minister? Plus, Roya returns from Scotland with revelations about royal life inside Balmoral Castle. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you are king, Roya, or queen, Kate, or queen, Roya, then you have a crown, a scepter, and an orb, a throne, a palace, and a government, His Majesty's government. But if you're prime minister, what do you get? A handshake from the king, and if you're lucky, a cup of tea. Not even a fanfare, Kate. I'm afraid not, Roya. I have just returned from Buckingham Palace where I accepted an invitation from his majesty the king to form the next government of this great nation. This week an eyewitness account of what really happened when Sir Keir Starmer met King Charles. You're making this up. Well we have a photo and we can ask the question always asked when the king asks the party leader to form a government.

What did they talk about when Sir Keir met King Charles? Or should it be when the king met Sir Keir? Does it matter? Does the relationship between the prime minister and monarch change the mood of Westminster? The mood of the age? How should we start this off, Cade? So, it's been another day in which the royal family is at the heart of the news story. The king hasn't even been king for two years and he's welcomed his third prime

minister to the to the palace today. It's quite something. It is quite something. I remember his meeting audience with Liz Truss. Classic quote. It was a classic Charles moment, wasn't it? Because we got the first few seconds of that on a video. And he said, oh, back again. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. She'd only been invited to form a government by his late mother just seven weeks beforehand. This is now his third prime minister, his first Labour one. How many did his mother have? 15? Was it 15? Oh, he's racking them up, isn't he? He is racking them up already.

Like you say, less than two years. But it shows his kind of constitutional role, doesn't it? That they had prepared for Sunak to go in at 11 o'clock. He went in, he was invited to take his children and his spouse, which is a kind of gesture of goodwill to the outgoing prime minister. Then an hour later, we had Keir Starmer, who arrived two minutes before his 12 o'clock appointment, and he was allowed to bring his spouse, but it's just a plus one for that one. I thought that was quite interesting, because they're not invited to bring their

children, the incoming prime minister, it's more kind of business, strictly business. But what did you make of Sir Clive? Sir Clive. Accepted, you know, welcoming. The king's private secretary. Welcoming the new prime minister at the king's door of the palace, along with the king's equerry. He's very present, isn't he? And we talked about Sir Clive last week, didn't we? We did. And why was that? The interesting seating plan at the state banquet where he'd put himself not next to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, but next to Sir Keir Starmer. And we thought...

Whether he had... He got one eye on the future, Sir Clive. Or cosying up, I think he's like... He might claim that that's just how the seating plan fell. Just how it fell. But there was a very warm kind of hand clasp. It was a sort of a shake. And then he went in for the kissing of hands, which is what it's called, that kind of traditional

moment when they're invited to form a government and, you know, they duly accept and then can go back to Downing Street to deliver their address to the nation. And it's always the first thing they say, isn't it? So the first thing Rishi Sunak said was, I'm about to go to the palace to give my resignation. When the new prime minister comes in, the first thing they say is, I've just been to the palace. And the palace is at the heart of the whole thing. You know, we've seen these prime ministers come and go in quite quick succession over the last few years. But then you've got Charles playing his constitutional role with the kissing of hands,

although they don't kiss the monarch's hand anymore. It's more of a handshake. But what, is it still important? I mean, is it still, do you think it's still... That relationship. Not just the relationship, but does that kind of ceremony at the palace mean something for Britain? I mean, what does it portray? Well, it's the sort of, it's the kind of mechanism, isn't it? He's not officially prime minister until he's been in to see the king and kissed hands and, you know, comes away.

I suppose it's the ceremonial rubber stamping of his premiership. So, yes, I think it is important. But that relationship is eternally fascinating, I think, between monarch and prime minister. And when you look back at, I was, to come and talk to you today, Kate, I looked back at a piece I did on another publication, we won't mention the name of that publication, Kate, A Life Before the Sunday Times. No such thing. No such thing. And it was when Peter Morgan had written the play, The Audience, with Helen Mirren, Dame Helen Mirren, starring as the Queen. It was a huge hit.

It was. And he'd also written that film, The Queen, starring Dame Helen Mirren as the Queen. And I interviewed him. I was covering the arts, and asked him about this because it was going to portray every prime minister the Queen had had at that point from Winston Churchill through to David Cameron. So I think it was 13 at the time, quite a few prime ministers. And of course, that relationship is supposed to be, you know, many things, but we're never supposed to know anything about that relationship, really, because no one is ever supposed to talk about the audiences. And so I assumed Peter Morgan, in the same way with Netflix and The Crown, that it's all fictionalised. I assumed he would have completely made up all the conversations because no one would have breathed a word. And he said, actually, I've had some help from some of the prime ministers.

I have had help from a few of them. And he wouldn't say which ones. But it was done with, I think, tacit agreement from Bucky and Pallis. But he said, what you will find when you go and watch this play, and it was interesting, was you will get a much deeper understanding of some of the relationships I think people were puzzled about beyond. For instance, he talked about, you know, a lot of people looked at John Major when Diana died and thought, how come he's been made guardian to William and Harry? He had this very special role as trustee and guardian. And in the audience during the course of that play,

you got to understand much more about the role he played in being marriage counsellor to Charles and Diana and actually shuttling between St James's Palace and Kensington Palace and trying to help to save that marriage, which ultimately he failed to do because he announced their separation in 1992 in the House of Commons. But he won that marriage, which ultimately he failed to do because he announced their separation in 1992 in the House of Commons. But he won that trust, didn't he, from the late Queen? She was very fond of him. She was. And he talked about why that relationship between the

Queen and John Major became so sort of close and special. And there was a brilliant quote that Peter Morgan said, and it got me thinking about the roles beyond the roles we really know that the prime minister's played with the royal family. He said, John Major, I think, found the factionalism between St. James's Palace and Kensington Palace at the time, so you're talking about Charles and Dana, is almost more difficult to deal with in the conflict in Bosnia that he was also dealing with. It was that level of involvement. conflict in Bosnia that he was also dealing with. It was that level of involvement. And actually, we sort of step back now and you think, God, I mean, Keir Starmer would never have to deal with anything like that now. But you know, prime ministers and the royal family and monarchs have had very different kinds of relationships sort of through the ages. Well, they talk about, you know, the late queen, particularly that she wasn't allowed to kind of

guide them on their policy or anything like that, but that she was there to kind of offer advice. And Tony Blair, I remember in his memoir, said something like that the Queen had, when he first went into, you know, when he won that landslide election, the last big Labour win in 1997, and he went in and she said, you're my 10th prime minister. My first was Winston. As in Winston Churchill. And you weren't born. And that's exactly what she said. And you weren't born. And that's exactly what she said.

And you weren't born then. How to put someone in their place. I think those resignation moments like Sunak had today are just as interesting or kind of important as well. I mean, I think we saw, you know, the most, probably the most important speech of Sunak's political career when he resigned today at Downing Street and then went to see the king but I remember Gordon Brown saying that when he went to resign to the late queen she gave him a kind of keepsake which was this kind of signed photograph of herself and she had invited him to bring his wife and two boys with him yeah and she handed them the picture and the little the youngest boy who was only four said

oh that's the queen and the queen said sort of slightly baffled said well I'm the queen I'm the queen and I thought that was just a quite an interesting kind of anecdote to show that distinction between the icon and the person and this child and probably a lot of people can't differentiate between the icon and the person and that kind of that dual role that certainly we saw quite a lot with the late queen because she was this iconic figure but the king now stepping into his mother's shoes to do these kind of huge matters of state and everybody's sort of acknowledging that this is all that this is still part of the ceremony of our democracy.

Yeah. And that it's, like you say, it's a rubber stamping of it all. I mean, there's a thing here from Theresa May, her reflecting on her audiences. These were not audiences, she said, with a high and mighty monarch, but a conversation with a woman of experience and knowledge and immense wisdom. They were always the one meeting I went to,

which I knew would not be briefed out to the media. And I think that's, it's quite sad, isn't it? That everyone was sort of, they're all kind of fighting amongst each other and leaking and, you know, doing the dirty on each other in Westminster. But she knew that she could go to the Queen and tell her what was going on, confide in her in a way.

Like a confessional. I don't know if we should put the monarchs on that kind of level of godly status. I think as well, even though... But it was that vault. Yeah. You could go into the vault and it wouldn't come back out again. Which doesn't happen in Westminster, the leakiest place on the planet. Absolutely.

But all prime ministers, I mean, Edward Heath said something similar. He said, it was always a relief to be able to discuss everything with someone, knowing full well there was not the slightest danger of any information leaking. I could confide in Her Majesty, absolutely. And no prime minister can say that about their cabinet because they can't. And actually, just thinking today, watching Rishi Sunak go, come and go for the last time to the palace, although his

time has been relatively short, although not as short as Liz Truss, 49 days. Colettus lasted longer, didn't it? He has been prime minister to the king during a very formative time in the king's life. You know, at a time when the king was mourning the death of his mother, change of reign, adapting to the new role of king, his cancer diagnosis, his coronation. I mean, it's been quite a jam-packed two years that that relationship has developed. What a time to be a prime minister, really, with that transition period. But I do think this is something that we said right at the start when we started doing the

podcast, which was that our beat covers so many other areas and that today we're political journalists in a way. We're covering this transition of power within Westminster, you know, rather than within the palace. And that you can, this is a beat that allows you a kind of window into all sorts of other areas, you know, whether it's football and the Euros or the Olympics or whatever it may be. And this is the kind of political area but i did feel quite jealous of our uh colleagues in the lobby because they get a whole new set of people to write about whereas we are talking about the oldies we don't get that much with the king and queen so i think our job is harder is what I'm trying to say. And, you know, very important. Yes.

Interesting. Because it touches all these other areas. Yes. And of course, the king, the queen, the members of the royal family can technically vote, but they don't. By convention, they don't vote because they have to be above politics. And so that's interesting.

I've always sort of thought, it's quite interesting that they can't exercise our fundamental right in this country to vote you know they've never been to a ballot box they don't you know but yet the king is sort of you know talking to the prime minister and the leader of the opposition all the time about you know he's hearing about policy he's looking through his red boxes every single day but he can't technically ever vote he can't vote for change in the way people have for Keir Starmer. It's interesting.

But who would the king vote for if he had the chance to vote? Green. I think he would be a lefty. Green, green, green. Definitely be a lefty. Do you? Yes. You could be a lefty.

Yeah. You think the king is a lefty? Yeah. Okay. In terms of the eco, you know, a lot of the eco, like you say, green. I wonder how this bit's going to go down at the Palace. I think they'll be quite thrilled with a new reign. I think it's interesting that Sir Clive...

A new reign at Downing Street. Yeah, at Downing Street during their current reign. The other new reign. And there was no reign. I saw Sir Clive kind of look to the heavens as he accepted, greeted Keir Starmer into the palace today and they sort of be oh and it's sunny it was interesting I think the warmth of that greeting was was was telling and of course that relationship is going to be quite important

this is some something interesting from the crib notes is that Harold Macmillan noted in his diary that at his first audience he he had warned the Queen, half in joke, half in earnest, that I could not answer for the new government lasting more than six weeks. She smilingly reminded me of this at an audience six years later, and Macmillan found that the Queen was a great support because she is the one person you can talk to. She had that great habit of if there was an awkward moment as well she'd sort of just start feeding biscuits to the corgis and to corgis yeah deflect any kind of corgis they got corgis into that play the audience i remember i remember going to watch it and i

i went to opening night and i sat behind david milliband and it was really interesting and he laughed the whole way through but i was when i was looking back at that interview there was a there was another line from peter morgan which really struck me that he'd said about the Queen, which gave you an idea of just the span of her reign and the span of her knowledge and wisdom that she brought to all those audiences. And he said, she starts off as a granddaughter, metaphorically to Churchill, then becomes a daughter to Macmillan and Douglas Hume, then a wife, metaphorically, to Wilson, Heath and Callaghan, an aunt to John Major, a mother certainly to Blair and Brown, and finally a grandmother to Cameron. And I just, that really struck me because actually, you know, she would have sort of

held all of those roles slightly in her relationships with those prime ministers. And although we haven't got onto Margaret margaret thatcher which i thought was interesting because there was always so much speculation around how those two women got along or didn't get along well they did get along quite well because the queen went to margaret thatcher's 80th birthday party she did absolutely there was a lot of mutual respect there but there was always a sort of i think the media wanted to make quite a lot the fact that you know Margaret Thatcher being a strong woman the queen being a very strong woman didn't get on quite different characters though I think because Thatcher had no interest in putting on wellies and going off shooting at Balmoral and things like that so they didn't bond on that kind of level but

I think definitely there was a huge amount of respect but also the the prime minister of the day could go to the queen with a dilemma and she'd seen it all before so she oh this reminds me of you know when Churchill came to me or when Macmillan came or whatever and she had that kind of longevity of experience that you don't even have in politics at that level because you're in politics you're at the top you're in the heart of it and then you're booted out whereas the queen had that kind of oversight and I do think the king even though he's only been king for but a short while in comparison he has had that kind of long long experience yeah because as prince of wales he was exposed to green

boxes and was privy to a lot of the meetings and things like that so he too has that kind of strength of experience to bring to the bring to the table and bring to his weekly audience coming up the next big rubber stamp of course is on the 17th of july state opening of parliament happy birthday darling it's the queen's 77th birthday put on your crown and your ermine frock and off we go to the house of parliament yes well that'll be a big birthday for camilla happy birthday show for them to put on for her birthday you've always wanted queen camilla is to go to open parliament on your birthday well sakir has changed his tune somewhat because there was a video that emerged

a few years ago from 2005 when obviously as a senior barrister he was made a queen's council and he was saying in this kind of video that became part of a documentary project that it was ironic that he was made a Queen's Council because he had campaigned to abolish the monarchy in the past. He wasn't so up for the monarchy then, was he? He did then accept a knighthood and has since subsequently changed his tune, as people do when they get older, I think. They soften towards the monarchy I think

if you took a you think it's an age thing with Keir that he's rather than a sort of establishment thing well now he's part of the he is the establishment isn't he I think that's the shift and that kind of that distinction or that kind of contradiction between the left and the monarchy. Do you think the king reminded him of that this morning during the kissing of hands? I would say probably not. I would say that's probably it. I think Sir Clive reminded him of that.

I think that's the carpet and we're just going to lift that up and brush that under there. Just brush that under the tartan carpet. Well, he'll be going in Balmoral soon. Yes, he will. Yeah, he'll be invited up for his polybobs. I can tell him later

everything he's got to expect out there. Oh, you've got to tell us later all about that. I will. I'm going to ask you all about that. But finally, this from Barbara Castle, the doyen of the left in the 60s and 70s.

After she had been to a dinner at Buckingham Palace, she spoke about how she realised that there was only one set of people who come under more scrutiny than politicians. And that's royalty. It's true. She also described the young Prince Charles who she met as quiet, but with considerable knowledge of what he likes to do and not do, and not without his own poise. Kn what he likes likes what he knows yeah and with poise so i think you know as king this bodes well for his dealings with

prime ministers and other politicians let's hope so for cure's sake if only we could all breathe freedom and peace and forget the world and its sad turmoils boy is that a political statement? No. No, but to stand in the drawing room at Balmoral is to feel a moment of history. I'm pretty sure I wrote that last week. And it really feels, to quote Queen Victoria, that you can breathe freedom

and peace there. Have you been away, Roya? Would you like to tell us about your holidays? I really want to, don't you have? I want to live in Scotland. I might have been away, Kate. Might have been up north. Opening up. They're opening, throwing open the doors as they did in Frozen. It's just like Frozen. It's just like Frozen.

It's almost as cold up there. It was pretty autumnal. What are we talking about? We are talking about Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, the private Scottish home of the monarch and the royal family where they spend their summer holidays. A place that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought for 30,000 guineas back in the 1850s. Bargain. And a place that I think was so long associated with the Queen because so many members of her family talked about how happy she was up there. And there were quite a lot of images of her just looking gloriously happy in tartan skirts, doing country things and hanging out with ponies. And as Prime Minister said, famously

putting the rubber gloves on and making the salad dressing and doing the washing up. and making the salad dressing and doing the washing up. And I was very lucky to get up there last week and go inside for the first time before Charles. There's only 3,400 tickets. It costs £100 each. And they were sold out in kind of record time. Two hours they sold out. And I can see why,

because I had actually never been to Balmoral before. So it was extraordinary to go inside and get a glimpse of the seven rooms that the King is opening up. They're all private rooms. So these are all rooms on the ground floor of Balmoral Castle that they use and they spend time in. For me, every single one of those seven rooms was just stuffed full of extraordinary history, exquisite works of art. But for me, definitely, it was quite a moment to stand in the drawing room at Balmoral where I think, you know, a lot of us remember that those famous last photographs of the Queen, the late queen, two days before she died, standing, saying goodbye to Boris Johnson. And hello to Liz Truss. Hello to Liz Truss. And then that lovely photo of taking of her just on her own, standing in front of the fire, which is the only working

fireplace in that whole castle, with her big smile and her Prince Philip's walking stick and her handbag. And, you know, two days later, she passed the baton to the king. And that's one of the rooms you're allowed into. I just found the whole thing, you know, it's, it's, you walk in and there's, you know, the king's waders, his bellies, and his fishing rods under a table. It is, you know, it's a place that was synonymous with Queen Victoria, of course, because, you know, she and Prince Albert bought it they stuffed it full of extraordinary art she spent a lot of time there after he died there are some extraordinary and slightly bizarre works of art in there there was a in in in one of the red corridor which has this flock wallpaper that was specially designed for her That was a William Morris one with her kind of initials inscribed in it.

Talk about designer wallpaper. QVI. I think that's right. No, VRI. Victoria Regina Imperatrix. Victoria Queen Empress. I mean, as the person I was with. I mean, I have that on my wallpaper.

I do too. She can't have had that. Good thing they didn't have felt-tip pens for kids then. But the most extraordinary work of art in that red corridor was this marble statue that she commissioned two years after Prince Albert died of Prince Albert, which is mounted on a rotating plinth. This is quite spooky, actually.

And as she would go up to bed each night, she would ask one of her servants to rotate the plinth so that Albert's eyes, gaze, followed her all the way up to bed. I found it slightly nuts, as the tour guide explained it to me, but also, strangely, very moving and touching. A sort of memory of one of the world's most famous bereaved widows, who was so incredibly sad for all the years after Prince Albert died, the lengths went to to still feel that he was part of her life wasn't it was fascinating did you take your um measuring tape so you could measure that Prince William's and Prince Harry's childhood bedrooms just to see quite how big if I that was one of his gripes wasn't it Harry said that William always got the bigger bedroom and if I had taken my measuring tape Kate I can tell you I've been asked to leave it at the front door because I wasn't even allowed

to take my phone with me no you can't take your phone you can't take if you take your bag you have to hold your bag down by your feet so that you don't swing it and knock over you know some amazing landseer painting or some amazing work of art or some mice and porcelain and you can't obviously you can't take any photos but this is all this has been part of a kind of two-year project that the king has always said he wants to open up these places more for the public they'll be in part of his kind of plan isn't it to make it more accessible to the public it's not just him and his part you know his castles and his palaces it's his part of his idea to kind of share the wealth and in a little way i suppose bring bring well i think good

on him because i remember three years ago so in 2021 i did a piece made our front page that he was the queen was alive late queen he wanted to open up the palaces the private residences the official palaces he wanted them to become palaces for the people and i was you know it was got these quotes and people close to him saying for him it's about bringing people close to the institution making people connect to the institution he feels they should be more public spaces than private places and a couple years went by and I was like what's going on with that like what's the plan nothing had opened up more and he's done it well I had to wait I think until it was his turn because I don't think no but at the time he had heed, spoken to the Queen about it.

And the Queen was like happy for him to start doing it. The same with Buckingham Palace. This year we've got the £1 tickets for people who are on benefits. That hasn't happened before. Now, you've always been able to go and see the summer exhibition at Balmoral since the 80s. The kind of ballroom, they have a themed exhibition. And the grass. This year it's the water water paints or something

watercolors charles's watercolors wow what are we exhibiting this well there you go he's provided some he's providing some material as well for it but this is different this is opening the whole thing but there was a line in your piece which i thought was really interesting as well which was that william wasn't quite so keen on the idea of his holiday home being thrown open to the public. So what do you make of that? Do you think that's him just trying to be, you know, private William, you know, keep things to myself. I need that kind of private space. Here's the distinction.

That's my public face. This is my private face. Neither two shall meet. Yes. Or is it him just being a bit selfish no i think i think when when when that came up and i was told about that the the reasoning for it that i was given was that he felt and this you know as he'd expressed to his father and it had been a thing bit of a thing between them he he sort of felt this is you know this is the the magical place in Scotland where my children go and all their cousins,

and the family goes totally away from the public gaze. So no one knows what it's like inside Bam Moral. No one knows what those rooms look like. No one knows where my children sort of run and play and do all of that. And I think he slightly struggled with the concept of that being opened up to the public. I think he felt it was a sort of last bastion of something that the whole family share that he wanted. But as I said in the piece, he doesn't make those calls yet.

So, and what was interesting was the counterpoint to that of someone very close to the king saying, Charles doesn't look at the residences like that because even the private ones, apart from Bercol in Scotland. Well, exactly. He does have his private place in Scotland, doesn't he, Charles?

He has Bercol, so it's probably easier for him to be able to do this than the Queen, who actually stayed more in the castle. But the reason, given that he's less sentimental about his homes than William, is because growing up,

he never spent more than three months anywhere. So he doesn't see them as places of sort of nurture. He sees them more as temporary lodgings. And I was like, that's quite interesting. Yeah, well, someone told me once when he goes abroad on jobs, they set up his desk. So wherever he's staying, they will set up a desk for him with all his little bits and pieces.

And that's his kind of coming home, I guess. Home away from him, yeah. So he has that stability wherever he is because of this kind of disjointed, you know, all over the place. I mean, he still lives like that, though, which most people find quite odd that, you know, he's in Highgrove. He's staying at Windsor Castle. He's staying at Clarence House. There are a lot of homes. He's up at Burt Court.

I mean, he has lots of homes. There are a lot of homes. But it is a strange, for a lot of people in this country and other countries will find that quite a strange way to live. But it's the only way that he really knows how to live. So that's interesting that the converse of that is that he's less precious about those spaces, perhaps, than other people might be. It was interesting to see his, so the library at Balmoral, which you can also see, he now uses as his personal study. And it was fascinating to kind of look at his desk where he works and the view that he's chosen which looks out onto the sunken garden which is very beautifully planted and I thought this is a man who we know talks likes to talk to his plants

because he said he likes to talk to his plants he sure does and he you know he looks out and I want just wondered if he sort of talked to all his plants he looked maybe that's his audience like the prime minister has him and then I was great who can he trust yeah I'm just going to talk to the plants and what then I just found it quite interesting sort of seeing what books were on the shelves in there. And it's a real window. But there's some kind of...

It's a window into their souls a bit, I think. Kind of trashy books, but more, you know... There were no trashy books. No, but quite popular. There were no Mills and Boons on the King's Library walls. But there were no quite popular books like P.D. James, for example.

You know, crime thrillers, which you wouldn't necessarily expect to be within their, you know... But there you go. That's what I mean, you P.D. James, for example, you know, crime thrillers, which you wouldn't necessarily expect to be within there. You know, there you go. That's what I mean. Yeah, I would if anyone is vaguely interested in, you know, royal residences. And even if you're not, you can't get a ticket for this because it's all that. But I suspect this tour will be back next year. It is. And they will have to have more tickets next year, I think. Because I've always thought that you you have to go to Scotland to understand the British royal family and I think it's only there that you get that

kind of view because last year I went to Palace of Holyrood House and I went to Royal Yacht Britannia which is now a kind of permanently museum but it's it's brilliant yeah um and if you are going up there to go to Balmoral I would definitely recommend that because that's a real insight into there and the people who work there are really knowledgeable. So you see the kind of personal effects, you see the bed that Charles and Diana, you know, stayed in when they had their honeymoon, you know, because the Queen and Prince Philip had different bedrooms. And then you see the kind of honeymoon suite, you like yes and you know that they said oh the queen used to sit down here on the steps and just plunge her hands into buckets

of ice cold water after she had been out shaking everybody's hands because of course this was a yacht that went around the world and she saw you know so many people and she would come back with aching hands from having shaken so many hundreds of she just washed everyone off she would just plunge them in i think because they were just so sore and She would just plunge them in, I think because they were just so sore. And she would just plunge them into my eyes where they'd have it ready waiting for her. And she'd sit there, take her shoes off and do that. And that was her kind of floating home away from home.

But that, I mean, there's so many elements in Scotland where you can go, where you can see, you can get that insight into them that I don't think you can see in England. Do you want to know what the best bit of Balmoral was, Kate? I feel like you're going to tell me, please. love to know was it the ponies it was the ponies yes I knew it it was the ponies Kate it was very do you know what I was it was funny I was inside the ballroom looking at there's a nice picture of you in the paper cuddling the ponies maybe I was

looking at one of Charles's watercolours I I can't remember. And I got this message from the press actually going, do you want to see the ponies? Because they're out front. Hold the ponies. You dropped the priceless artefact you were holding. And legged it. Charles' watercolour. Legged it around to the front. And there were these gorgeous Highland Mountain ponies

and some fell ponies bred by Queen Elizabeth, which just had made it even more special. And they were so gorgeous. They're like the late queen. They're working. The best and most happiest I've ever seen you in the company of ponies. Queen Elizabeth which just sort of made it even more special and they were so gorgeous they're like the late queen they're working the best happiest I've ever seen you in the company of ponies it was quite it was the perfect perfect pony end to my tour of Balmoral but um no what a good discussion to have on royal week which has been kind of royal week light hasn't it because this is the traditional week that the royal family go to Scotland stay at the palace of

Holyrood house which by the way is a great tourist attraction. You can go around and there's an audio guide and you can hear members of the royal family kind of taking you around because a few of them have recorded bits of it. So that's really, if you're going on a big royal Scottish jaunt, please do that as well. This is turning into a travel piece, isn't it? It is. But there's also more royal travel coming up. See, we're travel we're traveling as well william is off to germany on saturday oh yeah in your time to support and come on england president he's going out there to support england in the quarterfinals good on him do we think we're going to get the win let's all just say yes do we think william's presence

do we think he's going to be giving them a team talk? Because we know he's constantly in touch with them. Is he going to say, we got a message, didn't we, last week from Kenston Palace just after that very emotional rollercoaster of a match to say, incoming tweet from, incoming message on Twitter from His Royal Highness soon. And I said, is he going to say, bring on the subs earlier, Gareth?

It didn't say that. It said it was emotional rollercoaster, didn't it? Yes, it was. It was on the edge of his seat, I think, watching that. Let's hope the game against Switzerland is slightly less of a rollercoaster

and more of a bumper car knockout for England. Come on. Come on, King Harry Kane. King Harry, your buddy King Harry. My bud. Kate, last week when I saw you, you were off to some very glamorous, you and I had been at the state banquet and you were off to another banquet

with the Emperor of Japan. And I've seen pictures of you and very glamorous you look too. Oh, thank you, Roya. It was a good night um were the wines fine very fine did you sample the fine wines i may have done um yeah and there's a kind of slow clap as they kind of enter you know everybody's standing there and you kind of do a slow slow clap as they come in before they sit down so it was very it was very fancy there were after dinner speeches from the Emperor of Japan. He was clearly loving his time in Britain. He had a great time.

Did you talk to him about his book on the Thames waterways? I didn't. He was too busy chatting to the Lord Mayor. But no, it was a really good night. And it just feels like ages ago now. I think they say a week is a long time in politics. Well, it's like a decade in royal reporting, isn't it? Because you're going to say time flies

when you're having fun, Kate. I wouldn't go that far. Until next time. Until next time. Great. Well, see you next week, Roya. With any luck, Kate. Bye, Kate.

Bye.