Ministers hold first secret rehearsal for death of the Queen In a terse and unusual announcement on Thursday last week, Buckingham Palace revealed that, due to ill health, the Queen […]

In a terse and unusual announcement on Thursday last week, Buckingham Palace revealed that, due to ill health, the Queen was to miss a ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Order of St Michael and St George.

Mindful of the sensitivity of any statement regarding the 92-year-old monarch’s well-being, royal aides underlined she was suffering from nothing more serious than a summer cold – adding for further reassurance that “no doctor has been called”.

Whitehall bunker

But at the other end of the Mall from Buckingham Palace, in the bunker-like Whitehall room where the British government deals with national emergencies, a group of ministers was at the same time rehearsing for an altogether more constitutionally seismic event concerning the Queen, namely her death.

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It emerged yesterday that for the first time ministers rather than civil servants were called on to practice the procedures that will follow the passing of the sovereign.

Codenamed “Castle Dove”, the exercise involving Home Secretary Sajid Javid, leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom and David Lidington, Prime Minister Theresa May’s de facto deputy, was designed to focus on the requirements and procedures of the first day after the Queen’s death.

10 days of national mourning

Known as “D+1”, this would mark the start of 10 days of national mourning and the ministerial group were asked to plan arrangements such as the timing of statements to be made by the prime minister for what will be one of the most significant and symbolic moments in post-war British history.

While the timing of the exercise at a time when the monarch was ill was purely coincidental (the Queen sent her 82-year-old cousin the Duke of Kent to deputise for her at the St Paul’s ceremony attended by, among others, Angelina Jolie), it nonetheless underlined that planning for her eventual death is advanced and being refined frequently at the highest levels of government.

Officials have been quietly honing “Operation London Bridge”, the plan for the announcement of the Queen’s death and the succession of Charles III, for years. Until recently, the subject was considered both an official and a public taboo – indeed it remains the case that no senior royal aide will discuss the matter openly.

Overseas visits

But the “soft succession” process which has already seen the monarch delegate her official visits overseas to younger members of the Royal Family (while still maintaining a ferocious schedule of nearly 300 official engagements a year), has rendered public acknowledgement of the Queen’s mortality quietly tolerable.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, one cabinet minister said: “Things have clearly been stepped up because of the ageing process.”

The meeting in COBR – the emergency bunker whose excitingly 007-style acronym is belied by the more prosaic reality of standing for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A – was described as “ unprecedented”. One source said: “This is the first time different ministers have come together in one room. Previously it has only been officials.”

Privy Council

The momentousness may been more symbolic than practical. Among the matters discussed, apparently so sensitive that political bag carriers had to be barred from the room for fear of leaks, were the plans for members of the 600-strong Privy Council to gather at St James’s Palace to form an Accession Council of 150 dignitaries to proclaim the new king.

The reason for such secrecy was unclear given that the precise nature of these proceedings, right down to the arcania of where copies of the new monarch’s oath are to be filed, has been posted on the Privy Council website since February 2017.

But the Castle Dove exercise, which was also attended by Scottish Secretary David Mundell as well as representatives of the devolved administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, nonetheless represents a step change in preparations for an event which will hold up a mirror to the British nation – and potentially provide an existential test of the monarchy.

Notice fringed in black

Details emerged last year of “London Bridge”, so-named after the code phrase (“London Bridge is down”) which was to be used by the Queen’s private secretary to inform his or her counterpart in Downing Street of the sovereign’s passing. Presumably it has now been replaced with a new phrase, but the depth of planning and preparation remains the same; ranging from who will witness the monarch’s death (her senior physician along with senior royals) to the choreography of the announcement (the leaders of the 15 countries where the Queen is head of state will be told before a footman emerges from Buckingham Palace to pin a notice fringed in black on the gates).

What will then follow has been discussed in the corridors of power for more than a decade, with the Queen’s body due to lie in state for four days in Westminster Hall ahead the state funeral. The new king is expected to embark on a whistle-stop tour of Wales and Scotland to emphasise their place in the bosom of Charles III’s kingdom, while plans are finalised for a relatively rapid coronation in the afterglow of affection for Elizabeth II.

In the meantime, aides emphasise the Queen’s continuing dedication to her duties. It was reported this weekend that she is resisting surgery on troublesome knee joints because she does not want to miss engagements during the consequent recovery period.