28 April 2016
Fading Icons – The State Visit
by J.R.Thomas
Mr Obama came, spoke, dined, and left. Just two days in London, no time to visit the galleries or stroll in Hyde Park admiring the late daffodils. Maybe just as well that he did not prolong his visit; the speaking part caused no end of a kerfuffle, with London’s wild haired Mayor being especially ungracious about the visitor from western lands. But, Boris would point out, correctly and with great authority, State Visits are not the occasion for intervening in the host’s political debates. (Technically, this was not a State Visit but an Official Visit. Still one where the rules and the ceremonies are pretty similar.)
Of course, visiting heads of state often have something they wish to get off their chests about the doings of the UK, but the tradition is that this is done in carefully coded and moderate language, with any further exploration of the delicate subject being relegated to some obscure speech in, let us say, a rodeo in Austin, Texas, or a diner in Marseilles, or perhaps a summit in the Balearics. Mr Obama though, as so often, was not a man to be restrained by convention, especially on Referendum matters, and especially after careful Downing Street to White House briefings, and waded in. In doing so he may, almost as much as his wife’s breach of etiquette in touching Her Majesty on the back during his State Visit in 2011, have driven a further nail into the closing coffin lid of the grand head of state visit.
Her Majesty did not seem to mind that friendly pat. She has carried out more State Visits than anyone else on the planet – one hundred and thirteen, the Shaw Sheet researchers suggest, and two as queen of Canada; and has seen many remarkable things. (Her very first State Visit was to Panama, for collectors of strange coincidences.) This great total does not include all those lesser visits which are merely Official Visits, Working Visits, and private visits encompassing some official activity.
What distinguishes a State Visit from all those lesser varieties is the attendant ceremonial which must include heads of state receiving each other, formal entertainments, presentations (all those weird and sometimes wonderful presents), an emphasis on confrereship – and not getting involved in domestic politics (kindly note, Office of Protocol, Washington DC). In all her travels Queen Elizabeth has never expressed any opinion which could possibly be interpreted as in favour of or against anything, though very occasionally her loyal aides de camp have suggested, should any doubt have arisen, that Her Majesty is indeed in favour of motherhood and apple pie (though not of course implying the exclusion of other domestic arrangements or other pies).
But the State Visit is not what it was. Anybody living or working in central London will probably breathe a sigh of relief at that, as ceremonial and security do tend to clog up the streets something rotten. We all ought to be delighted at the presence of, say, the King of Norway, or the President of Benin, or even the President of China, and in days of yore our recent forefathers did appear to be so, forming thick crowds to watch the Very Important Visitor progress past in a carriage and six. But our generation, in yet another disappointment no doubt to our parents and grandparents, are too busy at the office or going to meetings or working shifts or on the treadmill at the gym for standing in Whitehall and politely waving the visitor’s flag, and we increasingly audibly resent the chaos caused by the honoured one’s moving about in narrow streets where we feel we should have priority.
The urge to please the street constipated locals may well explain Mr Obama’s behaviour. He sped off to Windsor for the royal part of his visit, and then moved about by helicopter. That may have cheered the London cabbies and bus drivers up, but perhaps not the American tax payer. Arriving in Air Force One, his jumbo jet, Mr Obama also found it handy to import three identical very specialist looking helicopters which confused Londoners for several days before the Presidential arrival by flying around, perhaps so the crews could view the sights. Also temporarily imported were three special armoured American built limo’s so that Mr O could arrive at the palace in style for his banquet. Why three of each? Not, as you may think, because American vehicles are not as reliable as the Queen’s fleet of rickety Rolls’s and ancient aircraft. No, this is to create confusion in the minds of potential assassins as to which one the President is in. As they fly or drive about in close formation that might not be beyond the wit of a reasonably intelligent terrorist to deal with, but we digress.
In this age of equality and austerity State Visits look rather extravagant and pompous. Don’t take three helicopters with you then, you respond, but they represent another problem with this type of visit – the security concerns are worrying and mind boggling complex. Indeed, retrospectively so to several African heads of state who found themselves defenestrated from the Presidential Palace at home, without even the courtesy of an election, whilst waving grandly in European capitals. It is a lot easier to both protect and remain Citizen Number One at home than when riding in carriages in strange overseas locations.
Many heads of state are executives rather than, if one can be so inelegant, non-executive, and in the modern world with so much to do and the complexities of politics and managing the media, it is not so easy to find time for all the travelling and ceremonial stuff. It is indeed a great tribute to the close friendship between rightish Prime Minister and leftish President that Mr Obama did make the time for his visit and helpful remarks for his friend’s slightly struggling cause.
Much more to the taste of modern leaders are the summits where various common interest categories – European Heads of State, the G8, the G12, the G21, the Davos Group, can gather in some suitably modest and low key hotel (we are jesting here) and confer informally, without the intrusion of too much protocol and with minimal ceremonial, other than the smiley group photograph. Things do get done at summits, not always, but quite often, and personal relationships can be much strengthened, which is certainly usually good for the world.
We are probably watching the State Visit become a rare beast. Not extinct, they still have their uses. There are certainly occasions when such visits do much to cement relationships, maybe to repair a previously fractured relationship, perhaps to introduce a new Head of State, especially if likely to be long in the job, such as a monarch or maybe a French President (though the current one has no great enthusiasm for such things, and, allegedly, only one pair of black shoes, which must be tricky with day after day of formal attire). The fraught relationship between France and Britain before the First World War was famously repaired and indeed turned into the Entente Cordiale, an alliance which enabled two previously rather distant nations to stand close in the Great War, because of Edward VII’s visits, State and otherwise, to Paris after his accession. The great flowering of the Special Relationship in the Thatcher Reagan years was firmly cemented by the State Visit of President Reagan in June 1982, Reagan striking up a close and personally engaging rapport with both monarch and her Prime Minster.
So, lovers of ceremonial and marching bands and highly polished carriages, do not despair. Though they may become less frequent, the spectacles are unlikely to disappear completely. A future King Charles III may well want to organise more of them to get to know world leaders, though if his Prime Minister is Citizen Corbyn that might take negotiating skills akin to those of his Great-Great-Grandfather. But good news for those of us who need to rush about central London, We are less likely to be obstructed by visiting grandees: just by the usual problems of Marathon preparations and TfL painfully and slowly constructing extraordinary bike highways.
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