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Ali's socialite friend was a guest at a 1970s dinner party where the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were also guests
ONE WAS NOT AMUSED

The Queen reportedly broke royal protocol to criticise miners’ strike in the 1970s

THE Queen broke royal protocol to attack Arthur Scargill and striking miners at a 1970s dinner party, it is claimed.

Her Majesty told fellow diners that picketing workers were “holding the country to ransom” during a heated conversation.

 Ali's socialite friend was a guest at a 1970s dinner party where the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were also guests
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Ali's socialite friend was a guest at a 1970s dinner party where the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were also guestsCredit: AFP or licensors

Husband Prince Philip also called for left-wing firebrand Scargill’s “head to roll” during the meal, hosted by aristocrat Colin Tennant.

The claims have been made by Marxist writer Tariq Ali, 74, whose socialite pal Mary Furness was invited to the dinner and claimed to have heard the royal ranting about the then Yorkshire National Union of Mineworkers leader.

Royals are expected to avoid making political statements in public.

But in an interview with the London Review of Books this week, Ali recalled Mary telling him about what was said.

 Arthur Scargill became the president of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1982
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Arthur Scargill became the president of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1982Credit: PA:Press Association

It is claimed she said: “They [the royals] arrived and we sat down to dinner. The whole evening was spent discussing the miners’ strike.

“Philip was abusive, wanting Scargill’s head to roll. But it was the Queen who surprised me. ‘I think things have got really out of control, and this is the end,’ she said. ‘These workers are getting too much power, they’re running the country – they’re holding the country to ransom.’”

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Mary is said to have added that another guest, former Tory PM Harold Macmillan, told the Queen that “while you’re seeing the pendulum swing to the left, I can already detect a slight movement to the right so don’t panic, everything’s going to be all right”.

Ali said he and his left-wing colleagues were “very amused”.

The anecdote comes after the unlikely claim the Queen Mother supported the later miners’ strike in 1984.

Historian Kenneth Rose, who wrote her official biography, said she called the strikers “rather patriotic”.



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