LONDON — The queen isn’t exactly cross. That would be scary. But her patience is being tried.

Brexit. Her majesty didn’t mention Brexit. She didn’t have to mention Brexit. Because the British can’t talk about anything else.

When Queen Elizabeth II felt the need to remind her subjects on Thursday that they should speak “well of each other” and respect “different points of view,” one just knew.

“Of course, every generation faces fresh challenges and opportunities,” the 92-year-old monarch began her remarks, rather innocently.

“As we look for new answers in the modern age, I for one prefer the tried and tested recipes,” she continued, warming to her subject, “like speaking well of each other and respecting different points of view; coming together to seek out the common ground; and never losing sight of the bigger picture.”

Big picture, people.

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She concluded, “To me, these approaches are timeless, and I commend them to everyone.”

So, to the squabbling plotters of Westminster, the heckling press, the brayers and the tweeters, who have been banging on about Brexit for the last three years? Consider yourselves commended to.

The British understood what the monarch was talking about.

The Guardian’s headline on Friday morning? “Queen’s speech calling for ‘common ground’ seen as Brexit allusion.”

The Daily Express tabloid went with “Queen’s secret Brexit PLEA: What did the QUEEN say about Brexit? ‘End the FEUD.'”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted excerpts of the speech and said, “I agree with the Queen.”

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Amber Rudd, another senior Conservative Party member of the Cabinet, added, “Wise words from the Queen.”

“She didn’t mention Brexit, but that’s what it’s about,” Tony Travers, a political expert at the London School of Economics, told The Washington Post.

It wasn’t the first time her majesty has made a veiled reference to Brexit. In her annual address on Christmas Day, she urged those with “deeply held differences” to treat each other with “respect.”

“The clear implication is that Brexit has produced a toxic and irreconcilable environment. Not only in Parliament, but across the country as well, it’s generated a culture war,” said Travers.

The queen’s speech, he said, “sounds benign and bland,” but it’s “actually easily readable and has easily been read as a statement of ‘enough is enough.’ ”

The monarch made her remarks at her annual visit to Sandringham’s Women’s Institute on Thursday afternoon, where she joined the group in playing a live edition of the BBC quiz show, “Pointless.”

It is unclear whether the choice of quiz show also contained a deeper meaning.


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