# Would it be fair to guess...\[how many prime ministers Queen Elizabeth has met\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944 "2016-07-15T01:20:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/21 "2016-07-15T17:14:32Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#): > > (And I refer to all ships as it because they are not people.) How about corporations? Do you refer to them as he or she? They are people you know. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/22 "2016-07-15T17:24:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > How about corporations? Do you refer to them as he or she? They are people you know. If they can’t go to jail they can’t be people. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/23 "2016-07-15T17:33:00Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > She. Ships are shes. Except for Russian ships which are hes. And I can tie that all together if you ask me why fire engines are red. Pravda. Hey, that’s a double, I never realized I could work it out that way! The old editions, of course. **Tripolar** knows a lot about fish though. My source of this info has informed me privately. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/24 "2016-07-15T17:43:50Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > To be pedantic, QEII has met no Prime Ministers of England, rather her government is headed by the Prime Minister of Great Britain. > > If you want to included all prime ministers she has met (i.e. from the Commonwealth) the list gets the a whole lot bigger, there are currently 38 PMs. So, England isnt part of Great Britain? They were also PM of _Lesser Puddinham Under the Bridge_ and every other burg. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/25 "2016-07-15T17:59:14Z")
> [@RadicalPi](#): > > > [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > > > To be pedantic, QEII is a Cunard ocean liner; if it has met Prime Ministers it doesn’t know it. > > Not quite, the QE2 (not QEII) is an ocean liner. Also, as I suspect you know, it’s named after the queen’s mother. To be further pedantic, the ocean liner QE2 is _not_ named after the queen’s mother. From Wikipedia, “Queen Elizabeth 2, often referred to simply as QE2, is an ocean liner built for the Cunard Line which was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. She was designed for the transatlantic service from her home port of Southampton, UK, to New York, and **was named after the earlier Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth**.” Emphasis added. And why does every thread referring to the monarch require someone to nitpick about her title? ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/26 "2016-07-15T18:50:01Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > To be further pedantic, the ocean liner QE2 is _not_ named after the queen’s mother. From Wikipedia, “Queen Elizabeth 2, often referred to simply as QE2, is an ocean liner built for the Cunard Line which was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. She was designed for the transatlantic service from her home port of Southampton, UK, to New York, and **was named after the earlier Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth**.” > > Emphasis added. And why does every thread referring to the monarch require someone to nitpick about her title? B/c we’re fighting ignorance here, and there’s no good reason for it to take longer than we thought. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/27 "2016-07-15T18:51:52Z")
And yet if I refer to the “Queen of England” is there any confusion who I’m referring to? So why the endless nitpicking over her title? ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/28 "2016-07-15T18:54:32Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And yet if I refer to the “Queen of England” is there any confusion who I’m referring to? So why the endless nitpicking over her title? You asked a question, I answered it. This is General Questions, it’s what we do. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/29 "2016-07-15T19:02:46Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > B/c we’re fighting ignorance here, and there’s no good reason for it to take longer than we thought. But you’re _not_ fighting Ignorance. Queen Elizabeth\* is\* the Queen of England. And Essex, and Southampton, and Lesser Puddinham Under the Bridge and… Now, her _titles and styles_ vary by region, but In the UK and other areas she is\* styled-\* **Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this Realm and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.** So, coming into GQ to annoy people by a pedantic but wrong hijack is not fighting ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/30 "2016-07-15T19:21:21Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > It’s likely that she met at least some of those who served under her father, but not under her. The weekly meeting is always private - just the monarch and the PM - but there will have been other functions (ceremonial, official and social) that, as monarch-in-waiting, she will have attended as part of her preparation for the role, and I think it’s highly likely that, as heir presumptive, she met at least Clement Atlee. I don’t know if this makes any difference, but she wasn’t heir presumptive until the age of 10 when her uncle (Edward VIII) abdicated. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/31 "2016-07-15T20:45:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > So, coming into GQ to annoy people by a pedantic but wrong hijack is not fighting ignorance. To be pedantic, this happens to be **Nawth Chucka** ’s own thread; s/he is not “coming into GQ to annoy people” if s/he happens to join in some nitpicking about the thread’s details. And exasperated rhetorical questions about nitpicking, as you’ve now no doubt realized, are often just as distracting and derailing as the nitpicking itself. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/32 "2016-07-15T21:47:58Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > To be pedantic, this happens to be **Nawth Chucka** ’s own thread; s/he is not “coming into GQ to annoy people” if s/he happens to join in some nitpicking about the thread’s details. > > And exasperated rhetorical questions about nitpicking, as you’ve now no doubt realized, are often just as distracting and derailing as the nitpicking itself. I had not realized the criticisms of Dewey Finn and DrDeth were directed at me until your post, since it’s my thread. PS, I’m a she but am not a ship. PPS, it looks as though the answer to my OP is yes, about 17 and possibly more. Which sounds ridiculous now in the context of the recent posts. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/33 "2016-07-16T01:51:23Z")
How many Commonwealth PMs has she met? I imagine it would be a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/34 "2016-07-16T02:28:50Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > How many Commonwealth PMs has she met? I imagine it would be a lot. There are 53 current members of the Commonwealth. There’s a biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting been held since the early 1970s, and she’s attended most of those. Add in her foreign travels and meeting others who have passed through the UK during her reign and it must easily be in the hundreds. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/35 "2016-07-18T01:43:43Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > There are 53 current members of the Commonwealth. There’s a biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting been held since the early 1970s, and she’s attended most of those. Add in her foreign travels and meeting others who have passed through the UK during her reign and it must easily be in the hundreds. Yes. She’s a very handy cite in the “six degrees” game, if you’re playing just on the basis of who has met who. I have met a few people who have met the British Queen, so in three degrees of separation I have an army of heads of state, heads of government and ambassadors from all over the world for the past sixty years or so. And they, of course, are all in the business of meeting lots of people as well. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/36 "2016-07-18T14:03:29Z")
^I think the key problem is **handy** refused to provide cites! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/37 "2016-07-18T16:04:28Z")
Yeah, that Queen, always name-dropping… ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/38 "2016-07-18T16:08:54Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Yeah, that Queen, always name-dropping… Yeah! The nerve, who does she think she is, the queen of… oh, nm. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944/39 "2016-07-18T16:17:03Z")
The topic brings to mind Churchill’s description of Clement Atlee - “A modest little man, with much to be modest about…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-fair-to-guess-how-many-prime-ministers-queen-elizabeth-has-met/759944.md?page=1)