One of the reasons why Attlee dissolved parliament unexpectedly in 1951 was to get an election out of the way before King George VI set off on a tour of Australia and New Zealand in January 1952. Ironically for the outgoing Labour government the king had to undergo an operation for lung cancer before the dissolution, which made him unfit for the journey, though he recovered enough for his daughter Princess Elizabeth and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh to fly out to East Africa early in the new year. While they were in Kenya, however, news reached them that he had died and that she was now Queen Elizabeth II.

Much was made at the time of the dawn of a new Elizabethan age. Certainly the general public enthused about the young queen, the coronation, the first to be televised, being watched by millions in June 1953. The only sour note was struck by Scottish nationalists, who objected to her title on the grounds that there had not been a previous Elizabeth on the throne of Scotland. Some even blew up post office letter boxes featuring the initials EIIR. Such ‘outrages’ alienated most Scots, however, and throughout the fifties the Scottish National party polled very few votes in general elections or by-elections.