Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh current events 21: Mar 2009 - Oct. 2009

[Tilla]

Queen Elisabeth has a charming smile.Thank you for the pics.

[lumutqueen]

Martin Samuel: How Ma'amy Army was all of a Twitter | Mail Online

An article to do with the Queens visit to the ashes.
I think it was wonderful of her to go, the twitter quotes are rather weird though. Never thought i'd read something like that coming from apparently the Queen.

[Marsel]

Those twitter quotes are indeed very unusual, at the very least.

One is right cheesed off. Stuck down here with the corporates, not a bit of atmosphere. To think I gave up a box at Haydock for this.
...Phil made a seven-foot snake out of pint pots but was told off by some snooty cow who called herself the assistant catering manager.
...Phil said: 'Who do you think you are, love, the Queen?' We all had a right laugh about that, but she made a complaint to her boss.

I simply can't imagine the Queen even thinking like that, let alone telling someone to write it. Let's just hope she knows the content of 'her' twitts.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Marsel

I simply can't imagine the Queen even thinking like that, let alone telling someone to write it.

She didn't, it was only the authors imagination.
---------------------------------------
As regal demands go, it was a remarkably modest one: could one, perhaps, have a little tipple of Dubonnet and gin during luncheon at the cricket?
But the Queen's request ahead of her visit to Lord's last week caused something of a kerfuffle among the staff of Marylebone Cricket Club - as they hadn't got the French aperitif in their otherwise well-stocked drinks cabinet

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...red-Lords.html

[Marsel]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

She didn't, it was only the authors imagination.
<.....>

Can’t deny it’s a relief to know that.

[Zonk]

Great pictures...I just read about this tradition on the monarchy website a couple of weeks ago. Twelfth century....I tell you no one does tradition as well as the British.

Cute cygnets...how adorable.

[joye]

Originally Posted by Zonk

Great pictures...I just read about this tradition on the monarchy website a couple of weeks ago. Twelfth century....I tell you no one does tradition as well as the British.

Cute cygnets...how adorable.

Long ago, I chased all over the Thames Valley area looking for the swan uppers. From memory they had a week or 5 days to find and mark the cygnets. Went to Henley I remember. Eventually I found these colourfully dressed swan uppers.

[iceflower]

Queen Elizabeth II is shown around the Commonwealth exhibition
at Buckingham Palace by Sir Hugh Roberts Director of the Royal
Collection right and Assistant Curator Caroline De Guitaut, July
23, 2009

Looks like a very interesting and colourful exhibition!


** Pic 1 ** Pic 2 ** Pic 3 ** Pic 4 **

[Marsel]

Revealed: One of Queen's guards is an illegal immigrant

One of the Queen's guards at Windsor Castle has been arrested for being an illegal immigrant.

The soldier concerned had even taken part in the Trooping of the Colour in front of the Royal family last month before his true identity emerged by chance, following a car crash.
Originally from an African country belonging to the Commonwealth, he is believed to have joined the Army using a false name.

Oh dear.
They'd better be more careful with security issues like this: while this man in particular seems to have posed no direct threat for the Monarch, the mere fact he was in such close proximity is very alarming.

[Marsel]

Queen Elizabeth's palace help

Queen Elizabeth is to use tourist money to help repair her royal residences.

The 83-year-old monarch plans to use cash from visitors at Buckingham Palace in London to tackle the £40 million backlog following criticisms from MPs, who said she needed to find money to help pay for the work.

Until now the Royal Collection - which is responsible for the works of art the queen holds in trust - has taken all the money from visitors to Buckingham Palace to help finance its operations and preserve its treasures.

[Mermaid1962]

Security at Buckingham Palace seems to be a continuing issue. There seem to be several stories a year about people getting access too easily.

[cd255]

I thought the Queen is 5'4 too but when people get older sometimes they shrink a little. My grandmother was 5'5 but when she died she was only 5'3. I think it's cute how the Queen seems to glow when she's surrounded by young attractive men.

[Marsel]

Security alert as police guard smuggles female convict into Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace was at the centre of a new security scandal last night after a convict was smuggled in by a Scotland Yard guard.
The woman, who is said to have a number of criminal convictions, should have been subjected to stringent checks when she entered the Palace.

But she avoided scrutiny and was able to accompany the guard, who works for the Met's elite Specialist Operations department, into secure areas of the Queen's home.

This is the second serious breach of security in mere weeks.
I do hope they will start regarding Her Majesty's security as a more serious issue one day.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Marsel

I do hope they will start regarding Her Majesty's security as a more serious issue one day.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes - Who will watch the watchers?

[Marsel]

Police keep details about gifts from the Queen secret... because it might help extremists

For years, the Queen has rewarded the police officers who guard her Sandringham estate with miniature bottles of whisky.
An innocent enough tradition, one would think. Yet it transpires that the number of gifts she bestows is not only a closely guarded secret but a matter of grave national security.

That is the view of Norfolk Police. It has declined a request made under the Freedom of Information Act to divulge how many of its officers received presents because, it says, it would allow ‘domestic or foreign terrorists to establish the level of police protection afforded to Royal residences’.

As a matter of fact, that makes sense, in a way: there is no need to make public just how many security officers are engaged in the protection of Royal residences.
On the other hand, they must really check the quality of those security officers, if the article from yesterday is anything to go by.

[Skydragon]

The Queen may be settling in at Balmoral today, but she has left behind a royal buzz in London. Mandrake learns that the Crown Estate has erected bee hives on top of its buildings in Regent Street

The Queen creates a royal buzz - Telegraph



The centuries-old practice of servants and guests walking backwards when leaving a room after seeing the monarch has been dropped after health and safety concerns.

Royal tradition takes a backward step as the Queen bows to 'health and safety' concerns - Telegraph

Spoilsports!

[Jacknch]

Health and Safety hasn't stopped the Queen from walking backwards down two steps when she places her wreath at the Cenotaph on Rememberance Sunday! If she can do that without tripping over onto hard concrete then visitors and staff at the Palace can certainly risk walking backwards on the very thickest of carpets!

[lumutqueen]

Originally Posted by Jacknch

Health and Safety hasn't stopped the Queen from walking backwards down two steps when she places her wreath at the Cenotaph on Rememberance Sunday! If she can do that without tripping over onto hard concrete then visitors and staff at the Palace can certainly risk walking backwards on the very thickest of carpets!

Well said Jacknch
Health and Safety gone mad, takes the fun out of being royal.

[Marsel]

I have to say, I agree with ada, Madame Royale, Jacknch and lumutqueen: it's such a pity the tradition will now cease to exist. Surely, this might just be a case of Health and Safety taken to extreme.
There could have been many reasons for stopping the tradition, but Health and Safety? It's not that difficult to make a couple of steps backwards.

I haven't heard of any 'accidents' connected with the tradition either: and you could bet the media would love to report one if it had ever happened.

[mktv2000]

The first Elizabeth Cross is awarded.

A touching story and wonderful sentiment by HM.

Examiner Story

quote:
The first Elizabeth Cross was awarded to a widow of a British soldier killed in the Afghanistan conflict. The newly created Elizabeth Cross is to be awarded to the families of soldiers killed in conflicts since 1948. It is the first time since 1940, and George’s Cross, that a reigning monarch has created an award in his or her name. Relatives will receive a memorial scroll signed by the Queen which will bear the name of the person who died along with the cross itself.

At the time of the announcement of the Elizabeth Cross, the Queen said:
"This seems to me a right and proper way of showing our enduring debt to those who are killed while actively protecting what is most dear to us all. The solemn dignity which we attach to the names of those who have fallen is deeply engrained in our national character. As a people, we accord this ultimate sacrifice the highest honour and respect."
.