As many Anglophiles are probably aware – Queen Elizabeth made a brief visit to New York yesterday where she attended a 9/11 memorial and made a moving speech to the United Nations – her first since 1957.
Here’s a video of the speech.
The Queen’s 2010 Birthday Honours List Video Highlights and Full List Inside
June 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
As is the tradition every year on her official Birthday (her real one was in April), The Queen has released her selection of Honours (or honors to us Americans). There were some interesting names on the list. We’ll summarize the most notable honors and below you can download the entire list, if you’re curious about such things.
Here’s a video from ITN News of the highlights:
Click here to view full size video
Celebrities Given Honours:
Catherine Zeta-Jones (CBE)
Eileen Derbyshire (MBE)
Barbara Knox (MBE)
Anne Reid (MBE)
Sophie Okonedo (OBE)
John Nettles (OBE)
Jimmy Choo (OBE)
For those interested – here’s a list of Knighthoods (KBE) also known as the people that can now put Sir in front of their name. These are the most coveted honors (except for Peerages). No big name celebrities this time around unlike the New Year’s Honours list that featured Patrick Stewart and Peter Jackson, among others.
Professor John Rex BEDDINGTON, CMG
Councillor Merrick COCKELL
Stuart James ETHERINGTON
Professor Marc FELDMANN
Professor Ian Thomas GILMORE
(Theodore) Wilson HARRIS
Ronald HARWOOD, CBE
Professor Colin John HUMPHREYS, CBE
Donald William INSALL, CBE
Professor Fergus Graham Burtholme MILLAR
Robert Sydney MURRAY, CBE
Denis O’CONNOR, CBE QPM
Keith PEARSON
Simon Manwaring ROBERTSON
Professor Peter Charles RUBIN
Hugh Alexander STEVENSON
Here you can view and download the full Queen’s 2010 Birthday Honours list:
Royal Round Up 06-01-10: Sneaky Sarah to Dish on Oprah; Diana ‘Murdered’ Over Diary; Charles Visits Oslo; Perth Celebrates
June 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Shady Sarah sits down with American chat queen Oprah
Sarah Ferguson is determined to plow through her sell-out scandal with as little egg on her face as possible.
Today the Duchess sits down with American talk show host Oprah Winfrey about selling her ex-husband’s influence. Fergie says she had been drinking and was “not in my right place” when she was caught.
Fergie reveals to Oprah that she has seen snippets of the undercover video here and there, but has not watched the whole thing yet. From what she could tell, the Duchess admits, she looked as though she had been drinking. “I was in the gutter at that moment,” she said.
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New Diana Death Theory: Princess of Wales ‘may have been killed over threats to expose arms dealers’
Richard Savill’s article in the Telegraph reports that a barrister is not ruling out murder in the case of the late Princess of Wales.
Michael Mansfield, who represented Mohammed Al-Fayed during the famous inquest, says that Diana may have been murdered. Mansfield claims that the princess intended to publish a diary that would expose land-mine manufacturers and the UK’s role in arms trading. Diana had already infuriated several ministers when she called for an international ban of land mines, prompting Britain’s Defense Minister Earl Howe to call her a “loose cannon”.
Diana brought a wave of publicity to the problem of land mines in Angola in the mid 1990s. Photographs show the princess cuddling children who had lost limbs from land mines left over from various battles.
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Prince of Wales attends climate conference
On May 27th, the Prince of Wales visited Oslo, Norway for the Conference on Climate and Deforestation. Prince Charles met Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, wife of Crown Prince Haakon.
Several heads of state and government ministers and experts from different countries attended the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference 2010 to discuss efforts for the preservation of the world’s rain forests.
“In Oslo, countries will come together to establish the first real example of a genuine global partnership to fight climate change. The main purpose of the Oslo CFC is to enable effective, transparent and coordinated fast action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, called REDD+.”
In other Prince Charles news, His Royal Highness is visiting Perth, Scotland today. As the Duke of Rothesay, Charles will tour a water-powered cotton mill on the River Tay, visit the Black Watch Museum at Balhousie Castle, and see the Perth Farmers’ Market.
The Prince’s tour is part of Perth’s 800th anniversary celebrations to honor the granting of the Royal Burgh Charter by King William the Lion of Scotland in 1210.
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Watch the Queen’s Speech in Full Here – State Opening of Parliament
May 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment
If you missed the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament today, ITN news has posted a video of the whole there.
Here is the entire Queen’s Speech:
If you’d like to see the entire pomp and circumstance behind the State Opening of Parliament, CSPAN has the whole thing for view on there website. Click here to watch it all.
Royal Round Up 5-25-10: Desperate Duchess Doublecrosses; Chelsea Flowers Burst With Life; Parliament Opens
May 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I’m sure you’ve all heard the news – Sarah Ferguson sold out the Duke of York in a desperate attempt to earn cash.
It had been barely a week since my Royal Round Up article detailing Fergie’s financial woes when a video cropped up all over the internet showing the Duchess making a dirty deal – shaking hands with a ‘businessman’ looking to gain favor with Prince Andrew and cash in on royal connections.
Fergie discussed the arrangements she was willing to make for £40,000 in cash as a down payment, with £500,000 to be wired to her bank account later. For the money, the Duchess would provide an introduction to trade envoy Prince Andrew. The undercover journalist from News of the World, posing as the businessman looking for a favor, gave her what she wanted. Fergie unwittingly gave him what he wanted, too, but it didn’t go exactly as she had planned.
To sum up: Sarah Ferguson is now so broke, even after all of her financial successes, that she has to sell her relationship with her ex-husband. Did Andrew know? Apparently he did not. A statement issued by Buckingham Palace said that since 2001, Prince Andrew “has carried out his role of special representative [for international trade and investment] with complete and absolute propriety and integrity.” Even the Duchess was captured on the film saying that the Prince was “whiter than white” in his dealings with people. Fergie also said that Andrew had no knowledge of her scheme in her public statement after being caught.
Sarah Ferguson was so caught up in being married to a prince that she spent her in-laws’ money with abandon and took advantage of taxpayer funds for fripperies. When she divorced her prince after being unable to forge a royal life for herself and becoming bored, she flew to America looking for sympathy. Sarah was able to prove her critics wrong for a time by earning enough money to pay off her debts to the Queen. The Duchess looked as though she was becoming a sound businesswoman and seemed to be on her way to a successful life outside the Royal Family. Sadly, it was not to last.
The red-headed rogue had become so accustomed to “the good life” so quickly that she never expected anything less than the best. Even when she couldn’t pay for it, Fergie still grabbed and figured it would work out in the end. After all, she’s Sarah, Duchess of York. Who wouldn’t want to give her everything?
The people I feel sorry for in this spectacle are their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Sarah has been touted as being a good mother for staying on amicable terms with Prince Andrew, but was it really for the girls’ sake, or to stay within Andrew’s financial good graces? Beatrice and Eugenie are always on hand looking mildly miserable when their mother walks a red carpet or needs a photo opportunity, so it’s probably all about the cache they can lend her as true British princesses. They are nothing more than Fergie’s tickets to staying within the royal orbit.
Those two girls have probably never seen themselves reflected in their mother’s eyes, only the dollar signs dancing within. So forget Fergie, just say a prayer for Bea and Eugenie.
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The Queen Visits Chelsea Flower Show
With the coldest winter in thirty-one years blanketing the entire island, one could be forgiven for thinking the exhibits in this year’s Chelsea Flower Show may have lost lustre. Take heart, though: Her Majesty was suitably impressed this past Monday when she arrived to examine the blooms. The early warm spell pumped up the volume just in time for her arrival with Prince Philip. The royal couple were joined by numerous celebrities, including Jamie Oliver, 60′s icon Twiggy, and Professor Stephen Hawking, who was on hand to unveil a garden created in his honor.
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Her Majesty opened Parliament today (May 25th) to discuss David Cameron’s first legislative program. Introduced were twenty-two Bills on issues including schools, political reform and plans to partially privatize Royal Mail.
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dream of living in the UK a reality.