The Queen and the Presidents

[Stavros]

A light-hearted piece about the Queen's encounters with Presidents (since 1945 all except LBJ and you-know-who), lacking in detail but does contain info on two surprising faux pas, one from President Carter, the other President Ford -assuming the music was an innocent choice.

Not sure what Her most Gracious and Noble Majesty has in store for the current US President, as she doesn't play golf. A shooting party, perhaps?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/donald-trump-uk-visit-queen-elizabeth-presidents-barack-obama-george-bush-ronald-reagan-a8422391.html

[Stavros]

I guess few people are surprised at the garbage the President delivered on his visit to the UK-

President Trump has falsely claimed that the Queen inspected her Honour Guard for the first time in 70 years - all because of his visit to the UK.

The Queen actually inspects her Honour Guard many times a year and does so for important events such as visiting heads of state.
Of the president’s claim, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams (http://richardfitzwilliams.com) told The Independent it is "obviously total fiction."
Calling Trump’s comment “inane,” Fitzwilliams pointed out how it could not possibly be true - the Queen was 22-years-old 70 years ago and had not yet taken the throne.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/donald-trump-queen-elizabeth-guard-of-honour-inspection-false-claim-a8452041.html

The Queen had her own way of 'commenting' on the visit of yet another US President- through her jewellery...
On the first day of his visit, she wore a brooch given to her as a mark of friendship by the Obamas. By the end of the trip, it was Queen’s brooches 3, Trump 0
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/jul/18/was-the-queen-sending-coded-messages-to-donald-trump-via-her-brooches-absolutely

And I guess he has some complex about his dad, who he kept saying was born in Germany, when he was in fact born in the Bronx, but then who wants to admit to that? Al Pacino? Ralph Lauren? Jennifer Lopez?

[buttslinger]

Nothing surprises anybody anymore about King Donald.
Nice parasail ride, BTW, Stav. Are the Scottish Gaols nice?
I remember Obama had a blooper with the Queen when he talked through some pomp and circumstance, Chicago doesn't have Queens or the Bronx.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzV8wrnLfS4

[Stavros]

Nice parasail ride, BTW, Stav. Are the Scottish Gaols nice?


Non comprendo, padre.

[filghy2]

Non comprendo, padre.

Well below par, Stavros

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-44832919

[Stavros]

Well below par, Stavros


It has been a manic fortnight during which I was distracted by the heat in London, the gracious cool of its better libraries, and the written word.

John Bolton, presumably en route to the NATO summit violated basic diplomatic protocol by not informing the Foreign Office that he was meeting the European Research Group of MPs in secret -but what did he have to say? Was it a message from his boss saying quite simply, get rid of Theresa May, replace her with Boris Johnson, and go for the hardest Brexit you can get-? For lo, and behold, The President of the USA the day before he was due to meet the Prime Minister, attacked Theresa May and suggested Johnson would make a good PM, mostly because the native New Yorker has lavished praise on the most incompetent President in history, being himself regarded (by his own staff) as the most incompetent Foreign Secretary since Castlereagh.

Of course, this turned out to be 'fake news' (well, his interview did appear in the Murdoch press, not known for accuracy in news reporting), and the next day it turned out Mrs May is wonderful, marvellous...and then Johnson resigned, Jacob Rees-Mogg and his ERG chums started a whispering -well hardly whispering- campaign to undermine May and possibly push the party to force her resignation. As expected, Johnson made a barely coherent resignation speech which showed that two years after he lied his way through what we now know was an illegal campaign, he still has no idea what, in practical terms, Brexit actually means. He also violated the code of ethics that forbids Ministers of the Crown from taking well paid jobs in the private sector for three months after leaving office. Johnson barely a week after resigning went to work as a 'journalist' for the tax-dodging Barclay Bros ridiculous rag, the Telegraph, on a fee of £275,000 or thereabouts, which seems a lot when you consider most of the time Boris will be writing about himself, having little interest in anyone else.

I wonder how this wannabe Churchill felt when the living grandson of Johnson's hero stated in the Commons that as the Leave campaigns in the EU Referendum broke the law the Referendum was tainted, and should be scrapped, and run again...and anyway, what has Scotland got to do with any of this? Does their opinion on Brexit matter?