Dec. 19, 2012 (TSR) – Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday became the first sovereign monarch to attend a full peacetime cabinet since 1781, when she sat in on a full-length discussion of the political and military situation in Afghanistan and advised ministers that the Queen’s speech next year should be “shorter rather than longer”.
As penultimate official mark of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the 86 year old Britain’s head of state broke a 250 year long historical tradition that the monarch does not get involved in day-to-day political decision-making. She is the first monarch to attend cabinet since George III, during the premiership of Lord North when the American war of independence was raging, and the first female monarch to do so since Queen Anne. The last time a monarch regularly attended was when George I chaired the cabinet in 1717.
Cameron is her 12th prime minister. Only George III, with 14, had more. Such was the break with constitutional precedent, Downing Street had inaccurately briefed the day before that Queen Victoria had also attended cabinet, but this emerged to be untrue. During wartime, Edward VII also went to some cabinet-level meetings, the Guardian said.
The queen showed up in her favorite deep blue color or what the Tory-leaning Daily Mail preferred to call “Conservative blue” and brooch in a Thatcheresque look, just like when the headmistress decides to drop in on a noisy class, everyone was at their best behavior — ties nice and straight, and the headboy making sure all the shoes were shiny, freshly polished and nobody fluffs their lines as they “bowed or curtseyed” and say “Good morning ma’am, great to see you”.
Although she has visited Downing Street before, the Queen was given a lightning tour of No 10, being taken from the Terracotta room to the Pillared room where her ministers stood in line to greet her.
Interestingly, George Osborne, the Chancellor of Exchequer was not introduced as Cameron presented each ministers.
It was during this moment, a guard of honor, that she expressed something sensitive that raised some controversial reactions in Britain.
Referring to her recent visit to the Bank of England and finding out that the country only has 310 tonnes of gold left, worth $16, 8 billion due to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s sale, she told the Chancellor George Osborne, “I saw all the gold bars, which, regrettably, somebody said don’t belong to us.”
With patronizing and superficial smile Osborne replied: “Some of them were sold, but we’ve still got some left.”
Sitting between the foreign secretary William Hague and Prime Minister David Cameron – who gave up the seat he normally occupies, the Queen remained silent during her 45-minute appearance at the cabinet table but, according to the communities secretary Eric Pickles, she took a close interest in the discussion on the Afghan war led by Hague and Philip Hammond, the defence secretary.
In a sign that cabinet is no longer the true epicentre of decision-making it was not until a meeting in the afternoon of the national security council that ministers agreed a 4,000 troop drawdown next year in Afghanistan.
The meeting, BBC said, began with the Chief Whip Sir George Young talking about the change to royal succession rules, to allow a first-born girl to become head of state even if she has a younger brother.
On the advice of Buckingham Palace, the cabinet clubbed together to give the Queen 60 lacquered table mats showing images of the palace and its grounds taken from the Royal Archive. Number 10 said the table mats can withstand temperatures of 100C. The cabinet also submitted a donation to her jubilee charity, but the prime minister’s spokesman refused to disclose its size.
In a further gift to the monarch, the Foreign Office declared that a tract of frozen land about twice the size of the UK in Antarctica was to be named after her as Queen Elizabeth Land.
The land, over which Argentina also claims sovereignty, had been previously unnamed. It is around 169,000 square miles (437,000 sq km), making up just under a third of the land mass of the British Antarctic Territory. The UK is 94,000 square miles (244,000 sq km).
Hague said: “The British Antarctic Territory is a unique and important member of the network of 14 UK overseas territories. To be able to recognize the UK’s commitment to Antarctica with a permanent association with Her Majesty is a great honozr”.
The Queen has been on the throne for 60 of the 104 years since the UK claimed territory in Antarctica in 1908.
Britain became the first country to claim Antarctic territory and since then New Zealand, France, Norway, Australia, Chile and Argentina have also lodged official claims to some of the territory although most countries do not recognise them. It is expected that Argentina is going to object formally to the naming of Queen Elizabeth Land at some point later this week.
BRIEF ON HER MAJESTY’S INSPECTION OF THE GOLD VAULT AT THE BANK OF ENGLAND
Much to the surprise of many, the queen on December 13, inspected the Bank of England’s gold, as well as posing a few financial questions to the institution’s officials.
The Royal, who famously asked “why did nobody notice it?” four years ago at the London School of Economics during a discussion on the 2008 financial crash, gave her honest observation and this time suggested that the British Financial Services Authority (FSA) had become a bit “complacent” before the crisis.
“People had got a bit… lax, had they?” she asked in regards to the banking regulators.
Stepping forward to answer her majesty, Sujit Kapadia, who sits on the Bank’s Financial Services Committee, offered a three-fold reason, likening the financial crisis to an earthquake, both being rare events that make them hard to predict.
“A lot was going on under the surface that perhaps regulators weren’t so focused on,” one of the bank’s economists responded.
“The Financial Services – what do they call themselves, the regulators – Authority, which was really quite new… it didn’t have any teeth,” she replied.
Touring with the Duke of Edinburgh, the royal again asked why no one predicted the 2008 financial crash and subsequent downturn.
The queen was in her counting house on Thursday afternoon, inspecting the Bank of England’s gold, as well as posing a few financial questions to the institution’s economic grandees.
The Royal, who famously asked “why did nobody notice it?” four years ago at the London School of Economics during a discussion on the 2008 financial crash, also suggested that the financial services authority (FSA) had become a bit “complacent” before the crisis.
“People had got a bit… lax, had they?” she asked in regards to the banking regulators.
“A lot was going on under the surface that perhaps regulators weren’t so focused on,” one of the bank’s economists responded.
“The Financial Services – what do they call themselves, the regulators – Authority, which was really quite new… it didn’t have any teeth,” she replied.
Touring with the Duke of Edinburgh, the royal again asked why no one predicted the 2008 financial crash and subsequent downturn.
Stepping forward to answer her majesty, Sujit Kapadia, who sits on the Bank’s Financial Services Committee, offered a three-fold reason, likening the financial crisis to an earthquake, both being rare events that make them hard to predict.
“People thought markets were efficient, people thought regulation wasn’t necessary,” he added.
“Because the economy was stable there was this growing complacency. People didn’t realise just how interconnected the system had become,” he said lastly.
When the royals were told that the workers of the bank were there to prevent another such financial catastrophe, the Duke of Edinburgh bluntly said in a teasing manner: “Is there another (crisis) one coming?”
In response to the seeming criticism picked up by television cameras and save face, the FSA released a statement:
“We’ve widely acknowledged that the regulatory approach before the financial crisis in 2008 was flawed and has since been completely changed.”Parliament is now awaiting Royal Assent for the Financial Services Bill, which will determine the powers for the new regulators that will be created next year'”
This was a Miracle in itself and I’m quite sure that the British people know that their Queen is on their side as this unprecedented event speaks volumes as to how much she cares. Indeed, the true voice of the people and hero of Britain.
Perhaps, the Queen can expect Fort Knox for all Americans who wonder where their gold is too. We need a neutral figure to get the the real issues and accountability of leaders talked about.
WATCH OUR FULL VIDEO PRESENTATION FOR THE QUEEN’S AMAZING SOUND BYTES
i thought she was just a figurehead ? lol
damn brainwashed serf-sheep !