Inside the Coalition of the Willing

[arisbe]

"The Queen has every right to feel insulted at the way she has been treated by Bush," said a Palace insider.

"The repairs will cost tens of thousands of pounds but the damage to historic and rare plants will be immense. They are still taking an inventory."

Comments

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

I read that one last night and thought it was a spoof at first. Completely unreal. *sighs* And yet, so telling. :(

How are you feeling today?

Our leaders have no respect

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

For the useless trappings of the distant past.

Like the Constitution of the United States.

Better, thanks.

Re: Our leaders have no respect

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

Lovely. That's good to hear.

And I was pretty appalled at the whole visit, honestly. It was badly carried out and far too disrespectful as a whole. It struck me as "George goes to see the Queen". Am I the only one who thinks of Curious George when they think of Dubya?

Re: Our leaders have no respect

[nalidoll.livejournal.com]

please, more respect for the monkey..

he, at least, occasionally listens to the man in the yellow hat.

heh.

Re: Our leaders have no respect

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

That's what we need. We need to find The Man in the Yellow Hat. He can save America!

Not fair

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Our George listens all too well.

Problem is, certain people stole the yellow hat.

Re: Not fair

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

*nods* Good point. Then the Hat needs to be returned to the right people.

Re: Our leaders have no respect

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I have seen an online spoof in which Curious George looks like the prez, without losing his monkey qualities (not difficult). The bit I remember best is his brothers giving him a magic powder to sniff that makes him feel like the biggest monkey in the world.

Re: Our leaders have no respect

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Curious George isn't a well known personage on this side of the Atlantic, but President Bush's resemblance to a monkey is well documented.

[joffridus.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that the American visitors were well-behaved or cared about anything of beauty.

But didn't the British government tell them where to land their helicopters? It's certainly not like they just flew up to the palace and said, "hey that looks like a good spot." And why wasn't there someone telling the TV people where to go?

I don't find it hard to believe that the Americans were not respectful of the place. But I do find it hard to believe that there wasn't a Brit there who's job it was to direct things...

[jfs.livejournal.com]

There is a somewhat heated debate going on in this country (Hi, I'm a Brit.) over who exactly asked President Bush over for his little jaunt. The more cynical parts of our press are suggesting that he basically invited himself and that Tony Blair aquiesed.

There was a lot of very high handed demands made of our police and civil service both before and during the visit, some of which were turned down, others not.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the landing pads were chosen by the Americans and that there was no-one here willing to say "you can't have them there."

[joffridus.livejournal.com]

Well, you guys need to get rid of Blair, that's for sure. But even if Blair aquiesed, why did the Queen get involved?

Maybe because

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Bush invited himself to stay in her home?

Re: Maybe because

[joffridus.livejournal.com]

I find it hard to believe that, as bully-esqe as the U.S. is, the British government couldn't say, "No. The queen has other bizness that day. You can meet with your butt-wiper ... uh, I mean Mr. Blair."

Re: Maybe because

[jfs.livejournal.com]

I doubt we'll know the truth for a long time (30 years ...) but who exactly was going to say it?

The Queen won't, because that would mean that she was making an implicit comment about her attitude to President Bush and his relationship to her Prime Minister.

Tony Blair won't - Bush's visit was important to our Tone, and cements (in his own mind) his position at the Global Leader's club.

The Civil Service? Theirs is not to reason why, theirs but to stand and serve (to mangle two quotes completely).

There is no way that any President of the US could visit the UK and not meet the Queen - it would be an insult of massive proportions.

There is a question about why Bush was treated better than Clinton - if I recall correctly when Clinton visited he didn't get to stay at Buckingham Palace, but I'm guessing that Bush got the special treatment because Tony wanted it that way.

Re: Maybe because

[abishag.livejournal.com]

It was a State Visit- i.e. Head of State to Head of State, arranged over two years ago, long before the Iraq crisis and all that. Even the most important countries can't have one more than every 10 or fifteen years, or the Queen really would have clashes in her timetable. So Reagan was the last US president to get a State visit. Why Bush was next I know not. But he didn't get to address parliament- he was probably relieved!
The irritation over the helicopters really has its roots in the fact that Mr. Bush was the first state guest to refuse to arrive by driving down the Mall in an open carriage (or even a closed car) with the Queen, when that is the regular form of welcome extended to all state visitors on their arrival in London.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

The Queen is in a very strange position in this country. As she is the head of state, it would have been very strange (and quite insulting to President Bush) if she had not met with him.

However, she also stays as apolitical as possible. Which means if the Prime Minister and the government (who technically work for her, and swear allegiance to her) set up a meeting for her with someone, she tends to turn up. She doesn't pick and choose.

And, to be honest, whatever my personal opinions of President Bush are, there's no doubt that having the President of the US visit Britain is a significant occurrence and there should be a level of pomp and ceremony to accompany it.

[joffridus.livejournal.com]

Wow....

Every day I seem to find out more about just how low we've stooped...

sheesh.

How well do the Bushies

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Take direction?

From their point of view the Brits are peons who don't know their place and can't keep thier people in line.

Re: How well do the Bushies

[joffridus.livejournal.com]

True - but landing the helicopters wherever they'd like? It's not like the Bush's were directly directing the helicopter pilots...

Maybe we American's should send a letter to the Queen apologizing for our bumbling idiot of a "leader"?

Re: How well do the Bushies

[(Anonymous)]

or peurhaps you losour americauns should leaurn tou speull.

Re: How well do the Bushies

[jfs.livejournal.com]

See - this is why I don't allow anonymous comments on my own LJ - it acts as a quite reasonable jerk-filter.

Agreed

[joffridus.livejournal.com]

Because one's intelligence is directly related whether or not he has typos in his LiveJournal.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

that makes me want to move, i swear. we are badly governed by gormless yahoos. :(

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I swear I don't believe that Stranger in a Strange Land is a Sacred Prophetic Book, but first the way to get through to the "amiable nonentity" who runs the free world being through his wife's astrologer, and now the storm troops are putting their helicopter and their jackbooted feet in the flowers.

mensis horribilis

[scythrop.livejournal.com]

What an awful month the queen has had, what with the state visit and the undercover footman "exposé." I'm sure I read an article from last week that she specifically asked that no helicopters land in the garden, but I suppose since the palace — unlike, say, Sandringham — belongs to the state there are some things she just has to endure. At least she has a new granddaughter to distract her from her woes.