Queen Elizabeth Snubbed! War Declared on France

[Richard]

Things such as this make me not miss life in the embassy.

Richard's $.02

Queen Elizabeth Snubbed! War Declared on France
Bruce Crumley, Time, 28 May 2009

France and England have fought each other in the 100 Years' War, the Seven Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars and scads of less memorably named conflicts. And more recently, the French and English have treated the blood-and-tears clashes between their national rugby and soccer teams as fetishes for those battles of yore. The geysers of bile pouring forth from the London tabloids this week suggests a new chapter in Anglo-French enmity may be upon us. Call it the "Great D-Day Hissy Fit."

The casus belli in the latest cross-Channel spat is the slight dealt by the French government to Queen Elizabeth II in failing to invite her to the June 6 ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the 1944 Allied invasion at Normandy. While the Queen has attended — and also skipped — various previous D-Day commemorations, this year's event seems to have been given heightened allure by the planned attendance of U.S. President Barack Obama, who remains the King of Pop on the diplomatic circuit. British tabloids have gone ballistic over what they see as French President Nicolas Sarkozy trying to hog the Obama-radiated limelight.

"A diminutive egomaniac, the stain of Nazi collaboration and why the French can't forgive us for saving them in the War" was Thursday's headline in London's Daily Mail, above an article filled with denunciation of the French and their leaders as cheese-eating surrender monkeys. For good measure, the paper ran a second story, titled "What did YOUR dad do in the war, Sarkozy?" The Mail's answer to its own question was a report casting dubious aspersions on the father of the French President.

The D-Day contretemps began on Wednesday, after the British tabloids discovered that their sovereign had been snubbed by the French — and was reportedly not amused. And the vitriol went up a notch on Thursday after French officials didn't bother denying they hadn't invited the Queen.

"The June 6 celebration is foremost a Franco-American celebration," said French government spokesman Luc Chatel, noting the event takes place on U.S. territory in Normandy that houses the American military cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer — a detail that appears to ignore the tens of thousands of British and Canadian troops that hit the beaches along with U.S. forces. Chatel provided further ammo for tabloid accusations that Sarkozy was looking to steal the show by stressing that the bilateral nature of the event was of particular significance this year, since it will be the first Obama attends as President.

(cont'd)

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...901621,00.html

[mojaveman]

Tisk, tisk, rather petty old chap...

Really - wish I could have been there for the 50th anniversary in '95 when original members of the 82nd and 101st made a jump.

Gawd save the Queen!

[Scimitar]

Originally Posted by mojaveman

Gawd save the Queen!

I had a LEO friend in Vegas who got some free tickets to this fancy horse thing; jumping and such. He invited two daughters of a mutual friend along (girls and horses etc) and had one ticket left over. He begged me to come along so as to break the boredom of the event.

Upon being told we had a corporate box (I was surprised that horse jumping things had corporate boxes) I thought it sounded like it might be a bit of fun. I was one of the girls Fencing Coach too and we got along alright...so I said "Sure why not".

To cut a short story long, the English fella won the event, and so they started played the English National Anthem (Which many of my fellow Americans think has the lamest lyrics out there (here) , I’d agree but I think there might be a law against that.

Now what you may not know is "God Save the Queen" is also the 'other' official National Anthem of my 'other' country. So I stand up take my hat off and my friend does the same (which I thought showed a lot of respect) and as the first verse comes up I belt out....

"God save our Gracious Queen..."

At the same time he belts out...
"My Country tis of thee..."

We both look at each with a complete look of confusion and then proceeded to cracked up very loudly (poor form old chap).

Later he was overheard saying “It confused the hell out of me when they started played 'America' as they handed the English guy the Gold Medal, but Jack stood up so I thought I should too."

And that's how I learnt how you (us) Yanks ripped of our (there) National Anthem, which by the way I think is the classiest way I’ve ever heard of someone sticking it to an enemy who you just kicked out of your country.

Copy Right Infringement I say!

For those who might be a bit lost here