Plan B Forum

Queen Talks Minority Govt With Aussie Leaders

In a rare public display of personal opinion, the Queen has commented on the state of Australian politics.

Her Majesty met Australian prime minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott during her tour of the country.

Speaking with Mr Abbott, head of the Liberal Party, the Queen said forming minority governments was always problematic.

She was referring to the political situation in Australia, where Ms Gillard had weeks of negotiating before she was able to form a government after elections last year produced no overall winner.

Mr Abbott met the monarch for an audience in the morning room of Canberra's Government House.

The Queen wasted no time raising the issue of the precarious state of Australian politics saying: "It is an interesting time."

Mr Abbott replied: "It is never dull, we play our politics tough in this country and give no quarter, Australian society is always dynamic."

The monarch then said "a minority government is always a difficult thing to organise".

Meeting the Queen, Ms Gillard bowed her head twice, although she has been criticised this week for deciding not to curtsy when the pair first met.

The meeting came as the country's former prime minister, Paul Keating, revealed in his newly published memoirs how he once told the monarch the nation no longer needed her.

Mr Keating says he told the Queen at Windsor Castle in September 1993 that Australians felt the monarchy was outdated.

The former PM, who once so outraged the British press by placing his hand on the Queen's back during a visit in 1992 which saw him dubbed 'The Lizard of Oz', said he told her Australia had changed vastly since 1954.

"I told the Queen as politely and gently as I could that I believed the majority of Australians felt the monarchy was now an anachronism, that it had gently drifted into obsolescence," Mr Keating told The Australian newspaper.
He added that the Queen sat through his remarks, before commenting: "You know my family have always tried to do their best by Australia."

To this he replied: "Yes, I know that ma'am."

Most of the Queen's 10-day Australia trip is focused on the capital Canberra, with outings to Melbourne and Brisbane, before she leaves for Perth.

"You know my family have always tried to do their best by Australia."

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

An Australian accused of "mooning" the Queen in Brisbane yesterday has been condemned by angry Britons.

Sydney's Liam Warriner, 22, admitted to reporters yesterday that he exposed his rear end to the monarch as she travelled along Kingsford Smith Drive on her royal visit.

According to reports, he had the Australian flag wedged between the cheeks of his bare bottom when he exposed himself at about 11.40am.

It was unlikely the Queen saw Mr Warriner's exposed backside, a police spokesman said today.

While flashing a V for victory sign yesterday, Mr Warriner declared "I mooned the Queen".

"Everybody's seen someone's butt, come on. You see it on TV all the time, you see it in movies, it's accepted in PG rated programming these days, but yet it's an offence to the Queen," he told The Courier-Mail.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensl ... z1bkXPelnf

You must know that most Americans consider the Monarchy to be not only pointless but ridiculous

According to a recent CBS News/ New York Times poll, Queen Elizabeth II has a 61 percent favourable rating among Americans, with a mere 7 per cent holding an unfavourable view of the British monarch (a further 25 per cent are undecided). That compares with an average job approval rating this week of 45.5 percent for the US president according to RealClear Politics, with some recent polls placing him as low as 41 percent.

Prince William was just behind the Queen with 57 per cent approval, with Kate Middleton polling at 45 percent (with 43 per cent undecided, bearing in mind that the survey was conducted almost two weeks ago, before much of the publicity surrounding the royal wedding.) Only Prince Charles was less popular than the polling average for Barack Obama, with an approval rating of 38 percent. The late Princess Diana remains immensely popular in America, with 75 percent of Americans declaring a favourable opinion of her, nine points higher than her approval rating in Britain.

The CBS/New York Times poll also showed strong support in the US for the monarchy in Britain, with 71 per cent saying the Royal family “is a good thing” for the British people, with just 15 per cent against. A striking 18 per cent of Americans (almost one in five of the electorate) thought a royal family would actually be a good thing for the United States too.

While President Obama is having another “annus horribilis”, with significantly declining popularity at home, Americans retain a great deal of affection for both the Queen and the Royal family. In fact, the Queen’s approval rating in the United States has dropped just 5 points in 58 years since Gallup first asked the American public for their opinion of the new Queen following her coronation, when 66 percent said they had a positive opinion of her.

And as Gallup noted in a report it published in 2002, no woman was admired by Americans more in the period 1948 – 2001 than Queen Elizabeth, appearing no less than 38 times in the top 10 of Gallup's annual survey of the public's most admired men and women, significantly ahead of Jackie Kennedy in second.

Most Americans clearly recognise the huge scale of the Queen’s achievement as reigning monarch for nearly six decades. She has been an impeccable representative for Britain on the world stage, and has epitomised the Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom during the course of no less than 11 US presidencies. The Queen is a model of Anglo-American world leadership, and has won the hearts and affection of the American people from the days of Eisenhower to the present, a towering accomplishment by one of the truly great figures of our time.

dgs49 wrote: I stand by what I wrote. Most Americans think the Monarchy is stupid and ridiculous. As do a large percentage of Britons.

Approval of the Queen and approval of the monarchy are two entirely different things.

The CBS/New York Times poll also showed strong support in the US for the monarchy in Britain, with 71 per cent saying the Royal family “is a good thing” for the British people, with just 15 per cent against.

Most Americans think the Monarchy is stupid and ridiculous.

Stephen Fry: Gilchrist for president! (04:32)

In the first of three exclusive videos with Fairfax Media, Stephen Fry discusses the Queen, reasons for a republic and who would be good as our first Australian president.

http://media.smh.com.au/entertainment/r ... 29196.html

dgs49 wrote:The very idea that people and families are the object of public adoration and esteem, and are maintained in Grandeur at immense public expense, for no reason other than the uterus from which they came, is offensive.