Tag: Queen

  • : The Queen’s Riddle

    : The Queen’s Riddle

    The Queens Riddle!!!

    At the start of his tenure as president, Obama while visiting

    the UK had dinner with the Queen. Obama, wanting to learn as

    much as he could about governance, leaned toward her and asked;

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    “Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give me?”

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    “Well,” said the Queen, “The most important thing is to

    surround yourself with intelligent people.”

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    Obama frowned, and then asked, “But how do I know if the

    people around me are really intelligent?”

    The Queen took a sip of champagne.

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    “Oh, that’s easy; you just ask them to answer an

    intelligent riddle, watch.” The Queen pushed a button

    on her intercom. “Please send Tony Blair in here, would you?”

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    Tony Blair walked into the room and said, “Yes, your Majesty?”

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    The Queen smiled and said, “Answer me this please, Tony.

    Your mother and father have a child.It is not your brother,

    and it is not your sister. Who is it?”

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    Without pausing for a moment, Tony Blair answered,

    ”That would be me.”

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    “Yes! Very good.” said the Queen.

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    Obama went back home to ask Joe Biden the same question.

    “Joe, answer this for me. Your mother and your father have

    a child. It’s not your brother and it’s not your sister. Who is it?”

    “I’m not sure,” said Biden.

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    “Let me get back to you on that one.”

    He went to his advisors and asked everyone, But none within

    the administration could give him an answer. He even called

    Hillary, she said, “Send in a donation, and I’ll put my whole

    staff on it. Frustrated, Biden went to work out in the congressional

    gym and saw Paul Ryan there.

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    Biden went up to him and asked, “Hey, Paul, see if you can

    answer this question. “Your mother and father have a child,

    and it’s not your brother or your sister. Who is it?”

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    Paul Ryan answered, “That’s easy; it’s me!”

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    Biden smiled, and said, “Good answer, Paul!” Biden then

    went back to speak with President Obama.

    “Say, I did some research, and I have the answer to that riddle.”

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    “It’s Paul Ryan!”

    Obama got up, stomped over to Biden, and angrily yelled into his face,

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    “NO, you idiot! It’s Tony Blair!”

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    …AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS PRECISELY WHAT’S BEEN

    GOING ON AT THE WHITE HOUSE FOR THE PAST EIGHT

    YEARS!

  • Queen’s first tweet: Reply telling Her Majesty to ‘f*** off’ broadcast on BBC News

    Queen’s first tweet: Reply telling Her Majesty to ‘f*** off’ broadcast on BBC News

    WolfgangDikface_bbc_queenThe Queen tweeted for the first time yesterday with the whole world watching – but not everyone was thrilled with her forray into the world of social media, as inadvertently documented by the BBC.

    Her Majesty Elizabeth II took to Twitter to post on the @BritishMonarchy account saying: “It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.”

    According to Independent, the tweet, which was retweeted 36,000 times and favourited 37,000 times, was responded by a curt “f*** off” by a user named @WolfgangDikface, which the broadcaster showed live on BBC News.

    His original response, which has now been deleted, was posted again through a screenshot of his tweet captured on the news report amid positive replies to the Queen from other users of the social media site.

    @WolfgangDikface no doubt got a lot of attention from his tweet and later posted: “New followers: Have a look round, make yourself comfortable but telling an 88 year old woman to f*** off on the BBC is about as good as i get”.

    The British Monarchy account, which has 830,000 followers, is usually updated and managed by palace officials who were announcing the occasion via Twitter in the minutes running up to her first post.

    The Queen was watched by 600 guests at the museum as she took off her glove to get to grips with the touchscreen iPad mounted on a plinth.

    Science Museum director, Ian Blatchford, said as he invited her up to the keyboard: “You made the first live Christmas broadcast in 1957 and an event relished by historians took place on 26 March 1976, when you became the first monarch to send an email, during a visit to the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment.

    “May I now invite you to join me so that you may send your first tweet.”

    A BBC spokesperson said: “Following the Queen’s tweet we showed the British Monarchy Twitter page live. Responses could be seen, including this offensive remark which appeared for less than a second.”

  • Real IRA threatens more ‘executions’ of police and disrupt the Queen’s historic visit

    Real IRA threatens more ‘executions’ of police and disrupt the Queen’s historic visit

    By Rob Hastings

    A member of the Real IRA reads a statement during a 1916 Easter Rising memorial at Cregan Cemetery in Londonderry yesterday
    A member of the Real IRA reads a statement during a 1916 Easter Rising memorial at Cregan Cemetery in Londonderry yesterday

     

    The Real IRA warned yesterday that it planned to kill more police in Northern Ireland and disrupt the Queen’s historic visit to Ireland. At a rally in Londonderry to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule, a masked member of the dissident republican group told supporters that police would be considered “as liable for execution as anyone, regardless of their religion, cultural background or motivation”. In a statement, the group also branded the Queen a war criminal ahead of her first visit to the Republic from 17 to 20 May.

     

    It called on “any young nationalist who may have been sold the lie” that the Police Service of Northern Ireland had been reformed and was non-political to think again. “Those who think they are serving their community are in fact serving the occupation and will be treated as such,” the statement said.

    The rally, held by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, came three weeks after PC Ronan Kerr, 25, was killed by a nationalist car bomb in Omagh, Co Tyrone. The masked Real IRA man formed part of a colour party of seven people, all dressed in full paramilitary uniform. Between 200 and 300 people attended the event, which was monitored by a police helicopter.

    The Real IRA statement said the Queen’s visit was an insult that should be resisted by “all self-respecting Irishmen and women”, and was an attempt to “further the selfish interests of a self-serving elite”. “The Irish people will not capitulate,” it added. “The Queen of England is wanted for war crimes in Ireland and not wanted on Irish soil. We will do our best to ensure she and the gombeen [usurer] class that act as her cheerleaders get that message.”

    Mark Durkan, the MP for Foyle and former leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), condemned the speech, saying: “The Real IRA … is morally and politically bankrupt when they are driven to attack and threaten nationalists who want to serve the community and their country.”

    Police aross the province were kept on high alert all weekend. They fear an attack is imminent and have urged the public to remain vigilant. Dissident groups are said to be keen to use the royal visit to Dublin to their advantage, invoking hatred of the monarchy as a way to stir up deep-seated resentment at political division of the island.

    Earlier, three men appeared in court in Newry, Co Down, charged with possessing guns and preparing for terrorism. Brian Sheridan, 34, Brian Cavlan, 35, and Dominic Dines, 39, were held on Friday in South Armagh. In later searches in the same area, police found explosives and bomb-making equipment.

    The İndependent

  • David Cameron is UKs new prime minister

    David Cameron is UKs new prime minister

    Conservative leader David Cameron is the new UK prime minister after the resignation of Gordon Brown.

    David Cameron and the Queen

    Mr Cameron, 43, is in Downing Street after travelling to Buckingham Palace to formally accept the Queen’s request to form the next government.

    He said he aimed to form a ‘proper and full coalition’ with the Lib Dems to provide ‘strong, stable government’.

    His party won the most seats in the UK general election last week, but not an overall majority.

    In a speech at Downing Street, Mr Cameron said he and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg would “put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and the national interest”.

    He paid tribute to outgoing PM Gordon Brown for his long years of public service and said he would tackle Britain’s “pressing problems” – the deficit, social problems and reforming the political system.

    Mr Cameron stressed there would be “difficult decisions” but said he wanted to take people through them to reach “better times ahead”.

    The Conservatives have been in days of negotiations with the Lib Dems – who were also negotiating with Labour – after the UK election resulted in a hung parliament.

    But the Lib Dems said talks with Labour failed because “the Labour Party never took seriously the prospects of forming a progressive, reforming government”.

    Formal agreement

    A spokesman said key members of the Labour team “gave every impression of wanting the process to fail” and the party had made “no attempt at all” to agree a common approach on issues like schools funding and tax reform.

    “Certain key Labour cabinet ministers were determined to undermine any agreement by holding out on policy issues and suggesting that Labour would not deliver on proportional representation and might not marshal the votes to secure even the most modest form of electoral reform,” he said.

    However Labour’s Lord Mandelson told the BBC they had been “up for” a deal with the Lib Dems, but they had “created so many barriers and obstacles that perhaps they thought their interests lay on the Tory side, on the Conservative side, rather than the progressive side”.

    After it became clear the talks had failed, Mr Brown tendered his resignation and said he wished the next prime minister well.

    In an emotional resignation statement outside Number Ten, Mr Brown thanked his staff, his wife Sarah and their children, who joined the couple as they left for Buckingham Palace.

    Mr Brown said it had been “a privilege to serve” adding: “I loved the job not for its prestige, its titles and its ceremony – which I do not love at all. No, I loved the job for its potential to make this country I love fairer, more tolerant, more green, more democratic, more prosperous and more just – truly a greater Britain.”

    ‘My fault’

    He also paid tribute to the courage of the armed forces, adding: “I will never forget all those who have died in honour and whose families today live in grief.”

    Later he thanked Labour activists and MPs for all their efforts and told them Labour’s general election performance was “my fault, and my fault alone”.

    The Lib Dem and Conservative teams met for hours of negotiations at the Cabinet Office on Tuesday – four days after the UK general election resulted in a hung parliament.

    The talks resumed after Lib Dem negotiators met a Labour team, which followed Mr Brown’s announcement on Monday that he would step down as Labour leader by September.

    But there were signs throughout the afternoon that the two parties – who together would still not command an overall majority in the House of Commons – would not reach a deal.

    Several senior Labour figures, including John Reid and David Blunkett, warned against a coalition with the Lib Dems, particularly if the price involved offering them a referendum on changing the voting system to proportional representation.

    After Mr Brown announced he would be stepping down and would see if Labour could do a deal with the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives upped their offer to a promise of a referendum on changing the voting system from existing first past the post system to AV.

    BBC

  • Queen offers sympathy to Poland after president’s death

    Queen offers sympathy to Poland after president’s death

    The Queen has expressed her “deepest sympathy” to the Polish government and people after the death of President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash.

    Lech Kaczynski

    Gordon Brown said the whole world would be “saddened” and Tory leader David Cameron called it a “black day”.

    Rev Canon Bronislaw Gostomski, a priest at a Polish church in West London, was among those who died in the crash.

    Members of the community in London are gathering at a Polish cultural centre in Hammersmith to lay flowers.

    The president’s wife, Poland’s army chief, central bank governor, MPs and leading historians were among more than 80 passengers on board the flight.

    Officials say his aircraft came down as it tried to land in thick fog at Smolensk airport, western Russia.

    ‘Just speechless’

    Among the dead was the Rev Gostomski, the Polish president’s personal chaplain and the parish priest at St Andrew Bobola Polish Church in Shepherd’s Bush, west London.

    A colleague, Father Marek Reczek, told the BBC Rev Gostomski was a popular figure who had been in office for eight years.

    “It is a very difficult time for our parishioners. Many of them have been coming into the church to pray,” he said. “They have been crying.”

    He said a special mass to honour the memory of Rev Gostomski will be held next Tuesday at the church, starting at 1900.

    At the Polish Information Centre in Hammersmith, Szymon Nadolski said it did not matter if people supported the president.

    “They are still our president and intellectuals,” said the 30-year-old. “I think everybody will be united regardless of who they support.”

    Monika Skowronska, vice chairman of the Polish Social and Cultural Association, said she knew one of the passengers – Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last President of the Polish Government-in-Exile.

    “I’m in complete and utter shock. I am trying hard not to cry. People are just speechless,” she said.

    ‘Biggest tragedy’

    Members of the Polish community in the UK have been e-mailing the BBC since the news broke.

    Marcin, from London, said: “I was shocked when I discovered what happened in Smolensk this morning.

    “It is the biggest tragedy in the history of Poland, because so many very important people have died at the same time.”

    Many of the messages make reference to the purpose of the president’s visit to Russia.

    Maciej, also from London, said: “What makes this news more sad is that they were flying to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, which was such a blow to our nation.”

    The Katyn forest massacre was the mass murder of thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals, carried out by Soviet forces in 1940.

    Sabina Kubica, originally from Krakow but now living in Edinburgh, wrote: “I’m absolutely shocked and deeply sad. This might be one of the darkest days.”

    Mr Brown broke off from campaigning in Scotland to pay tribute to the Polish president.

    “I think the whole world will be saddened and in sorrow as a result of the tragic death in a plane crash of President Kaczynski and his wife Maria and the party that were with them,” he said.

    “We know the difficulties that Poland has gone through, the sacrifices that he himself made as part of the Solidarity movement.

    Mr Cameron said he was a “very brave Polish patriot who stood up for freedom”.

    “He suffered hugely under communism and always stood up for his beliefs, and for his great faith in his country,” he added.

    BBC