This is old news now, but if you don't regularly read world news and such, you may have missed the annual opening of British Parliament on December 3rd. Queen Elizabeth II opened Parliament for the 56th time in her reign, leading a ceremony with over 500 years of tradition and history. Admittedly I am a bit of an Anglophile and have always enjoyed all the pomp and circumstance, so this is stuff I enjoy sharing. The videos below are a little long, but I find them both interesting. If nothing else, its a nice diversion from all the nonsense in the news of late.
above left: The procession leading to the Palace of Westminster is quite extensive. Her Majesty arrives in the State Coach, drawn by four grey horses. Above right: The Queen reads the speech to the Lords and members of the House of Commons.
above: even in her advanced age, The Queen still looks great. Of course, all the diamonds do help. above right: The Queen's jewels, including the Imperial State Crown (which she wears to open Parliament), are priceless and are stored in a heavily guarded room in the Tower of London. Check out this (long but) interesting video about the opening of Parliament:
And here below is Queen Elizabeth delivering her speech to open Parliament. It's a bit of a yawn-fest, but check it out for a spell:
Well, I hope you weren't too bored by all this. I'll post The Queen's Christmas message on December 25th, so she'll make another appearance here again soon. Have a great Thursday.
-Rick Rockhill
5 comments:
You and my stepmom would get along famously... Seriously. She's a HUGE anglophile!
If she's ever in your area, I'll have to get you two together...
We have more than a few Queens right here in Palm Springs, but they don't generally look like that. I mean the crown thingy.. the rest is similar.
Oh my God! That old turtle Gordon Brown was standing right next to David Cameron! No wonder he kept his eyes open for once!
It also amazes me how much the Queen's accent has evolved and relaxed over the past couple of decades, to keep pace with the changing demographics of her country.
The queen is amazing-- what she has had to deal with on the public stage and keep her cool is impressive. One of my friends got to meet her in a reception and also the Queen Mum, who he said in the maybe 15 seconds that he got to talk to her was a trip and a half.
I blogged about the old rich bag last year. I watched this ceremony in 2007 and it is quite boring, but fascinating nonetheless.
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