| Submit your comments on this article |
| Britain |
| Bush’s visit devastates Palace gardens |
| 2003-11-24 |
| Hat tip: Drudge. Edited for brevity. The Queen is furious with President George W. Bush after his state visit caused thousands of pounds of damage to her gardens at Buckingham Palace. Royal officials are now in touch with the Queen’s insurers and Prime Minister Tony Blair to find out who will pick up the massive repair bill. Palace staff said they had never seen the Queen so angry as when she saw how her perfectly-mantained lawns had been churned up after being turned into helipads with three giant H landing markings for the Bush visit. The rotors of the President’s Marine Force One helicopter and two support Black Hawks damaged trees and shrubs that had survived since Queen Victoria’s reign. And Bush’s army of clod-hopping security service men trampled more precious and exotic plants. The Queen’s own flock of flamingoes, which security staff insisted should be moved in case they flew into the helicopter rotors, are thought to be so traumatised after being taken to a "place of safety" that they might never return home. Wah, f**kin’ wah. More whining at link. I can’t even begin to believe any of this true. I expect that Buckingham Palace is better equipped to handle helicopters and visitors’ security entourages better than this--certainly better than converting a beautiful and exotic garden into an impromptu helipad! Am I supposed to believe W. was the first head of state to visit the Queen so they had to wing all the preparations? |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #12 Isn't it kind of chilly for Flamingos? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-11-24 8:57:24 PM |
| #11 Thanks for the correction, Bulldog. It was 11 years ago since I toured the Tower. The monarchy and the Tower, not the Empire. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-11-24 8:32:48 PM |
| #10 Holy Crap! Whoduh thunk the Queen of England is really the Secretary of PETA at Luminati, Inc? |
| Posted by: Hyper 2003-11-24 7:15:52 PM |
| #9 THAT is what Al Qaeda is going to do! Kill all the Ravens in London Tower! Will they send in a suicide raven with a bomb under its wing you think? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2003-11-24 7:04:56 PM |
| #8 Not the Empire, AP. Legend has it that the monarchy and the Tower itself will fall, should the ravens leave. There's plenty of detail here. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-11-24 6:43:26 PM |
| #7 Yes, Raptor, the wardens keep their wings clipped, so they don't emigrate. Tradition says that if the ravens left the Tower, the empire would fall. The last one out would say "Never More." (or hardly ever more, heh heh) |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-11-24 6:06:45 PM |
| #6 The Tower of London has a flock of Ravens that have been hanging around for 150 years or so(I think). |
| Posted by: Raptor 2003-11-24 5:14:19 PM |
| #5 The helicopters of #32 (Royal)Squadron, RAF, operate routinely at Buckingham Palace, so there are obviously permanent helipads and the flamigoes are used to them. The actual term for the Presidential machine is Marine One, there is no "force" involved, and Al Mirror would clearly know this. Al Mirror is the poor-man's Guardian, the self-appointed voice of the hard-drinking unreformed proletariat on the one hand and of the jihadi immigrant underclass on the other. It is even more tied than its investor-class counterparts to the time-dishonoured traditions of Goebbels and Streicher. This story is amost certainly a complete fabrication. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2003-11-24 5:01:10 PM |
| #4 "Bush’s army of clod-hopping security service men trampled more precious and exotic plants." If you read the article, you find that most of this is ?made up? or speculative. They not sure that it's not the Queens "clod-hopping security service" that caused the damage. These guys were just itching ITCHING to report something bad about the Bush visit. See here! This Bush fellow is SOOOO uncaring about that his people just ran through the Queens garden with regard. I say we bomb the friggin garden, give a REAL reason to bitch and whine. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2003-11-24 4:49:52 PM |
| #3 Queen's Own Flamingos? I've heard of the Ox and Bucks....but not Queen's Own Flamingos. Must be a new unit. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2003-11-24 4:34:23 PM |
| #2 Are they sure it wasn't a flock of reporters that GOT PAST SECURITY and p*ssed in the gardens? We should keep a skeptical view when dealing with the pommies. |
| Posted by: commo 2003-11-24 4:01:40 PM |
| #1 Perhaps they ought to have her out to Crawford... let kill a cow or two. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-11-24 3:40:06 PM |