arriving at queen’s birthday party at the intercontinental in Kazakh style – late 😉
Jun 12 2009
wish i could find a twitter cl…
wish i could find a twitter client for win mobile 2003se (non-touch) before queen’s birthday party tonight
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Mar 12 2008
I Pledge Allegiance
I remember from my Cub Scout days the promise we would repeat each week “.. To do my duty to God and to the Queen ..” even at the time, I felt a little uncomfortable. I’m not a Republican, but neither do I see the monarchy’s current status as the best for Britain. Anyway, head on over here to read a report that the government is considering offering pupils about to leave school a ceremony where they will affirm their allegiance to the Queen.
I can just about imagine this concept being bought up in some isolated think tank, but to actually publicize it, and imagine it will receive a positive enough response to implement it?
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Jul 25 2007
Queen Tape Gaffe – Taking The Blame
As you may remember from my recent post that had two opposing sides presenting their opinions on a contentious matter, one incident can be reported from differing angles, leading to different conclusions being drawn.
Well, it looks like hacks are now interpreting a media boss’ apology in different ways. Following on from the ‘Queen – Last Post Hopefully‘, ‘Queen Bites Back Post Correction‘ and ‘Queen Bites Back‘ posts, Stephen Lambert, RDF Media’s chief creative officer apologised. Now the Telegraph has presented this as a standard sort of executive style responsibility taking – he is in charge, so he accepts the blame. However the Guardian has headlined their article with an apparent admission that Mr Lambert PERSONALLY made the doctored the tapes himself.
That said, the Telegraph does not go ‘easy’ on RDF, listing accusations of some pretty scummy behaviour in two of their previous series – Masters & Servants as well as Wife Swap. Where adults sign up to be on TV, and are pushed towards one direction by the series production team, I normally see no problem. However, when children are involved, I can’t help but wonder how RDF staff managed to justify this behaviour to themselves… is wanting to gaffer tape a young persons mouth shut, and parade them in public something you would be comfortable explaining to your family?
Well Mr Lambert has quit his position, I’m just wondering if this is enough to make the news journalists (and bloggers 😉 ) look elsewhere for their next targets, or whether any disciplinary action will be taken?
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Jul 17 2007
Queen – Last Post Hopefully
As you may remember from my previous Queen Bites Back and Queen Bites Back Post Correction posts, there was a suggestion that the Queen stormed out of a photo session. This then turned out to be a technical glitch, where video footage was accidentally edited out of chronological sequence, when a promotion video was shown to the press at a launch event.
Well, the BBC appears to have been exonerated, mostly, in the matter, as the independent production company (RDF Media) have held their hands up, and explained it was an (honest) mistake on their part.
Jul 13 2007
Queen Bites Back Post Correction
In a previous entry (the Queen bites back post), I relayed information that the BBC had provided, detailing how the Queen had apparently stormed out of a photo session with Annie Leibovitz. However, the situation has now changed, and it would appear that this footage was ‘mistakenly’ edited incorrectly.
The remarks the Queen made to one of her aides (“I’m not changing anything. I’ve had enough dressing like this, thank you very much,”) whilst apparently walking off, were actually made before the photo shoot took place, and not after Leibovitz was shown asking Elizabeth II to consider removing her tiara. The BBC has apologized for the accidental mistake, and so I thought I should provide an update.
Jul 12 2007
Queen Bites Back
According to a Times Online article, the Queen was not amused at the ‘direction’ given to her by a famous photographer whilst posing. Whether Annie Leibovitz was not properly versed on Royal etiquette, or simply decided to chance it and attempt to push her luck a little too far is not made clear.
Irina and I recently watched the ‘The Queen’ film, and I was actually expecting to not feel any warmth for her majesty, however the portrayal left me re-assessing just how different a universe the Queen lives in, and not just in a positive way. Having to live a large part of your life according to protocol could well leave you feeling prickly when people not close to you make unusual requests.
May 16 2007
Scary Times For Kazakhstan
I thought I’d already linked to KZBlog’s article on the case of a business man who was abducted and beaten, allegedly by a well known figure in Kazakh politics, but I couldn’t find it a moment ago. Anyway, see here.
Then there is the current legal proceedings related to extraditing a man from Russia, to Kazakhstan, where questionable mistakes/errors of judgement appear to have been made. Not only do independently audited records allegedly display that no crime was committed, the charges he was extradited for appear to have been replaced with others, despite this breaking the due process, if reports are valid. Check here.
Now we have the case of a KTK (a Kazakh TV channel) employee who was kidnapped, beaten and held in a cell. His treatment was so shocking that he suffered a stroke. Click here for more info and a further link to a Russian language article on the incident.
On a slightly more light-hearted note, I’ve just come across a picture which look embarrassing enough, without any kind of background information…
Apparently his Supreme Stupidness G W Bush had almost inferred that Queen Elizabeth II was more than 200 years old, and so decided to recover his embarassment by giving a WINK to the Queen!
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