Queen drops French for the menus at IOC banquet

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/19/nbanq19.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/02/19/ixportal.html

It was a small gesture, but a pointed one, and designed to underscore the Queen's staunch support for London's Olympic bid.

As members of the International Olympic Committee attended a banquet last night, Buckingham Palace abandoned tradition to present each with a menu card written not in French, but English.

For as long as anyone can remember menus at the Queen's official banquets have been written in French, generally regarded as the international language of cuisine.

But, with Paris one of four cities vying for the 2012 games alongside London, there were no doubts as to where the Queen's sentiments lay. She even banned French wines from the menu, replacing pre-prandial champagne with Nyetimber 1995, an English sparkling wine, and choosing Commonwealth wines from Australia and New Zealand to accompany the meal.

[whathappened]

1. what is this

with the french , just because they wanted no part in the lie's about iraq they have been hit from us and the queen now , do they rember where the nice satue came from just out side of ny

[Briar]

2. Unfortunately

the Brits have always hated the French. It's a mindless, stupid, engrained prejudice that the gutter press and politicians like Bliar are only too happy to encourage. This is nothing to the twists of logic whereby Bliar blamed the French for the Iraq war.

[Benbow]

4. Like most generalisations, this is 99.999 per cent false

and horribly misinformed. I am a Brit, everyone in my family speaks French (one of my brothers teaches French, and my father's accent was so good that he was often mistaken for a Frenchman), and we are all immensely francophile. In Britain, anyone who becomes successful financially buys a property in France: in the Dordogne (which is sort of England in France during the holiday months), or Provence.

Less well-off Brits already have a tradition of popping over to France just for the day, and coming back stocked up with wine and other good things from the French markets. We admire and imitate their haute couture and culture and the French style and quality of life. Our language is peppered with words borrowed from the French.

Have I made my point? I don't know where you get your disinformation from: perhaps all your Brit sources are football hooligan school drop-outs, or perhaps you read only Murdoch-owned newspapers? (Murdoch is an Australian media-baron.) And not once, not once has Prime Minister blamed the French for the Iraq war. (Whereas more than half the UK blames the Republican administration for the godless mess that is the Iraq war and aftermath.)

[Anarcho-Socialist]

5. I agree, most British people love France

There is also a friendly sporting rivalry between the two countries, but it's out of mutual respect.

[TomClash]

6. Almost no one posting on DU reads or listens to Murdoch Media

But people talk about British-French relations as if Waterloo happened yesterday.

[tsuki]

7. But we are all stained by it. It permeates our society. I was so

unhappy to hear that Canada allowed the Hate Channel.

[T_i_B]

3. Paris is bidding for the Olymics in 2012

As is London and NY. Apparently that is what is behind this.

Paris has the Stade De France and as such should have the games IMHO anyway. I for one do not think it is worth saddling London with the Olymics as such events tend to land the host cities with crippling debts. That is what happened to my home town of Sheffield when we hosted the 1991 World Student Games. A lot of debt incurred by the city for a lot of white elephant projects, and a lot of the same people such as Richard Caborn who were behind that debacle are behind the London Olympic bid.

[Flagg]

8. That's some pretty cheap shot, your Majesty.

[left is right]

9. You are all reading way too much into this

This is simply high stakes competition for London to win the Olympics away from Paris. Naturally, the queen will put everything English over anything France in this situation. And if England does not have a suitable equivalent itself, they will naturally turn to Canada, Austrailia, or New Zealand. This was about helping the IOC committee to think London not Paris.

[fortyfeetunder]

10. Please, this was not Blair and Bush influenced?

(sarcasm on) Guess she didn't want to associate her meal as Freedom cuisine and Freedom wines to be served (sarcasm off)

[frustrated_lefty]

11. It sounds like

the petulance of royalty, which happens to be one of the prerogatives of royalty.

It's irrelevant. The athletes from each nation will treat one another with respect. This is simple posturing, but kinda funny in its way. Personally, I think the queen should insist frog-legs be put on the menu.

[Straight Shooter]

12. IMHO, it's tacky to abandon an elegant tradition for the sake of sports

I understand the importance of the Olympics to those who participate and those who promote, but this is a tasteless maneuver on the part of the queen. I can see bush doing this, but I always thought of Britain as proponents of decorum. Must we all bow and scrape to the mighty dollar which the Olympics will bring? :eyes:

[Swede]

13. Much ado about nothing. eom