Downing Street Says » Cabinet – The Queen’s Birthday present

» Thursday, April 20, 2006

Cabinet – The Queen’s Birthday present

Asked whether the whole of the Cabinet had contributed to the "whip round" for the Queen’s birthday present, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said yes. Asked if they had all paid the full amount, the PMOS said yes. Asked if that was £30, the PMOS said that he had been brought up to believe that it was not good manners to leave the price tag attached to gifts. As he had said this morning we had consulted the Palace who had told us that the Queen wished her birthday to be marked in a relatively low key way. We respected the Queen’s wishes and the present was entirely appropriate.

Asked if the Queen would be able to return the present if it didn’t fit, the PMOS said that we had gone to considerable efforts to make sure that it was suitable. Asked if it had been purchased on Ebay, the PMOS said that answer was unequivocally no. Asked how the Cabinet knew what she wanted, the PMOS said that there were ways of finding out what people would like. Asked who would give her the gift, the PMOS said that there were appropriate channels for such things. Asked if there was a reason why he was being so coy about the nature of the gift, the PMOS said that generally it was considered bad form to talk about gifts in advance of the gift being given.

The PMOS told journalists that the Prime Minister had conveyed best wishes on the Queen’s birthday tomorrow on behalf of the Cabinet as a whole. Asked by Sky if the Prime Minister has met the Queen today, the PMOS said no. In fact it had been the BBC who had met the Queen today. Asked therefore how the Prime Minister had conveyed his best wishes, the PMOS said that the Cabinet Secretary had passed on the Prime Minister’s words.

Asked when the Cabinet last gave the Queen a present, the PMOS said that there had been a present to mark the Golden Jubilee.

1 Comment »

That is possibly the most amusing piece of briefing I’ve read in a long time!
Comment by Owen Blacker — 26 Apr 2006 on 12:51 pm | Link

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.