For a president who would really rather serve guests a burrito or some other Tex-Mex favourite and still be in bed by 10pm, Monday night’s state banquet for Queen Elizabeth II could be a trying time for George Bush. There is the attire — white tie and tails — the first time his administration has risen to such formality. There are the constraints of etiquette — no swigging water out of plastic bottles, or wolfing down food. And then, perhaps most of all, there is the conversation.
As all of Britain knows, the Queen has a grandson, Harry, about to deploy to Iraq, and there has been speculation on America’s public radio network NPR, and elsewhere, about whether the monarch might just say something to America’s commander-in-chief about the war.
Social jitters at the White House aside, the past few days have been good for the Queen. Americans may not be taking the monarch to their hearts the way they did Diana, but they are warm, and above all respectful.
In a week when the celebrity heiress Paris Hilton was sentenced to 45 days in jail for parole violation, Americans evidently seem to find something deeply reassuring about a public figure who can always be counted on for her sense of decorum. The Queen has also won over Americans by sheer dint of her durability. Her first visit to the United States came when Eisenhower was president in 1957, and her return to Virginia after half a century has earned her almost uniformly positive coverage in the press.
The Daily Press, a regional paper, simply printed a giant headline saying: ”A royal treat”. The Virginia Pilot, by reputation the most liberal and progressive newspaper in the state, also plastered the Queen across its front: ”How often do you get to see the reigning monarch, much less in your own town?”
The positive PR comes as a welcome last hurrah for Penny Russell-Smith, the Queen’s press secretary, who is about to step down after 13 years at Buckingham Palace. She has been regarded as a safe pair of hands rather than a spin doctor in the mould of Alastair Campbell. Her successor, Samantha Cohen, an Australian, is seen as belonging to a more modern breed of PR executive, although she is not thought to have had a major hand in the US tour or the management of the Annie Leibovitz photographs.
Americans’ curiousity could also be piqued by having seen the recent Helen Mirren film of The Queen. ”The Queen is someone you can respect no matter what you believe,” said committed royalist Andrew Lannerd, who flew from Indiana to Virginia to see the monarch. Lannerd told the Associated Press he had seen the movie eight times.
”Americans love the movies and they also love the British monarchy, so bringing the two together in such a wonderful way was really popular,” he said.
And Americans seem determined to do this visit right. Even thousands of kilometres away from the Queen’s tour of Virginia, Kentucky, and Washington, DC, American newspapers and television have conducted endless conversations about royal etiquette.
In Louisville, Kentucky, where the Queen on Saturday fulfilled a lifelong ambition by attending the Kentucky Derby, the premier event in the US racing calendar, more than two dozen employees at Churchill Downs track were given a crash course on etiquette. Official caterers for her lunch scoured the state for fresh local ingredients, while Papa John’s, a local pizza chain, offered the entire royal family free slices for life.
Although it was highly unlikely that the tens of thousands getting drunk on mint juleps in the infield would come into close proximity with the Queen, even the correspondent for the Racing Form felt obliged to offer tips on royal etiquette. There is no need for Americans to bow or curtsey, but if the Queen extends her hand, try not to shake too hard. ”If the Queen extends her hand to shake yours, by all means accept. But try to refrain from vigorously pumping the royal arm; a brief touch is preferred.” CNN was even more cautious, warning: ”Do not touch the Queen.”
The day at the races was the Queen’s fifth visit to Kentucky. She has been here on private visits, indulging her passion for thoroughbreds. As on previous occasions, the Queen and Prince Philip stayed with the breeder and former US ambassador to London, Will Farish. ”It always seemed to me that she is at her best with horses and dogs — at least until the grandchildren came along,” said Robert Lacey, a royal biographer. ”Horses are her one great release.”
True, the Queen cannot be described as glamorous, and American reporters have been struggling for the terminology to describe her hats. The monarch also let down her guard enough to make a joke to her doctor about bowel movements in her visit to Jamestown on Friday.
During a tour of the site of the first permanent English settlement, founded 400 years ago this month, the Queen pointed to a bizarre-looking relic said to be a device to cure constipation, and told her personal surgeon: ”You need to have some things like that.”
The crowds have been smaller than expected, although that has been ascribed to the cloud and rain that have trailed her visit. But even the weather has not diminished the excitement of some Americans who continue to see in the Queen a symbol of America’s enduring connection to its past. ”Most of us feel a kinship to England,” said Julia Rose (59) from Richmond, Virginia, who says she can trace her ancestry to the very first English colonialists. ”Our state was named for Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, as are many of our rivers and towns.”
On Monday night, such excitement transfers to Washington, when George and Laura Bush put on their formal banquet for the Queen and Prince Philip, and 130 others lucky — or well-connected — enough to have received an engraved and gold-trimmed invitation. The dinner is the first — and maybe the only — white-tie event of the Bush administration. Even Clinton had only three.
So far, the White House has confirmed the attendance of the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and General Peter Pace, chairperson of the joint chiefs of staff.
The Queen is to host a return banquet at the British embassy on Tuesday night, at which she can include those who did not make the first list — including the first president George Bush.
For an administration mired in war and scandal, Monday’s banquet offers a moment of escape. At the White House, workers have been washing the windows overlooking the Rose Garden, and bringing out photographs of earlier royal visits, including one of president Gerald Ford dancing with the Queen in 1976. The White House florist has ordered different shades of roses for every public room in the building. And Bush, who fancies himself a straight-talking Texan, likes to bestow nicknames on people and isn’t above talking to world leaders while eating a dinner roll, has been issued with a special etiquette guide for the occasion. Oh well, it’s only one night. – Guardian Unlimited Â