Queen thanks the public for their support in Diamond Jubilee message


SHE’S reigned over us now for precisely 60 years – and this one promises to be the most emotional of all.

As she celebrates her Diamond Jubilee today, the Queen has revealed in a special message how touched she has been by the British people.

She said: “Today, as I mark 60 years as your Queen, I am writing to thank you for the wonderful support and encouragement that you have given to me and Prince Philip over these years and to tell you how deeply moved we have been to receive so many kind messages about the Diamond Jubilee.

“In this special year, as I dedicate myself anew to your service, I hope that we will all be reminded of the power of togetherness and the convening strength of family, friendship and good neighbourliness, examples of which I have been fortunate to see throughout my reign and which my family and I look forward to seeing in many forms as we travel throughout the UK and the wider Commonwealth.”

Today is always a day of mixed emotions for the Queen because it marks not only the day she became sovereign in 1952 – but also the day her father, George VI, died.

In the past the Queen has spent the day privately, but today she has two engagements planned.

Yesterday the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh braved freezing weather to join the congregation at West Newton Church in the heart of her Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

Wearing a brown Angela Kelly overcoat with a matching hat, the Queen attended the 45-minute service led by Rev Jonathan Riviere. Waiting children handed her flowers before she visited a local Sunday school class.

In her special Diamond Jubilee address, she talked about how life had changed since 1952 – and how she was looking forward to the year of celebrations.

She said: “I hope that this Jubilee year will be a time to give thanks for the great advances that have been made since 1952 and to look forward to the future with clear head and warm heart as we join together in our celebrations. I send my sincere good wishes to you all.”

For the official Diamond Jubilee portrait the Queen was photographed in the Centre Room of Buckingham Palace, overlooking The Victoria Memorial Statue, which commemorates the only other monarch to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee.

Regal: The Queen's Jubilee portrait, taken overlooking the Victoria Memorial statue


2012: The Queen and Prince Phillip - 1952: At their first State Opening of Parliament

Now and then:The Queen and Prince Phillip in a 2012 portrait for the Diamond Jubilee, and in 1952 at their first State Opening of Parliament

Dozens of events are planned for the summer, including a flotilla of a thousand boats along the Thames and a chain of beacons lit across the country.

Yesterday also marked the launch of The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, which aims to create a “lasting legacy” in Her Majesty’s name. It will focus on fighting diseases as well as the promotion of education and culture.

The trust chairman, Sir John Major, said: “It is our hope that individuals, organisations and countries will all wish to contribute to the Trust, as a tangible and enduring way of honouring HM The Queen, and to demonstrate the enormous respect and affection in which she is held, not only within the Commonwealth family, but the wider world.”

A special Diamond Jubilee series of five special stamps has also been launched by the Royal Mail.
Embargoed to 0001 Monday February 6. Undated Royal Mail handout photos of first class stamps to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne (Pics:PA)

Royal Mail: Stamps released for the Diamond Jubilee

The Kings and Queens series includes Edward VII, who features on the 1st class stamp, and a portrait of George V on the 68p stamp. It also includes a portrait of the Queen on the £1.10 stamp.

The Royal Mail will release another four stamps to mark significant events under the watch of the House of Windsor. They will showcase Scott’s South Pole expedition, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s tour of bomb-damaged London during the Second World War, the line-up of England’s famous World Cup winning team from 1966, and the 1994 opening of the Channel Tunnel.

Royal Mail spokesman Stephen Agar said: “The Kings and Queens series of stamps shows a remarkable timeline of royal history, reproducing portraits of every UK monarch since 1399.

“The stamps in this issue are powerful images showing our Kings and Queens at their finest and most majestic.

“There have been some major events during the reign of The House of Windsor monarchs and it is great that we’ve been able to honour some of these.”

- Prince William went on his first operational flight as an RAF search and rescue pilot on the Falkland Islands yesterday.

He is on a six-week tour and spent his first few days acclimatising to the terrain and in briefings.

The Foreign Office insists the tour is “entirely routine”, but Argentinians have protested. Its foreign ministry said the royal, 29, was wearing “the uniform of a conqueror” ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War.

Phil the old fag aged gracefully. Lizzie, on the other hand...

She has stood by passively whilst the once Great Britain has gone down the tubes.

Richard1 wrote:

She has stood by passively whilst the once Great Britain has gone down the tubes.

er she has 2 stay out of politics and does so - unlike her retarded ponce of Wales who has an opinion on just about everything

Dewi_Sant wrote:

Dewi's own personal Lizzie celebrates 60 years as our monarch.

I'm very happy for you, Dewi.

Just one question though (on a diamond jubilee, you can't refuse granting me the goodwill wish of just one answer)



WTF did she do to EARN to be a queen? (besides being born?)

.

jeanv wrote:

Dewi_Sant wrote:

Dewi's own personal Lizzie celebrates 60 years as our monarch.

I'm very happy for you, Dewi.

Just one question though (on a diamond jubilee, you can't refuse granting me the goodwill wish of just one answer)



WTF did she do to EARN to be a queen? (besides being born?)

.

She chose her parents well.

Dewi_Sant wrote:

Richard1 wrote:

She has stood by passively whilst the once Great Britain has gone down the tubes.

er she has 2 stay out of politics and does so - unlike her retarded ponce of Wales who has an opinion on just about everything

she has reserve powers of the Crown but sadly never used. She is entitled to advise and warn.

God bless her though, and many more years on the Throne

jeanv wrote:

Dewi_Sant wrote:

Dewi's own personal Lizzie celebrates 60 years as our monarch.

I'm very happy for you, Dewi.

Just one question though (on a diamond jubilee, you can't refuse granting me the goodwill wish of just one answer)



WTF did she do to EARN to be a queen? (besides being born?)

.

The system works, but to answer your question, her ancestors beat the fuck outta someone else's and obtained the Throne.

The real monarch in bloodline terms is Michael Hastings { note the surname } of Australia

for your entertainment, Prince Philip quotes

The man who invented the red carpet needed his head examined.
About to disembark on state visit to Brazil (November 1968) as quoted in The Reality of Monarchy (1970) by Andrew Duncan

You have mosquitoes. I have the Press.
In a 1966 conversation with the matron of a hospital while on a tour of the Caribbean as quoted in The Reality of Monarchy (1970) by Andrew Duncan

British women can't cook.
Statement of 1966, as quoted in "Long line of princely gaffes" BBC News (1 March 2002)

It seems to me that it's the best way of wasting money that I know of. I don't think investments on the moon pay a very high dividend.
On the U.S. Apollo program, press conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil (November 1968) as quoted in The Reality of Monarchy (1970) by Andrew Duncan

Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed.
In 1981, in reference to an economic recession, as quoted in "Long line of princely gaffes" BBC News (1 March 2002)

If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.
1986 statement as quoted in "Long line of princely gaffes" BBC News (1 March 2002)

If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed.
Said to a group of British students in China in 1986, as quoted in "Long line of princely gaffes" BBC News (1 March 2002)

I just wonder what it would be like to be reincarnated in an animal whose species had been so reduced in numbers than it was in danger of extinction. What would be its feelings toward the human species whose population explosion had denied it somewhere to exist... I must confess that I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus.
Foreword to If I Were an Animal (1987) by Fleur Cowles ISBN 9780688061500

You can't have been here that long — you haven't got a pot belly.
Said to a Briton in Budapest, Hungary in 1993, as quoted in "Long line of princely gaffes" BBC News (1 March 2002)

Aren't most of you descended from pirates?
Said in 1994 to an inhabitant of the Cayman Islands as quoted in "Long line of princely gaffes" BBC News (1 March 2002)

Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.
On a visit to the new National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff, said to a group of deaf children standing next to a Jamaican steel drum band, as quoted in "Deaf insulted by duke's remark" BBC News (27 May 1999)

A gun is no more dangerous than a cricket bat in the hands of a madman.
As quoted in "Deaf insulted by duke's remark" BBC News (27 May 1999)

People usually say that after a fire it is water damage that is the worst. We are still trying to dry out Windsor Castle.
Said on a visit to Lockerbie in 1993 to a man who lived in a road where eleven people had been killed by wreckage from the Pan Am jumbo jet, as quoted in "Prince Philip's gaffes" BBC News (10 August 1999)

You are a woman, aren't you?
After accepting a gift from a Kenyan woman, as quoted in "Long line of princely gaffes" BBC News (1 March 2002)

How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?
Asked of a driving instructor in Scotland, as quoted in "Long line of princely gaffes" BBC News (1 March 2002)

You managed not to get eaten then?
Said to a British student in Papua New Guinea, as quoted in "Long line of princely gaffes" BBC News (1 March 2002)

Do you still throw spears at each other?
Said in 2002 to a Indigenous Australian businessman, as quoted in [news.bbc.co.uk . . . "Prince Philip's spear 'gaffe'" BBC News ( 1 March 2002)

Do you know they're now producing eating dogs for the anorexics?
Said to a blind, wheelchair-bound woman who was accompanied by her guide dog, as quoted in "Philip tells blind woman: 'They've got eating dogs for anorexics'" in The Telegraph (3 May 2002)

Ah good, there's so many over there you feel they breed them just to put in orphanages.
Said while presenting a Duke of Edinburgh Award to a student. When informed that the young man was going to help out in Romania for six months, he asked if the student was going to help the Romanian orphans and was told that he was not, as quoted in "Duke under fire for Romanian orphans 'joke'" in The Scotsman (8 July 2006)

How can you tell the difference between them?
Said to United States President Barack Obama after being told that Obama had met with The Chinese and Russian ambassadors along with David Cameron , "Prince Philip makes a faux pas" at Youtube (1 April 2009)

Well, you'll never fly in it, you're too fat to be an astronaut.
Said at the University of Salford to a 13-year-old aspiring astronaut, who was wishing to fly the NOVA rocket, as quoted in "Gift of the gaffe: Prince Philip’s top ten embarrassing moments" in The Daily Mirror (14 December 2009)

It looks as if it was put in by an Indian.
Of a fuse box , whilst on a tour of a factory in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1999, as quoted in "Long line of princely gaffes" BBC News (1 March 2002)

There's a lot of your family in tonight.
Said in November 2009 to a Mr Patel (a common Indian Surname) at a reception for 400 British Indian businessmen at Buckingham Palace

"Are you all one family?"
Said to black dance troupe Diversity at the 2009 Royal Variety Performance, as quoted in " Prince Philip asks Diversity, 'Are you all one family?'" in The Mirror (20 December 2009)

"Oh, what, a strip club?"
Response to Elizabeth Rendle, a 24-year-old, who, when introduced to the prince, said that she worked as a barmaid in a nightclub, as quoted in "Prince Philip in strip club gaffe" (12 March 2010)

Constitutionally I don't exist.
"Should the royals have real jobs?" BBC News (27 January 2011)

There is nothing like it for morale to be reminded that the years are passing - ever more quickly - and that bits are dropping off the ancient frame. But it is nice to be remembered at all.
Said in a letter to The Oldie magazine after being voted "Consort of the Year". Prince Philip voted 'Consort of the Year' BBC News (11 February 2011)

Is it made with Liffey water?
Said about a pint Guinness at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, as quoted in "Queen tours Guinness storehouse on second day of state visit ahead of historic trip to Croke Park" in Daily Mail (18 May 2011)

he cracks me as does our Phill

Dewi_Sant wrote:

he cracks me as does our Phill

He has a great sense of humour

Unfortunately Old Liz doesn't have her own personal Dewi.

WTF did she do to EARN to be a queen? (besides being born?)

says a Burkina princling of a small tribe

Richard1 wrote:

She chose her parents well.

This is the cornerstone of the aristocratic principle. Well done.

In fact, her parents - the nice-but-dimwitted George VI and his much smarter wife (who really wore the trousers) - were far preferable to Edward VIII and his randy wife. While the latter were Fascist/Nazi sympathisers (she also had an affair with Von Ribbentrop), George VI and Queen Elizabeth were anti-German, although they were strong supporters of appeasement and greatly admired Chamberlain and Halifax, their close friends, while rather distrusting Churchill (understandably).

However, as they had no real say in politics, Churchill became PM anyway. One of our country's biggest advantages is that the royal family don't have any say, and at a pinch can always be overruled/ignored by Parliament.

The present Queen has done very well, and I hope she lasts another decade or so in a usable condition (after all, we don't want to see her suffering from incontinence or dementia during the opening of Parliament, trooping the colour, Commonwealth shindigs etc. live on TV).

None of her children are much cop (she and Phil the Greek were pretty lousy parents), but William might be OK.

Charles' time when the Queen's out of it will be an "interregnum" to give his son time for a proper family life, relatively away from the spotlight until he's 40-50-odd (say, mid-2020s).

The Queen might not be smart enough to abdicate when she's no longer healthy enough to do her duties, but Charles III will be: he'll be an OAP before he's king, and will maybe be good for a decade or two, then he'll pass on the baton. Sorted.

Wulfrun wrote:

Charles III (..) will maybe be good for a decade or two

Which will give the world the same giggling schadenfreude than seeing GW at the helm in the US


.

I have envisiged the British outpouring when Prince Philip dies in 2 years and Lizbeth dies broken hearted four months later. UK fucked.

Congrats, Dewi! I was never one big on Kings or Queens, but I like yours. And I would love to lay the Queen of Jordan, I don't give a rats ass if she is a muslim, she is a knockout!

bloodhound wrote:

Congrats, Dewi! I was never one big on Kings or Queens, but I like yours. And I would love to lay the Queen of Jordan, I don't give a rats ass if she is a muslim, she is a knockout!

Why not fuck a corpses ex-wife while you are at it?

Wulfrun wrote:

Richard1 wrote:

She chose her parents well.

This is the cornerstone of the aristocratic principle. Well done.

In fact, her parents - the nice-but-dimwitted George VI and his much smarter wife (who really wore the trousers) - were far preferable to Edward VIII and his randy wife. While the latter were Fascist/Nazi sympathisers (she also had an affair with Von Ribbentrop), George VI and Queen Elizabeth were anti-German, although they were strong supporters of appeasement and greatly admired Chamberlain and Halifax, their close friends, while rather distrusting Churchill (understandably).

However, as they had no real say in politics, Churchill became PM anyway. One of our country's biggest advantages is that the royal family don't have any say, and at a pinch can always be overruled/ignored by Parliament.

The present Queen has done very well, and I hope she lasts another decade or so in a usable condition (after all, we don't want to see her suffering from incontinence or dementia during the opening of Parliament, trooping the colour, Commonwealth shindigs etc. live on TV).

None of her children are much cop (she and Phil the Greek were pretty lousy parents), but William might be OK.

Charles' time when the Queen's out of it will be an "interregnum" to give his son time for a proper family life, relatively away from the spotlight until he's 40-50-odd (say, mid-2020s).

The Queen might not be smart enough to abdicate when she's no longer healthy enough to do her duties, but Charles III will be: he'll be an OAP before he's king, and will maybe be good for a decade or two, then he'll pass on the baton. Sorted.

there was nothing wrong with Edward VIII. He was verballed due to him wanting peace, Marrying " the woman I love " crap is just that

lookanlearn wrote:

bloodhound wrote:

Congrats, Dewi! I was never one big on Kings or Queens, but I like yours. And I would love to lay the Queen of Jordan, I don't give a rats ass if she is a muslim, she is a knockout!

Why not fuck a corpses ex-wife while you are at it?

Why don't you go back to sucking your boyfriends penis and leave decent folk alone, dickwipe! Just because your a girlyman, like Obambi, and never had no pussy, your really should try it sometime, you may like it better than having your pudding stuffed.

Lord_Haw_Haw wrote:

Dewi_Sant wrote:

he cracks me as does our Phill

He has a great sense of humour

He reminds me of one of them Galapagos tortoises, but he is a funny bugger. I was there to meet him in Mississauga, Ontario, whenever it wos.

I like the Queen. Hope she stays another 4 years so she can beat Victorias record as longest ruling monarch.

DAMN

pippin wrote:

Lord_Haw_Haw wrote:

Dewi_Sant wrote:

he cracks me as does our Phill

He has a great sense of humour

He reminds me of one of them Galapagos tortoises, but he is a funny bugger. I was there to meet him in Mississauga, Ontario, whenever it wos.

Are you for real?

I heard she walked often naked in her Palace.True ?

simplefrench wrote:

I heard she walked often naked in her Palace.True ?

I have photos. you wanna buys some?