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Tag: Queen Elizabeth

  • Queen Elizabeth celebrates 91st birthday

    Queen Elizabeth celebrates 91st birthday

    Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, the world’s oldest and longest-reigning monarch, celebrated her 91st birthday in a usual low-key fashion on Friday.

    Artillery gun salutes in London’s Hyde Park and at the Tower of London will mark the occasion although the queen, who normally spends her birthday privately, has no formal engagements planned herself.

    Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926 in Bruton Street in central London when Calvin Coolidge was U.S. President and Joseph Stalin had just taken control in the Soviet Union and became queen in 1952 at 25.

    Inspite of her age, she still regularly carries out official duties although she has cut back on the number of engagements in recent years, passing these onto other members of the Windsor family such as to her son and heir Prince Charles and grandsons, Princes William and Harry.

    Polls show she remains very popular amongst Britons and royal aides say there is little prospect of her abdicating.

    Asked if she was well during a trip to Northern Ireland in 2016, she quipped “Well, I’m still alive”.

    The queen has an official birthday in June which is publicly marked with a large parade of soldiers through central London, known as Trooping the Colour.

     

  • Queen of England resumes duties

    Queen of England resumes duties

    Queen Elizabeth has resumed official duties as she continues to recover from a heavy cold that forced her to miss Christmas and New Year Church services.

    A spokeswoman said on Wednesday in London that on resumption, she gave an honour to a member of her staff in a private ceremony.

    “On Tuesday, the queen gave a member of her staff, Raymond Wheaton, the insignia of a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, an honour that usually rewards personal service to her or the monarchy.

    “The private ceremony took place at Sandringham and no pictures were available,’’ she said.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the 90-year-old monarch fell ill before Christmas, and delayed her trip from London to her country estate at Sandringham in eastern England by a day.

    The Queen then took the very rare decision not to attend the festive season church services.

    She has not been seen in public since before she became unwell and Buckingham Palace has said she was recuperating from a heavy cold.

    The spokeswoman added that the queen also sent a personal message of condolence on Tuesday to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan following the New Year’s Eve attack on a nightclub in Istanbul that killed 39 people.

  • Queen Elizabeth to limit involvement in charity work

    Britain’s Queen Elizabeth will step down as patron from a number of national organisations in the coming months after she turned 90 in April, Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Tuesday.

    Her patronage of charities such as the NSPCC, Save the Children and Barnardo, would be passed onto other members of the royal family in due course, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    Also the sporting groups like the Lawn Tennis Association and the Rugby Football Union, would however be passed onto royal family in due course.

    “Her Majesty will continue to serve as patron to hundreds of charities and institutions but will now share this work with her family,’’ the statement said.

     

  • Centenary celebrations: UK minister to deliver Queen’s message

    United Kingdom Minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, will deliver a message from Queen Elizabeth II during Nigeria’s centenary celebrations this week, the country’s Foreign Government Office said on Monday.

    A statement issued in Abuja said Simmonds arrived in Nigeria on Monday to join President Goodluck Jonathan and other dignitaries to celebrate 100 years of Nigeria as a nation.

    “He is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech in which he will address the potentials for Africa and Nigeria’s future,’’ it said.

    The minister’s four-day programme in Nigeria includes a visit to Lagos and Port Harcourt to discuss opportunities and challenges in the Niger Delta.

    “I am excited to be making my second visit to Nigeria and I am looking forward to representing the British Government at the 100 years celebrations.

    “I bring with me the best wishes of the British people, including a message from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth,” Simmonds said in the statement.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that British colonial authorities had on January 1, 1914 amalgamated what were then the separate protectorates of Southern Nigeria and Northern Nigeria.

    The amalgamation gave birth to the single geo-political entity known as Nigeria.

    According to a programme released by the Federal Government, no fewer than 28 world leaders have indicated their interest to attend the celebrations in Abuja.

    President Jonathan will host an international conference on peace and security in Africa on Thursday, which will be attended by many of the world leaders.

    The week-long celebrations will also feature the conferment of honours on 100 Nigerians, with about 40 per cent of the awards to be presented posthumously.

     

  • UK to announce tougher immigration rules

    UK to announce tougher immigration rules

    The government is expected to announce tougher immigration rules as part of its programme for the next year.

    The Queen’s Speech will include a parliamentary bill aimed at making it easier to deport foreign criminals and those who enter the United Kingdom illegally.

    Other bills will cap social care costs in England and introduce a single state pension of £144 a week.

    The Duchess of Cornwall is to attend the State Opening of Parliament for the first time.

    The last time her husband, the Prince of Wales, attended the ceremony was in 1996.

    The Queen’s Speech, part of the State Opening of Parliament, allows the government to set out its proposed bills for the next parliamentary session.

    The list will be read out by the monarch at a special gathering of the House of Lords and House of Commons at about 11:30 BST. Prime Minister David Cameron will then set out the proposals in detail in the Commons, beginning at 14:30 BST.

    Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the BBC while the government would not be publishing the full set of 15 bills, it would set out the main problems it wanted to address.

    After the government’s repeated setbacks in its efforts to deport the radical cleric Abu Qatada, an immigration bill will be announced, allowing foreign criminals to be deported more easily, as well as people who are in the UK illegally.

    If passed, it would also ensure illegal immigrants cannot get driving licences, and change the rules so private landlords have to check their tenants’ immigration status.

     

  • Queen Elizabeth hospitalized

    Queen Elizabeth hospitalized

    … Spends second day in clinic

    The Queen is spending a second day in hospital where she is being assessed for symptoms of gastroenteritis.

    She was taken to London’s King Edward VII’s Hospital from Windsor Castle, where she had been resting, on Sunday – her first hospital stay in 10 years.

    Buckingham Palace said the Queen, 86, had been admitted as a precaution and was otherwise in “good health.”

    All official engagements for this week, including the Queen’s trip to Rome, will be either cancelled or postponed.

    News of her illness first emerged on Friday night and she cancelled a trip to Swansea on Saturday to mark St. David’s Day in a military ceremony.

    However, earlier on Sunday she had carried out a private medal presentation at Windsor Castle.

    A spokesman for the Queen said she was in “good spirits.”

    “This is a precautionary measure,” he said.

    “She was not taken into hospital immediately after feeling the symptoms. This is simply to enable doctors to better assess her.”

    The Queen is expected to remain in hospital under observation for about two days.

    BBC reports that there were unlikely to be regular updates issued about her condition, but there was nothing to suggest she would not make a full recovery.

    There was no sense of alarm from palace officials about the events, the report says.