Sunday 23 September 2012

Queen Mum is 100

International Express dated August 8th-14th 2000 
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This is the overseas weekly edition of the Daily Express.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon married into the Royal Family in 1923 when she got hitched to Albert Frederick Arthur George Windsor the 2nd son of George V. When the 1st son, Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor abdicated before being crowned it was up to Albert to become George VI and Elizabeth to be his Queen. George VI died in 1952 and their eldest daughter Elizabeth Alexandra Mary became Queen Elizabeth II and her mother became (you’ve guessed it) The Queen Mum.

She outlived her husband by 50 years and died on 30th March 2002.

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Porton Down, where the package of ‘germs’ should have gone, has been involved in secret research on chemical weaponry from as far back as 1916 and has, allegedly, carried out tests on humans. I don’t think Debenhams has.

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Both my parents smoked like factory chimneys. I never have. One of my offspring smokes and the other doesn’t. So there may be something in this. Or not. 

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This is from Peter Hitchens’ column and it comes as no surprise that he would support George W. 

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These items are side-bars to a larger article about the end of the News of the World’s Name and Shame Campaign, which encouraged the revealing of the names and addresses of sex offenders to the public and led to a lynch mob mentality. A classic example of a newspaper-provoked ‘moral panic’ that even led to a paediatrician being targeted by a mob of ignorant ‘concerned citizens’. 

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This is a list of the 100 favourite films up to 1999 based on reviews on the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com). Having seen 79 of them I note that only 6 of my personal top 50 films of the 20th century appear in their top 50. Does this means that I have crap taste or does the rest of the World?

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The Monument to the Women of World War II did materialize and was dedicated by the Queen in July 2005. There is a good photo of it here.

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Having had a liver transplant in 2002 George Best died in 2005 at the comparatively young age of 59.

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There are fewer celebrity biographies and cookbooks than these days, although the dreaded Jamie Oliver does appear (twice!). Nice to see Kathy Reichs, James Lee Burke and Thomas Harris representing the Crime writers and Bill Bryson the travel writers, even if ‘Down Under’ was, in my humble opinion, his least interesting travel book. 




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