God save the Queen sparks row at Commonwealth Games

[Sportsdude]

[DIV class=story][H1]God Save the Queen sparks row at Commonwealth Games[/H1][SPAN class=byline]Last Updated Wed, 01 Mar 2006 23:59:47 EST[/SPAN] [DIV class=text][A href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html"]CBC News[/A][/DIV][DIV class=text]Australia is in the midst of a royal ruckus with news God Save the Queen won't be played when the Queen opens the Commonwealth Games there later this month. [UL][LI][FONT size=1]INDEPTH: [/FONT][FONT size=2][A href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/australia/"]Australia[/A][/FONT][/LI][/UL]

The controversy started with news organizers of the games only wanting the country's national anthem Advance Australia Fair played, except during medals ceremonies. The games, which will be carried on CBC-TV, open on March 15 in Melbourne.

Australia's prime minister said Thursday he disagrees with the decision over the anthem.

"I have absolutely no difficulty myself with the playing of God Save the Queen in the presence of Her Majesty," John Howard said.

"It's just a matter of good manners," he said.

Howard said the royal anthem will be played at a state dinner for the Queen.

And even Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone, who favours making Australia a republic, has spoken out against not playing the anthem.

"How crazy is that?" Vanstone told Australian Broadcasting.

"She is the Queen of Australia, she's coming to Australia on one of her rarer visits, and I think it's appropriate that we show due respect," she said.

An official said organizers had checked with the Queen's protocol office and believed there was no breach.

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[CK]

The Aussies have never been a big fan of the Commonwealth. [/DIV]Geez! In Alberta they named the Highway 2, between Calgary and Edmonton, the Queen Elizabeth II Highway.(QE2 for short).

[Sportsdude]

Isn't The QE2 like the autobahn where you can speed and the cops don't care.

[CK]

lol! no the QE2, or "Highway 2" is just an average 4 - 6 lane highway.

[Sportsdude]

Yeah i know its a regular highway but wikipedia says its called the 'albertabahn' by locals because you can speed on it and the mounties or whoever won't care.

[kitten]

They will care, but there's a lot more road than there is Mounties, so some people will get away with it, but others will get speeding tickets.

[Sportsdude]

Yeah when I went to Niagra Falls a couple of years ago we were on the 401 and I swear we were getting strange looks because people were flying by us. Cars were atleast going 120-140 kph.  We just kept it at 100 but this one semi honked to get us out of the way.  Wish I could have seen more of the country side but we spent too much time at the henry ford museum in detriot and got caught up in a huge ribs and soul fest in downtown detriot so when we got to Canada it was mainly dark. I do remember this cool big red barn on a hill next to the highway. ah.

[former s.consumer]

last time i checked they were not a republic.

shame on the aussies.

god save the queen.