Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Queen Elizabeth Celebrates Her 90th Birthday | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55349855
Caption:

Gun salutes across Britain marked Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday yesterday. Large crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace in London despite the fact that the Queen chose to spend the day at Windsor Castle which is outside of London. She spent time meeting members of the public and toured the town with her husband Prince Philip in an open-back motorcade.

The Queen took lunch at the Windsor Guildhall with a group of 90-year-olds and also received a birthday cake made by Nadia Hussain, the British Muslim woman who won last year’s “The Great British Bake Off” competition. The Great British Bake Off is a BAFTA award-winning British television baking competition.

Nadia, who engrossed the British public during last year’s series, described the extreme anxiety that she felt after receiving a call from the royal palace to commission her with making the Queen’s cake. Hussain chose to make an unconventional cake and tweeted the stages of making it on her twitter page.

With regards to the powers enjoyed by the Queen, there are a lot of them that are unknown to many people; the Queen does not hold a passport, cannot appear as a witness in court, is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act and cannot refuse to sign a bill of parliament. She is above the law and cannot be prosecuted under British law. In addition to this, no written record is made of meetings between the Queen and Prime Minister and neither of them talk about what is discussed between them as this always remains confidential