The ballroom was opened with a ball in 1856
Tourists at Buckingham Palace will be able to see the glamour of the royal
ballroom for the first time this summer.
The largest room in the palace is included in the tour during the three months
when the building opens to the public.
The ballroom is 40 metres long, 20 metres wide and 15 metres from its crimson
carpeted floor to its chandelier-hung ceiling.
It is still used as the centre for state entertaining, from the annual
diplomatic reception with 1,500 guests, to special events like Prince Charles
50th birthday celebrations in 1998.
It is also the location for state banquets, concerts and investitures - when the
Queen gives honours, including knighthoods.
When it opens to the public from August, visitors will be able to see a special
exhibition on investitures, explaining the different honours and decorations and
how the ceremonies are conducted.
There will also be screens showing a state banquet in progress.
Despite a Consumers' Association poll, which labelled the palace tour as "dull",
more than two million people, have visited the staterooms since they opened to
visitors in 1993.
~*~
Countess watches St Moritz polo on ice
BY LINUS GREGORIADIS
THE Countess of Wessex was among 3,000 spectators braving the cold yesterday at
the Cartier Polo World Cup in St Moritz.
The matches were played on a frozen lake beneath the Badrutts Rosewood Palace
Hotel, which hosted the competition. It was won by the Cartier team. Other
guests at the tournament, which has been held at the Swiss ski resort for the
past 16 years, included Lady Alexandra Carnegie, a friend of the countess, Lord
Lichfield and the Infanta Dona Elena, daughter of King Juan Carlos of Spain.
Jo Vickers, a colleague of the 35-year-old countess, said that she was there on
"business and pleasure". She was not accompanied by the Earl of Wessex, Miss
Vickers said.
She added: "She is just out here for a couple of days. There was lunch in the
VIP tent and a big presentation after the tournament. There was lots of eating
and drinking."
~*~
Queen to visit Australia's Outback
BOURKE, Australia (Reuters) - When Australians talk of a place that is in the
middle of nowhere,
they call it "back of Bourke".
Now the Queen is set to tour the town of Bourke when she visits Australia in
March on a royal tour.
Bourke is a small, dusty town 400 miles inland from the New South Wales coast.
"The visit to Bourke was confirmed yesterday," a source close to the government
told Reuters on
Monday.
Prime Minister John Howard was in Bourke on Monday during a tour of parts of
rural Australia.
The Queen, who remains Australia's head of state after Australians
overwhelmingly voted last year not to become a republic, is also expected to
visit Wagga Wagga, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Ballarat and Perth
between March 17 and April 2, though other dates and places have not yet been
confirmed.
~*~
Lawyers Debate Qcs' Oath Battle
NORTHERN Ireland's barristers will hold a crunch meeting tonight to discuss the
legal challenge taken by two lawyers over an oath to the Queen..
More than 100 of the province's 500 barristers are understood to have signed a
motion calling for the extraordinary general meeting, due to take place at 5pm
in the Bar Library in Belfast..
It is understood some will propose withdrawing funding from the two junior
counsel seeking to have the Queen's name removed from an oath taken by new QCs..
Normally, just 30 signatures are needed to call a meeting, but such is the
feeling invoked by the issue that over 100 barristers signed..
There were fears the meeting could split along political lines and damage
relationships within the Bar Council..
Legal sources have been quoted as saying the bill for the case to date stands at
£50,000, although the executive committee has not yet signed the cheque..
Barristers Seamus Treacy and Barry MacDonald declined to become QCs rather than
take the oath last month, although ten other barristers, eight of whom are
Catholic, swore the oath..
Those ten QCs sworn in last month could also be temporarily removed during the
judicial review, due to begin on February 10, according to reports..
The current declaration pledges to "well and truly serve Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II and all whom I may lawfully be called to serve in this office"..
But a new declaration proposed by the Bar Council in 1997 omits specific
reference to the Queen..
That form of words was passed to the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Carswell,
who passed it to Lord Derry Irvine, the Lord Chancellor in London, but no change
was made to the wording..
Legal representatives for Mr MacDonald and Mr Treacy have argued that the
declaration discriminates against them as nationalists and is an affront to
their political sensibilities..
They argued the Good Friday Agreement recognised that a person who was British
or Irish, or both, should not be required to do anything which, in effect,
diminished the esteem that may be required as contrary to their political
beliefs..
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