Buckingham Palace today ruled out the Queen attending next week's official D-Day commemorations in France. Neither she nor any other member of the royal family will join the events to mark the 65th anniversary of the Normandy landings because they have not been invited, the Palace said. Instead, Prime Minister Gordon Brown will represent the UK alongside British veterans who took part in the 1944 invasion that helped defeat Hitler in the second world war. The absence of the Queen from the guest list for this year's D-Day commemorations was perceived by some as a deliberate snub by the French authorities. Officials in Paris responded by insisting she was welcome and blamed the UK government for deciding who should attend what they said was "primarily a Franco-American ceremony". French government spokesman Luc Chatel said: "It is not up to France to determine the British representation." A Palace spokeswoman said: "We would like to reiterate that we have never expressed any sense of anger or frustration at all, and are content with all the arrangements that are planned."Queen 'not invited' to France's D-Day commemorations
Saturday, 30 May 2009
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