Coronation Roll
‘WHEN Denise Van Outen admitted to stealing an ashtray from Buckingham Palace, the papers reacted with shock and indignation.
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| An artist’s impression on the suspect |
Why, they asked, hadn’t the ashtray gone the way of so many other Royal freebies and been fenced to raise money to pay off the Queen Mum’s gambling debts?
And how was it that Van Outen got her grubby little paws on it without one of the undercover reporters who make up the Queen’s household noticing?
But as files released at the National Archives yesterday show, pinching stuff from the Queen has been going on for as long as she has been in the job.
The Telegraph says that at a time when austerity still ruled, even the distinguished guests at her coronation in Westminster Abbey in 1953, weren’t above a bit of pilfering.
‘It was found, early on Coronation Day, that much of the lavatory paper had been removed,’ a post-mortem of the big day records, ‘and in future it will be necessary to take steps to prevent this.’
What those steps were and whether or not they have been successful we don’t know, but our sympathies go out to the Queen.
There’s nothing worse than sitting down on the throne and finding you’re out of bog paperÂ…’
Posted: 20th, August 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
