Obama not to give Queen DVD gift!

Barack Obama is getting lessons in royal etiquette and gift giving. Much time is now being spent on whether the First Lady sits or stands and whether a gold-encrusted boxed collection of DVDs would trump the Wal-Mart bargain that Gordon Brown received! Apparently they were NTSC format and can't be used in the UK. So Brown never got to watch these movies!

It's all a load of rubbish, this business of not trying to put a foot wrong. The harder you try the more likely you are to fall. If I were Obama I'd tell the flunkies in the White House to take a break. Let him just talk naturally to the Queen. She likes normal people not fakes. She will be in 30 minuters of animated conversation with this charming (literally) man and his wife. He doesn't need a prep talk from them.

And as for a gift, well, give him ideas, but don't make a meal of it!

Posted in: Barack Obama,diplomacy,DVD,royal etiquette,The Queen