Found! Greatest ever footage of the Queen, with Ronald Reagan
We hear it suggested a great deal that the internet is a menace, because of the way it is destroying our democracies, killing civil discourse, poisoning the minds of our children, wrecking large parts of the media, and making everyone in general extremely angry. It is well-known that people were not angry until the invention of the internet, which is why there were no wars or religious strife until now.
But sometimes the internet throws up a find so marvellous that it is worth weighing its impact on humanity and concluding that the internet and the web are not all bad.
I have long had a memory of watching a magnificent piece of footage of the Queen talking to Ronald Reagan. It was shocking at the time. The Queen expressed something close to a robust political opinion and Reagan looked impressed. For years I wondered, not constantly, but once every few years, whether it had really happened. Was it a trick of memory? A strange dream? How to check before the internet? We were helpless without it.
Now, Tom Harwood, a student, has found the footage and tweeted it out. Who says the next generation are a feckless bunch?
The footage from 1991 is worth highlighting because it is simply the best footage ever of Queen Elizabeth II, or certainly the best footage involving the Queen, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Nancy Reagan, a waiter on board the Royal Yacht Britannia being asked for decaffeinated coffee by the monarch, and a Bishop from Florida talking about the weather.
After some initial chat from the guests, the Queen seeks decaff coffee for Reagan, the former President. “It’s coming… we try our best,” says the monarch. Is that decaff? asks Reagan. No, that’s for the Queen, says an overawed Nancy. No, it is just coffee, ordinary coffee, says the Queen.
Reagan tries to get things going with a discussion on public spending programmes. And the Queen gets stuck in with a denunciation of how knackered the West is.
Reagan: “Now, if you’ve got two thirds of the fund paying for the bureaucrats and give only one third to the needy people, something’s wrong.”
Queen: “But you see, all the democracies are bankrupt, because… because of the way that the services have been planned for people to grab.”
Reagan then offers a load of old hokum anecdote about supervisors salaries and public sector pay. The Queen concurs, and has the final word.
Queen: “It’s extraordinary… I mean I think the next generation are going to have a very difficult time.”
Was she wrong?
This footage is much better than The Crown. Step back in time. Enjoy the real thing.
You can watch it here, from 6:34.
Thanks to Tom Harwood for finding it.