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American Morning
Queen Formally Opened Parliament Today
Aired November 13, 2002 - 07:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: In a perfect world, it's supposed to be a proud and uplifting moment for the queen of England, but the formal opening of Parliament by Her Majesty earlier this morning could not escape the growing scandal surrounding the so-called "rape tape" and allegations of a royal cover-up -- all of this, of course, caused by the fallout from the butler and the butler trial.
Our own Nic Robertson is standing by outside Parliament to bring us up-to-date on what happened.
Good morning -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, the queen came. She addressed from the House of Lords the members of Parliament, outlining the bills that they will be addressing this coming year -- bills on international crime, bills on social affairs, bills on the health care system. And of course, no mention -- nobody expected her to, and she was never going to address -- the latest allegations.
But the palace has announced just in the last 24 hours that there will be an internal inquiry. But for many people here, that seems to be falling short of what's expected to uncover what happened at the bottom of all of those allegations.
I'm joined by royal author, Robert Jobson.
Robert, in what way does this internal inquiry fall short?
ROBERT JOBSON, ROYAL AUTHOR: Well, I think the very fact that it is an internal inquiry, not an independent inquiry, the fact that it's headed up by a palace courtier, Sir Michael Peat, who is, after all, on the payroll of the Prince of Wales.
And even though the man, Sir Michael, is a very decent and honest man, he will come up -- he promises to investigate this without or favor, it will still lead to questions, well, how can he properly investigate this? He is, after all, a palace courtier. He's always going to fall on the side of the palace.
ROBERTSON: Many of the MPs listening to the queen today during her speech have very serious questions on their minds.
JOBSON: They have, indeed. They obviously wouldn't voice them in front of the queen. Once she's out of the Parliament building behind us, then they will be raising them on the floor of the House of Commons.
I think that they have been saying basically that this is ridiculous. That if there are allegations of a cover-up, if there are allegations that there has been misuse of public gifts, then there has to be an independent inquiry into that. And that's what they are asking for, and I think it's a fairly legitimate thing to say.
ROBERTSON: Robert, thank you very much.
It seems that we can expect more on this story, more in the papers in coming days.
Back to you.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Nic.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired November 13, 2002 - 07:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: In a perfect world, it's supposed to be a proud and uplifting moment for the queen of England, but the formal opening of Parliament by Her Majesty earlier this morning could not escape the growing scandal surrounding the so-called "rape tape" and allegations of a royal cover-up -- all of this, of course, caused by the fallout from the butler and the butler trial.
Our own Nic Robertson is standing by outside Parliament to bring us up-to-date on what happened.
Good morning -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, the queen came. She addressed from the House of Lords the members of Parliament, outlining the bills that they will be addressing this coming year -- bills on international crime, bills on social affairs, bills on the health care system. And of course, no mention -- nobody expected her to, and she was never going to address -- the latest allegations.
But the palace has announced just in the last 24 hours that there will be an internal inquiry. But for many people here, that seems to be falling short of what's expected to uncover what happened at the bottom of all of those allegations.
I'm joined by royal author, Robert Jobson.
Robert, in what way does this internal inquiry fall short?
ROBERT JOBSON, ROYAL AUTHOR: Well, I think the very fact that it is an internal inquiry, not an independent inquiry, the fact that it's headed up by a palace courtier, Sir Michael Peat, who is, after all, on the payroll of the Prince of Wales.
And even though the man, Sir Michael, is a very decent and honest man, he will come up -- he promises to investigate this without or favor, it will still lead to questions, well, how can he properly investigate this? He is, after all, a palace courtier. He's always going to fall on the side of the palace.
ROBERTSON: Many of the MPs listening to the queen today during her speech have very serious questions on their minds.
JOBSON: They have, indeed. They obviously wouldn't voice them in front of the queen. Once she's out of the Parliament building behind us, then they will be raising them on the floor of the House of Commons.
I think that they have been saying basically that this is ridiculous. That if there are allegations of a cover-up, if there are allegations that there has been misuse of public gifts, then there has to be an independent inquiry into that. And that's what they are asking for, and I think it's a fairly legitimate thing to say.
ROBERTSON: Robert, thank you very much.
It seems that we can expect more on this story, more in the papers in coming days.
Back to you.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Nic.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
