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My Lord Mayor,
I am most grateful to you for inviting Prince
Philip and me to this lunch today to mark both my eightieth birthday
and the eighty-fifth birthday of Prince Philip last weekend.
The
Corporation's generous hospitality is well-known, and I have no doubt
that this is now even more the case thanks to the "Great British Menu"
which I look forward to sampling shortly.
Creating a good menu
is a familiar dilemma for any host, but the solution of competitive
cooking is a new concept to me - although I understand there are as yet
no penalty shoot-outs.
My Lord Mayor, as one gets older,
birthdays seem to come round quicker; they are therefore less obviously
excuses for wider celebration than personal moments to count one's
blessings.
As Groucho Marx once said "Anyone can get old - all
you have to do is to live long enough". And there are in my view many
other anniversaries this year which are more deserving of celebration.
I
hope you will permit me to single out two for mention: the Fiftieth
Anniversary of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the Thirtieth
Anniversary of The Prince's Trust.
Both organisations in their
different ways have changed - and continue to change - countless
people's lives for the better. This success has been the result of the
imagination, energy and endless hard work of many dedicated people
combined with the leadership and drive of The Duke of Edinburgh and The
Prince of Wales.
I am very happy to take this opportunity to
draw attention to their achievement and to thank them both for all the
support they give me each and every day.
And as I count my
blessings on my birthday I am aware of the value of the advice and
encouragement that I am lucky enough to receive from every quarter -
from my family, from my friends, from all of you.
My Lord
Mayor, I cannot do better than to use this wonderful occasion to
express my heartfelt appreciation to the many, many thousands of people
from this country and from overseas who have sent me letters, cards and
messages of goodwill over the last couple of months.
This has been truly overwhelming and I would like to thank you all for your kindness.
I would now ask you to rise and drink a toast to:
"The Lord Mayor and the City of London Corporation."
I am delighted to be here at Ascot for the start of the 2006 Royal Meeting, and to open the new racecourse and grandstand.
The many people and organisations who have contributed to the
redevelopment project, within such a challenging timescale, have my
admiration and gratitude. Thanks to their hard work, we can look
forward to many years of racing in a world class environment.
May I wish all of you here today and watching at home a most
enjoyable day's racing. I have pleasure in declaring the new Ascot
officially open.
Ladies and Gentlemen, and children everywhere,
As has been so evident this afternoon British children's literature
has been for many years an extraordinary success story and I am glad
that we have been able to celebrate this great achievement here at
Buckingham Palace this afternoon.
We have been reminded that
this magic of our childhoods - the characters, the stories, the
imagination of it all - is an enduring and essential part of our
culture.
And I hope that this event will encourage you and
the many other children who have been watching this show on television
to read some of the wonderful books from which the characters have
come, and to discover the pleasure of reading.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have made
this unique occasion happen: the authors, the illustrators, the writer
and creators of the wonderful show, the actors here on the stage, the
many who have been working on the production behind the scenes, and
everyone who has contributed in some way to what has been a most
memorable afternoon. I am most grateful to you all.