The Hindu : Streaker at Queen's tea party

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 24, 2003

International

International

Streaker at Queen's tea party

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON JULY 23. Some 8,000 people had tea with the Queen on Tuesday. I was one of them-and there was the streaker, a teenager who tried to add spice to the proceedings as he dropped his pants and sprinted across the lawns of Buckingham Palace to greet Her Majesty shouting `Wahey'. But he was quickly intercepted by security and whisked away.

The 17-year-old streaker, not immediately identified, was not a gatecrasher, but an invited guest who had come to the Queen's Garden Party with a family of four. He might have embarrassed his family, and the Queen, but one Left-wing MP, who was at the party, `applauded' him for showing "naked loyalty to the Queen''.

The distraction came as the Queen was greeting her guests, and initially it was not clear what the commotion was about. Those close to the scene of action cheered as a burly guard in full ceremonial dress pinned the streaker to ground while a bemused royal family, which included Prince Charles, looked on.

Police said there had been no security breach, but that did not stop people from comparing it with another recent incident in which a stand-up comic, dressed up as Osama bin Laden, managed to sneak into Prince William's birthday party at Windsor Castle.

The garden party is an annual summer hardy, which she chooses to perform as a public relations drill, and the caterers take care of the rest. So, there we were — queuing up at the gates of Buckingham Palace punctually at 3 p.m., clutching our passport, or our driving licence as proof of our identity. And then on to the manicured lawns of the Palace after passing through two large halls (modestly described as `rooms' in the information brochure) — and into the care of the caterers who ensured an uninterrupted supply of tea, coffee, and heaps of cakes and pastries even through all the commotion caused by the streaker. Happily, the ambience was unapologetically English with no fake concessions to multiculturalism. And nobody was missing their samosas or pappadoms.

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