TIMES ONLINE: The Queen is skipping today’s celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Britain’s oldest colony after a row with the island’s pro-independence leader.
Bermuda is commemorating the shipwreck on July 28, 1609, of the Sea Venture, the flagship of a fleet sent to resupply the Jamestown colony in America.
Sailors, including the crew of the visiting Royal Navy destroyer HMS Manchester, will re-enact the 150 settlers rowing ashore on what is now St Catherine’s Beach to start four centuries of continuous settlement of the mid-Atlantic island.
Neither Queen Elizabeth II, the island’s sovereign, nor Ewart Brown, the elected pro-independence Premier, however, will be present for the celebrations.
The Queen was invited and had been considering a visit but decided to skip the festivities after Britain clashed with the island’s elected Government in June over its decision to resettle four former Guantánamo Bay prisoners without asking Britain’s permission.
The four Muslim ethnic Uighurs from China have been transferred to guest-worker housing and are learning English with a tutor. They are trying to get jobs but are all currently recovering from a bout of flu.
A Palace source said that the Queen had no immediate plans to visit Bermuda. >>> James Bone in New York | Tuesday, July 28, 2009
