THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister, has been accused of showing disrespect to the Queen and embarrassing the nation after she failed to curtsy when welcoming the monarch to the capital.
While Quentin Bryce, the Australian Governor-General, executed a neat curtsy as she greeted the Queen at a military air field in Canberra on Wednesday evening, the Welsh-born prime minister, a self-avowed republican, chose instead to shake the Queen's hand and bow.
Her decision has incensed some quarters of the Australian media and many ardent monarchists.
June Dally-Watkins, an Australian etiquette expert, said Ms Gillard's "wobble" was shameful.
"I thought it was really hilarious and of course very rude," Mrs Dally-Watkins told the ABC.
"If she isn't a royalist, it's not a matter of that; it's a matter of paying courtesy to a queen, to the Queen." » | Bonnie Malkin, Canberra | Thursday, October 20, 2011
While Quentin Bryce, the Australian Governor-General, executed a neat curtsy as she greeted the Queen at a military air field in Canberra on Wednesday evening, the Welsh-born prime minister, a self-avowed republican, chose instead to shake the Queen's hand and bow.
With a name like Quentin, I feel it would have been more appropriate for the execution of a bow! Since when do Quentins curtsy? Since when was Quentin used as a name for girls, women, ladies?
Julia Gillard is an avowed republican. By not curtsying, she was only being true to her principles, I suppose. She'd have been damned by the republicans of Australia if she had curtsied; now she is damned by the monarchists for not curtsying.
Curtsying and bowing are symbolic of inferiority, and submission to a person who is generally considered to be superior. Many modern people have difficulty with such antiquated notions of class. And perhaps rightly so. – © Mark
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