For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 20, 2003
Remarks by First Lady Laura Bush in Media Availability - Buckingham Palace, London
Remarks by the First Lady in Media Availability
Buckingham Palace Museum
London, England
4:20 P.M. (L)
MRS. BUSH: I'll come talk to the press for a minute and tell you
what a wonderful time we're having on our trip here. I want everyone
here in Great Britain to know that this collection, Faberge collection
here at the Queen's gallery opens tomorrow, so people can come see all
these beautiful pieces of Faberge. A lot of things I didn't know about
Faberge, for instance, the carved horses and dogs and animals that
Faberge did, as well as the beautiful, magnificent eggs, which are
mostly associated with Faberge. So I want to encourage people to come
see this.
And one of the nicest things about staying here at Buckingham
Palace is that you can right to these galleries, look around and see
these really beautiful examples of art from the Queen's collection.
And, of course, we're also getting to live with them for the two nights
we've spent here, the paintings, for instance, that in our suite.
So are there any questions about our trip?
Q Mrs. Bush, could you tell us about your meeting with the
families of the war dead today, what you and the President might have
had to say? And whether you heard any concerns from the families about
the course of U.S. and British policy in Iraq?
MRS. BUSH: The families were unbelievably strong. Once again, I'm
struck by the strength of the families of our servicemen and women,
both British and American, who are deployed overseas in Baghdad or Iraq
or Afghanistan.
The families were very strong, they comforted us. We went, of
course, to try to comfort them, but they really ended up comforting
us. Most of them said, stay the course, keep going. They knew that
their sons, in this case, men, sons were totally behind what was
happening, they were proud to be serving for their country. And we
were really proud to visit with the parents and the loved ones.
Q Mrs. Bush, can you tell us how you and your husband have
spent your time in the palace? Have you actually been able to walk
around? What have you done?
MRS. BUSH: Yes. I've gone on tours, I've walked around, I've
looked at the really fabulous paintings that are everywhere, great art
and the beautiful furniture. Yesterday, when I went around on the tour
through the picture galleries of the other areas, I actually saw the
set up for the dinner last night, for the banquet, and that was very
interesting to see, the way the table was set up with actually a
yardstick, a ruler, there so that every place was -- put on the table
with the exact measurements, exactly -- each plate was exactly the same
distance apart. And that was interesting for me to see because, of
course, I'm always involved in the set up when we have a state dinner
at the White House -- we're not exactly that exact, but it was really
fun to see the room set up.
And the flowers here are beautiful, the flowers in our room, the
flowers on the tables last night. And if you walk out -- or if you
came in through the entrance hall here to the Queen's galleries you
would have seen the gold plate that was used last night. In fact,
there is a little card where a piece has been removed from the
collection, that says, this piece was removed because they were used
for the state dinner for the President of the United States.
Of course, during the dinner we got a really close-up view of those
magnificent pieces. Do you call them plates?
CHIEF CURATOR: Silver gilt.
MRS. BUSH: Silver gilt. We call it "vermeil," but I think our
vermeil at the White House is copper, and this is silver, with gilt,
with gold.
Q Mrs. Bush, what do you think of your reception in Britain?
MRS. BUSH: Well, the reception has actually been very, very, very
good. We've met many friends. We've met old friends, people that
we've known for years. Last night at the banquet, one of my husband's
friends from Scotland, that he went over to visit when he was 14, came
to -- my husband went over there when he was 14, and my husband and I
went back for this young man's wedding in 1982, I think, is when he
married -- our girls were one years old.
So we've seen old friends, people we've known forever. We've met a
lot of new friends. Today, at 10 Downing Street, Mrs. Blair invited
authors, some of my favorite authors, English authors, to have a chance
to meet, and that was really a thrill for me. I met writers whose
works I've admired for years, Tom Stoppard, Ian McEwan, whose book,
"Atonement," I just read. Mary Hoffman, who wrote "Amazing Grace,"
which is a story that I read to American children a lot when I visit
schools. So that was a huge thrill.
We saw the Shakespeare program, the Shakespeare in the Schools
program, and met Chris Grace, who actually designed the Shakespeare
program that school classes -- that 12 through 14 year olds do these,
have written these shortened plays of Shakespeare. They're about 30
minutes long and we saw three different troupes from three different
parts of England.
And right now, our National Endowment for the Arts is touring very
good Shakespeare companies around the United States, to medium-sized
and small towns that wouldn't have the opportunity to see Shakespeare.
And I think this program that I saw today would be a great
accompaniment to those tours for American high school students to get
to preform Shakespeare, as well.
Q And what about the protests, Mrs. Bush?
MRS. BUSH: Well, we actually have not seen that many protests. I
don't think the protests are near as large as everyone was predicting
before we got there. We've seen plenty of American flags, we've seen
plenty of people who were waving to us -- many, many more people, in
fact, than we've seen protestors, who were welcoming us here, and I
appreciate that.
Q Mrs. Bush, can you tell us about your conversations with the
Queen, and how you found her?
MRS. BUSH: I found her very hospitable and very lovely. I had a
really good time being with both Her Majesty and His Highness, His
Royal Highness, Prince Philip and the Prince of Wales, as well.
In many ways they tried to make us feel very comfortable, and you
can imagine that we're slightly intimidated, if you can guess, that
someone from Texas might be a little amazed that they would find
themselves staying at Buckingham Palace. But we've really liked that.
We like a lot of the same things. We have dogs that we love. We
have two little horses on our ranch. So there are a lot of things, a
lot of similarities that we have.
Q How did you react to news of the intruder in the palace?
MRS. BUSH: How did we what?
Q React to that? I understand the President was informed after
his arrival about the Daily Mirror reporter.
MRS. BUSH: I actually just read it in the newspaper. If the
President was informed, he failed to inform me. (Laughter.)
Thanks, you all. Thanks so much. Thanks to all the people of
Great Britain for their hospitality.
END 4:27 P.M. (L)
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