{"id":81320,"date":"2017-05-24T15:57:52","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T15:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=26ef65ff22c1bdb7ea09d78c33b4874d"},"modified":"2017-05-24T15:57:52","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T15:57:52","slug":"speech-the-british-high-commissioners-queens-birthday-party-speech-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=81320","title":{"rendered":"Speech: The British High Commissioner&#8217;s Queen&#8217;s Birthday Party Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Your Excellency Minister for Commonwealth, your excellencies ministers here present, senior members of government, traditional leaders, members of the diplomatic corps, esteemed members of the private sector, ladies and gentlemen &#8211; a very warm welcome to the Queen\u2019s 91st Birthday Party.  My thanks to the children of the Arbre a Music music school whose singing and playing we have just heard and will hear more of this evening.  I also wish to acknowledge the staff of the British High Commission who have worked so hard in difficult circumstances to organize this evening\u2019s event.<\/p>\n<p>Yes  Her Majesty the Queen is now 91 years old and is looking forward in particular to the next Commonwealth Summit which will be in London next year on 16 April.<br \/>\nYou may not know that Her Majesty is now the longest reigning monarch in British History.  The Queen has received some extraordinary gifts from around the world including, in 1972 a seven-year-old bull elephant called Jumbo presented by, yes you have guessed it, the then President of Cameroon, to mark her Silver Wedding Anniversary.<\/p>\n<p>Vous avez de la chance, ce soir, parce que notre Premier ministre, Theresa May, a annonc\u00e9 une \u00e9lection g\u00e9n\u00e9rale au Royaume-Uni pour le 8 juin et en vertu de notre loi electorale britannique, car il ne reste que moins de 6 semaines, je ne suis pas autoris\u00e9 \u00e0 commenter sur la politique du gouvernement britannique ou prononcer sur ce que le Royaume-Uni va faire,  ou pas, au cours de l\u2019ann\u00e9e prochaine.  Ca c\u2019est pour notre nouveau gouvernement, quel qu\u2019il soit, de d\u00e9cider apr\u00e8s l\u2019\u00e9lection.<\/p>\n<p>So &#8211; I can see you smiling &#8211; there are two consequences for my speech this evening:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It will be short<\/li>\n<li>You will be spared any self-righteous descriptions of policy, or how much money the United Kingdom is spending on humanitarian support, or in helping Cameroon and other countries in the region fight terrorism, to stand up for human rights, to offer scholarships to help Cameroonians and others to study both in Cameroon and in the United Kingdom<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I can however suggest you read the helpful booklet that has been produced with the help of our sponsors that describes all of this and more.  Please take a copy on leaving this evening.<\/p>\n<p>Alors, qu\u2019est-ce que cela me laisse \u00e0 dire ?   Je voudrais foculiser sur l\u2019avenir du Cameroun.  Je suis tout \u00e0 fait d\u2019accord avec le Premier minister de Cameroon lorsqu\u2019il a annonc\u00e9 \u00e0 Londres lors de la derni\u00e8re mission commerciale Anglo \u2013 Camerounaise, que la prosp\u00e9rit\u00e9 du Cameroun d\u00e9pend en grande partie, du secteur priv\u00e9.  Ce soir, notre sponsor Platinum est Diageo, connu de beaucoup d\u2019entre vous en tant que brasseurs de \u2018Guinness\u2019.  Nos remerciements \u00e0 Diageo, pour l\u2019excellente selection de whisky \u00e9cossais et de la bi\u00e8re servis ce soir.<br \/>\nLe jardin est \u00e9clair\u00e9 ce soir gr\u00e2ce \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9lectricit\u00e9 fournie par Eneo dont l\u2019actionnaire majoritaire est le groupe d\u2019investissement britannique Actis.<\/p>\n<p>And I have a special announcement regarding English wine, yes really it does exist and it is here tonight.  The wine is a fresh, sparkling wine from the Denbies vineyard in Surrey which is available for tasting.  The wine tasting has been provided by the British Water company Biwater who are in the final stages of agreeing the construction of new water supplies in 13 towns around Cameroon.  I could make a terrible joke about \u2018water to wine\u2019 but it is probably better to pass on this.<\/p>\n<p>And in case you would like to connect your mobile phone to the internet you can do so thanks to Vodaphone who are providing a free 4G wifi zone in the garden for all guests this evening.  Vodaphone arrived in Cameroon last year and we wish them well as one of the world\u2019s most advanced telecommunications companies.<\/p>\n<p>Nous sommes \u00e9galement reconnaissants aux autres entreprises britanniques qui ont parrain\u00e9 cette soiree:<br \/>\nJoule Afrique (les barrages hydro\u00e9lectrique et energie solaire);<br \/>\nDe La Rue qui fournit d\u00e9j\u00e0 des passeports camerounais et des timbres fiscaux pour les vins et autres boissons,<br \/>\nNew Age qui a deja investis plusieurs milliards de livres dans le d\u00e9veloppement de forages de gaz natural et qui souhaite construire une usine de gaz naturel liquide au Cameroun,<br \/>\n\u2003<br \/>\nAggreko qui fournit des solutions de production d\u2019\u00e9lectricit\u00e9 et<br \/>\nStandard Chartered Bank qui joue un r\u00f4le essentiel dans le financement d\u2019un large \u00e9ventail de projets et d\u2019entreprises au Cameroun.<\/p>\n<p>I underline the strength of British engagement in the private sector in Cameroon because the future strength of the economy of Cameroon depends on a successful private sector.  Profit and taxes are not dirty words.  They are essential for creating jobs, generating wealth, providing hope and inspiration for milllions of young people.  That is why I am pleased this evening to focus on the private sector and to thank the Chief Executives present this evening for their support, and to wish them, and Cameroon a very successful coming year.<br \/>\nFinally I look forward to the bilateral relationship between Cameroon and the United Kingdom going from strength to strength in the coming year.  We are already partners &#8211; we look to redoubling our efforts to make the partnership even more productive in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>But we must not forget whose birthday party this is.  I ask you now to raise your glasses to toast &#8211; the Queen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A speech by Brian Olley as delivered on 27 April 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}