Guardian calls for access to Buckingham Palace garden
Guardian columnist Madeline Bunting has called for The Queen to pull down the walls of the Buckingham Palace garden in time for the 2012 Olympics. She argues that the public should be given unlimited access to one of the few remaining green areas in Central London not accessible to the public.
She completely misses a couple of key points.
The first point is the security of The Queen. If there was unfettered access to the garden of the palace, it would make the job of guarding The Queen almost impossible, as it would be either difficult or impossible to close down any sort of area to keep tourists far enough away from The Queen’s private apartments.
Secondly, unlike the rest of us, The Queen can’t just wander into any of the public parks that surround the palace. Like everyone else should be able to enjoy the outdoors, and if the garden was open to the public, she would hardly be able to walk around it!
It’s hardly unusual that the head of state has a private garden, visitors can’t just wander around the gardens of the White House as they feel like it. In New Zealand the Governor General’s house in Wellington has associated gardens. Neither the house nor the gardens are generally accessible to the public.
We would love to see greater public access to Buckingham palace and the gardens, but Britain is not a communist country and we can’t just take over other people’s space.
For more information about this story: Open those gates, Ma'am
Filed under: Buckingham Palace