What are we paying senior royals for, if not to show up at presidential funerals? | Catherine Bennett

Perhaps grandma’s grudge against Jimmy Carter explains why Edward, 14th in line, was sent

That legendary boozer the late queen mother liked to entertain her guests with an “anti-toast”, in which she drank to people she disliked. One day the names ill-wished were “Tony Benn, Idi Amin and Jimmy Carter”. The benign US president featured in the same list as a mass murderer because, she explained, “he is the only man, since my dear husband died, to have had the effrontery to kiss me on the lips”.

This alleged offence was enough for the queen mother to want it remembered, and not as an innocent accident. She believed it was her misfortune, her biographer William Shawcross wrote, to remind middle-aged men of their mothers; she recognised “the glazed look that came over their faces”, and thought this had made Carter reach in for his kiss. “I took a sharp step backwards. Not quite far enough.” So Carter could hardly help becoming aware of the accusation, which “distressed” him.

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