Back on Australia Day this year—bless, how long ago, how far we’ve come—Prime Minister Tony Abbott made headlines after his decision to award a knighthood to Prince Philip: the Duke of Edinburgh, the longest-living member of the British Royal family, and the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. Justifiable reasons for which Australia’s highest honour were awarded to the man most acquainted with a racially-charged gaffe are yet to fully emerge, aside from Tone’s own admission that the decision was indeed a “Captain’s Call” and later went on to affirm that he was “a very good captain” of the government.
Significantly, one of the most contentious leadership spills in the Liberal Party’s history occurred but weeks after. You want to make these things up. You’d love to make these things up. But you can’t. Because politics in our nation is a farce of the most fascinating and most depressing order.
Overnight, Queen Elizabeth II awarded her husband the Knight of the Order of Australia insignia at a private ceremony at Windsor Castle, attended by Australian High Commissioner Alexander Downer. No official statements by Prince Philip or Queen Elizabeth were made.
What we do have, comrades, is this. I live, breathe and die for the following documentation of the ceremony – an expression of YGTBFKM never looked so delightfully quaint.
Photos by WPA Pool via Getty.
