Queen Made Britain Great

PRESIDENT Barack Obama arrived at Buckingham Palace tonight for his first ever meeting with the Queen.

Mr Obama and wife Michelle swept into the Royal residence in their chauffeur-driven car – known as The Beast – for private talks with the Monarch.

The Queen smiled warmly as she shook hands with Mrs Obama while their husbands looked on.

President Obama then presented the Queen an iPod with footage of her visit to the US in 2007

The Queen was meeting Mr Obama ahead of a Palace reception for G20 leaders and other international organisations.

He had earlier declared the Queen is the number one reason he loves the UK — and why Americans respect Britain.

Asked earlier today by The Sun what he loved about Britain, the President said: “There’s one last thing I should mention that I love about Great Britain and that’s the Queen, so I am very much

looking forward to meeting her for the first time later this evening.

“As you might imagine, Michelle has been really thinking about it too.

“I think in the imagination of people throughout America, what the Queen stands for, her decency and her civility and what she represents is very important.”

President Obama then told how Americans owe a great debt to the British people for backing the US in conflicts.

He talked about the “extraordinary affinity and kinship” between British and Americans.

He went on: “The thing I love about Great Britiain is its people. We owe so much to Britain.”

The US leader stood alongside Gordon Brown in the Foreign Office in Whitehall just hours after flying in from Washington for the G20.

But he refused to be drawn on whether or not he would support the England team for tonight’s World Cup qualifier against Ukraine.

President Obama craftily spotted the diplomatic banana skin and said he would get in trouble if he backed England.

He was also asked by The Sun what advice he would give the PM for a landslide general election victory.

He went on: “The only advice I would give Gordon Brown is the same advice I gave myself during the campaign, which is – every time, good policy is good politics.

TheSun