It is understood that the Queen is keen to meet President Obama. He will be invited to Buckingham Palace when he arrives in UK for the G20 meeting in April. This is a highly unusual meeting as the President is not on an official visit to the UK.

The Queen's last meeting with a US president was with George Bush during his farewell European tour last June when she invited him to Windsor Castle for tea, this was also very unusual as she treats Windsor very much as her home, While Buckingham Palace is much more the office and place of business.

Newspapers on this side of the pond have started to slag off the Obama's already. They consider that the gifts given to the Brown's and their children were inappropriate and lacked any thought.

The Brown's gifts to the Obama's included a pen holder fashioned from the oak timber of HMS Gannet, a Navy vessel that served on anti-slavery missions off Africa.

Another treasure given to Obama is a framed commissioning paper for the HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that came to symbolize British-American goodwill when it was rescued by the U.S. from icebergs and given to Queen Victoria. It is the sister ship of the HMS Gannet.

Finally, Brown gave Obama a first edition of Martin Gilbert's seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill, whose World War II partnership with President Franklin Roosevelt symbolized the U.S.-Anglo alliance.

In return Gordon Brown was given a set of 25 classic American movies to mark his historic visit to the White House.

The Obama's are new at this game and no doubt were caught out by the gesture from Britain, this being the first official visit from Europe.



Now Gordon Brown can add his American Movies to the Bomber Jacket given him by President Bush.

Back home from their travels, Gordon and Sarah Brown held a reception at Downing Street last night to celebrate the work of LGBT campaigners. It was the first time the LGBT community had been invited to a reception at number 10. The event, held to mark LGBT History Month, was due to be held in February, but was postponed due to the death of David Cameron's son Ivan. (David Cameron is the leader of the opposition)

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