Well, whoops.
British Prime Minister David Cameron may have been a little too honest Tuesday
while speaking to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
At a reception, a
television crew picked up a conversation between the prime minister and the
Queen.
"We had a very
successful cabinet meeting this morning talking about the anti-corruption
summit ...," Cameron told Her Majesty. Then, with a bit of a chortle, he
said, "We have got the leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries
coming to Britain ... Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt
countries in the world."
The Queen's
response to these comments is not clearly audible, though the Archbishop of
Canterbury, who was also part of the conversation, can be heard saying that the
current Nigerian president is not corrupt.
Asked whether the
Prime Minister was aware his remarks were being recorded, a Downing Street
spokesman said there were multiple cameras in the room.
An anti-corruption
summit opens in London on Thursday.
But the blogosphere
didn't wait. It erupted Tuesday.
"On the face
of it, it is perhaps one of the most undiplomatic things a prime minister could
say - to describe two countries as fantastically corrupt just hours before
their leaders visit Britain,"
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