The Diplomat
The British ambassador, Alex Ellis, welcomed some 500 guests to his residence last Thursday to celebrate the official birthday of King Charles III. Among them, the ambassadors of Andorra, Canada, Poland, Austria, Turkey, Morocco and Malta, as well as representatives of companies important for the commercial relationship between the UK and Spain such as AMFresh or Cellnex.
The monarch celebrated his third official birthday since taking the throne on 14 June. He did it in London leading the acts of the Trooping the colour, a spectacular military parade that for more than 260 years marks the official anniversary of the British sovereign, and which featured the famous British acrobatic patrol Red Arrows.
“This is an opportunity to thank you for your help and participation in all that we are achieving together, two great European democracies, working side by side in turbulent times,” said Ellis.
It is the first celebration of Alex Ellis as UK ambassador to Spain, where he arrived in September last year. In his speech, Ellis praised the close cooperation between the two countries in many areas, giving five examples: the recent political agreement between the UK, Gibraltar, the European Commission and Spain for a future UK-EU treaty on Gibraltar’s relationship with the EU; defence collaboration, both in NATO and the defence industry, with the recent acquisition of the Harland & Wolff shipyards by Navantia; trade represented by Iberdrola’s €28 billion investment; human ties, with exemplary stories such as those of the British Angela McGrath, a British resident in Mallorca who has raised and donated half a million euros to various cancer charities on the island. Or former footballer Juan Mata, founder of the NGO Common Goal, to which footballers can donate 1% of their salary for social causes. Their work has earned them the recognition of King Charles III.
And finally, examples of innovation such as the birth of Amy Isabel, born in London a couple of months ago after her mother’s uterus was transplanted by the team formed by the Scottish doctor Richard Smith and the Spanish surgeon Isabel Quiroga.
King Charles III is a great music lover. In March this year, the monarch released a playlist with some of his favorite songs, including hits from artists like Bob Marley or Kylie Minogue. Many of them sounded in the Madrid celebration thanks to the performances of Groovin Rita and the DJs Two Ex.
A piper of the First Battalion of Scottish Guards of the British Army put the solemn note to the celebration, which had a marked ‘British’ accent thanks to the dress of the guests (blue, red or white, in honor of the British flag) and the decor, with the iconic red phone booth and the ‘black cab’ taxi decorating the enclosure.
