Brits blame flap over queen's China remarks on her umbrella

In the wake of the embarrassing flap over Queen Elizabeth II's overheard remarks criticizing Chinese officials, Her Majesty kept calm and carried on Thursday, communing with her beloved horses at Windsor Castle.

She was photographed taking in the Royal Windsor Horse Show on the castle grounds, as an extravagant, three-day horse festival (900 horses, hundreds of human performers) was set to begin there later Thursday to celebrate her 90th birthday.

Back in London, the British media were in full blame mode, focused not so much on the undiplomatic remarks she was heard to say ("Very rude," she called Chinese officials), but how her remarks were heard and then broadcast to the world.

How could the beloved and unfailingly discreet queen be caught in such a predicament? The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail, among others, had some answers: Blame the brolly!

That is, blame her plastic, see-through umbrella, trimmed in pink to match her outfit and hat, as per usual. It was raining, as per usual, at the first royal garden party of the season at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday; the queen was holding the umbrella as she mingled so that guests and watching media cameras could see her. ("I have to be seen to be believed," she once said of her role.)

But that plastic somehow reflected sound like the cone of a loudspeaker, according to the Telegraph, amplifying what the queen was saying to a top police official she met and commiserated with over the behavior of Chinese officials during a state visit to Britain last year.

Ordinarily, you can't hear on the media feed most of what the queen says at a garden party, and she rarely says anything very controversial anyway. At such events, she's covered by a cameraman based at the palace who is employed by media networks to supply pooled footage on the queen's activities, transmitted in time for the evening news.

She wouldn't have been overheard by the camera mic if the umbrella had been made of fabric, reported the Telegraph, which went so far as to consult an acoustics expert who said it was “feasible” that the umbrella was to blame.

But not just the brolly. The BBC was attacked for broadcasting her remarks, even though the Beeb does so routinely. (The publicly-owned broadcaster is a routine target of conservative politicians and critics.)

However: The queen uses these see-through umbrellas all the time and this hasn't happened before. Moreover, the umbrella theory doesn't explain how the media camera mic also picked up Prime Minister David Cameron's earlier indiscreet remarks to the queen, while they were inside the palace, about allegedly corrupt African countries.

When the queen footage landed in newsrooms, "the BBC, already aware of the fact that his camera had picked up the Prime Minister’s earlier indiscretion, combed through the footage and heard the Queen’s comments, which were broadcast on the 10 o’Clock News," the Telegraph reported. So, another bad mark against the Beeb.

The Daily Mail tried to shift attention to the alleged bad behavior by the Chinese during the October state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Supposedly, a Chinese security official "spy," posing as a translator, tried to jump in the royal carriage with the queen and the president before their ride down the Mall to the palace. He had to be physically prevented from doing so, according to the Sunday Times report on the incident in at the time.

"When the ruse was rumbled, it led to a furious exchange," the Mail said Thursday.

"British and Chinese security engaged in a tense stand-off during the state visit of President Xi Jinping after a Beijing-based 'spy' tried to get too close to the Queen," the Sunday Times reported in October citing documents and sources in Whitehall.

Meanwhile, the queen's remarks were mostly censored in China, which blacked out the BBC World reports on the flap. But an editorial published in the Global Times, considered a mouthpiece for the Communist Party, attacked "barbarians" and "reckless gossip fiends" in the British media who have blown the incident out of proportion.