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Queen Elizabeth II pictured with President Mary McAleese and GAA President Christy Cooney as they walk down the tunnel into Croke Park last summer. Maxwells Irish Government Pool
London 2012

By royal appointment: Queen Elizabeth to open London Games

The royal couple will perform the ceremonial role at the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium when the games begin on 27 July.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II and her husband Prince Philip will open the 2012 Olympics this summer, Buckingham Palace say.

The royal couple will perform this ceremonial role at the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium when the games begin on 27 July. They also will open the Paralympic Games on 29 August.

The queen also opened the 1976 Games in Canada, where she is the head of state, while Philip did so on her behalf at Melbourne, Australia, in 1956. The Olympics were last held in the UK in 1948 and were opened by the queen’s father, King George VI.

Meanwhile, a threat by Britain’s largest labour union to disrupt the London Olympics with strikes is “unacceptable and unpatriotic,” Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said today.

Len McCluskey, the head of the Unite union, suggested its members could stage walkouts during the 2012 Summer Games to oppose the Conservative-led government’s sharp austerity cuts. The union says it represents 200,000 public sector workers.

He was quoted as telling The Guardian newspaper that the London Olympics are a justified target for those opposing spending cuts and job losses.

“It is completely unacceptable and unpatriotic what he is proposing,” Cameron’s spokesman Steve Field told reporters. “Most people in this country, including members of that union, think the Olympics is a great occasion for the country and wouldn’t want to see anything happen that would disrupt it in any way.”

Both Cameron and Ed Miliband, head of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party — which receives significant financial backing from Unite — condemned the threat of industrial action.

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Associated Foreign Press