Leader: Strewth behind Gillard faux pas may never be known

DID she or didn’t she? Should she or shouldn’t she? The brutal death of Gaddafi may have absorbed the world, while divided eurozone leaders wrangled on the brink of financial catastrophe.

But what petty concerns are these set against the real talking point: did the Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, refuse to curtsey to the Queen for a second time when she met Her Majesty again yesterday? Photographs taken in Parliament House, Canberra, show her performing two shallow bows of the head and then awkwardly outstretching her hand to receive a handshake. After the row the previous day when she declined to curtsey, was this simply a case of overawed confusion – or a second deliberate snub?

Dame Edna Everage – “mortified of Melbourne” – would have known exactly what to do. But at least the encounter was not inflamed by the presence of the Australian cultural attache, Sir Les Patterson. Sir Les, a diplomat of the informal school, would surely have slapped Her Maj on the back, bounced a rugby ball off her chest and declared “Good on ya, old sport” in that manner of greeting that passes for stiff formality in Sydney. From this the Queen was spared. It’s not the awkward curtsey that’s the problem. As Sir Les would ably testify, it’s staying upright while you do it.