As the Queen's Diamond jubilee year comes to a close, she made another piece of history today by becoming the first monarch since King George III in 1781 to attend a cabinet meeting in Downing Street.

The Queen attended the weekly meeting and sat in the PM's chair, flanked on either side by Mr Cameron and Mr Hague, who announced that the southern part of the British Antarctic Territory covering 169,000 miles had been named Queen Elizabeth Land in her honour.

While the Queen is head of state, her involvement in day-to-day political decisions is largely informal, although after a general election she is responsible for appointing a Prime Minister. This visit has been seen as a "constitutional landmark.

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