MetaChat - Thanks to a series of connected tubes

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26 December 2006

Thanks to a series of connected tubes it's now possible for everyone to partake in UK Christmas tradition and listen to the Queen's Christmas message, something that has been happening since 1932.→[More:]
When the royal family was more influential, many families wouldn't open their Christmas presents until they had gathered around the radio/TV to listen to the broadcast. For many children, my mum included, this meant an agonising wait until after 3pm before they could see what Father Christmas had brought them. Since 1993, Channel 4 has broadcast an alternative Christmas message.

post by: TheDonF at: 06:36 | 8 comments

Eh, the queen's speech has only been held since 1953, actually.

posted by Skrik 26 December | 07:23

Er, er, the king used to dress up in drag to do his speech and insisted on being called a queen by his servants. Yes, that's it. If he ever becomes king, Charles has promised to honour the tradition. Either that or I made a mistake. Your choice :)

posted by TheDonF 26 December | 07:31

England's such a different society from America, you have one queen, and we have..so many.

posted by jonmc 26 December | 09:56

There is something about the phrase, "The royal podcast" that made me laugh and laugh. It sounds like one of those silly names Anthony Trollope liked to use in his novels.

posted by JanetLand 26 December | 10:37

Also there's a typo on the page! I am shocked.

posted by JanetLand 26 December | 10:41

The Royal HTML has errors?

We Are Not Encoded.

posted by jonmc 26 December | 10:44

It's a little disappointing that the official site has a .gov URL. I realise that the monarchy has no power in this country any more and I'm not particularly a fan, but it would have been nice to have given them a better domain name.

The site has a list of all of the Queen's speeches including the one from 1992 that marked the 40th anniversary of her accession and includes the oft-quoted "annus horribilis".

posted by TheDonF 26 December | 12:17

I'm not sure what's so bad about .gov.uk (except that only the US gets the "real" .gov), but there's nothing preventing them from registering kingsandqueensandprincesohmy.com.

I'm trying to imagine a royal blog.

"We were just reading over at Margretha.dk HRH's thoughts on the Salic Law modifications by Sweden which retroactively permit HRH Victoria of Sweden to succeed her father ahead of her brothers, and we would just like to reiterate that we are not intent on making any changes in the event that HRH Charles should meet an untimely death -- playing polo, shot by a certain jealous ex-husband, something like that. Not that we are suggesting anything, but we are merely surprised.

We would also like to call my attention at this time to our grandson Harry's milblog. He'll be keeping all of you abreast of his deployment to Iraq, and posting funny party pictures and that sort of thing. We have told him no more Nazzy uniforms, you can be sure of that!"

posted by stilicho 27 December | 05:34

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