The Queen Joins YouTube

British royalty gets its own video sharing channel.

Search around on YouTube and you’ll see something new – The Royal Channel, which was launched(without a trumpet fanfare) yesterday.   Yes, the Queen has finally caught up with technology, not a bad leap from someone who only got her first PC two years ago. To be fair, she’s hardlydone the work herself, since there are undoubtedly royal IT people among the court flunkeys these days. She was persuaded to launch a YouTube channel by her granddaughters, Princesses Eugenia andBeatrice, who are both active on Facebook (so get adding, you royal hunters).   The annual Queen’s Speech, aired every year on television at 1500 GMTwill be on there, along with her first speech, 50 years ago, in which she said,   "I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct. That it ispossible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us." Things have changed beyond recognition in the half century since then,and the channel aims to move with the times, as well as capture history, including that first speech and plenty of vintage footage that predates Queen Elizabeth.   A spokesman at theQueen’s residence, Buckingham Palace, said that it was hoped that the channel would make her Majesty "more accessible to younger people and those in other countries."