The Monarchy officially launched itself into the future yesterday when the Queen and the Royal Family went on-line.
The official Web-site of the British Monarchy can be found at http://www.royal.gov.uk
When One heard that Her Majesty was to go gadding about in cyber-space, One thought it would be fun to join her. One was hoping to be allowed to take One’s mouse through the State rooms of Buck House, glance through the family photo-album and be able to send a few little notes for Ma’am to reply to.
Unfortunately her loyal subject was less than impressed, in fact we were not even amused!
One can sign the visitor’s book, which is lovely, but One would have welcomed the chance to invite her Majesty the Queen and her immediate family to surf into One’s own home. But, it seems that the Royal E mail is only one-way. One did get to see a few snapshots of Royalty and the odd palace ceiling, but, quite frankly, One can see better royal photos in the Daily Mail.
One can also pootle down to 10 Downing Street, Parliament and Her Majesty’s forces from the Royal Web; it is all dreadfully exciting!
And, there is a marvelous history of The Monarchy that skips daintily over the horrid bits. The kiddies will find it very helpful when they’re doing their prep-work.
In addition, One can find out all One needs to know about Palace visiting hours and the Royal diary. One would not like to make the long trip up to Balmoral, only to find that there is no one at home. Although, One could have gotten up to Scotland and back in the time that it takes to download the Castle’s information page. Her Majesty seems to be having problems with her server, indeed the Royals have had a few staffing difficulties this week.
One was slightly bemused that the site was situated only along one side of the screen, the left side at that, rather worrying, One feels that this was rather a waste of space.
One has quite a few reservations about the whole layout of the site, the press releases, although informative, look like they have been typed on an old ZX Spectrum. However, looks of course aren’t everything. One did find One’s way around very easily and that is coming from somebody who wandered around Hampton Court maze for two days, before stumbling on the exit!
