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Queen gives email royal thumbs down

We prefer a letter doncha know

A small comment from Government whip Graham Allen has revealed that email does not get the royal approval.

One of Mr Allen's jobs is to inform HRH Liz II what's going on every day in Parliament. Traditionally, this daily briefing is written in a letter and delivered by horse (well, a bloke on a horse).

Mr Allen - ever the New Labour third-way kind of guy - has managed to get rid of some the daft ways of doing things. The horse has been swapped for a bike, and he no longer walks backwards having delivered a message from the Queen. He has also stopped wearing full morning dress while sending/receiving such letters.

However, when Mr Allen suggested that the palace was brought forward a little and the letter was instead delivered by email, he was immediately rebuked. Seems that the Queen (or, more correctly, the uppity palace staff) don't like this sort of thing. Mind you, it's not a very long way from the Houses of Parliament to Buckingham Palace, so bearing in mind the government's recent attempts at Internet technology, it may be wiser (and faster) to get the news by letter.

The Queen is also likely to be twice shy, having been bitten to the tune of £30,000 by mapping company Getmapping.com (now without the .com suffix). ®

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