Queen praises Olympians in 3D Christmas message
Broadcast focuses on service, achievement and spirit of togetherness
LONDON, Dec 24, (AFP): Queen Elizabeth II will pay tribute to the London 2012 athletes in her annual Christmas message to the Commonwealth, saying they had inspired the world and drawn people in to the excitement and drama.
The 86-year-old monarch will praise the achievement and courage on show at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in her annual Christmas address, which will be broad- cast in 3D for the first time when it airs at 1500 GMT on Tuesday.
“The Queen’s broadcast this year focuses on service, achievement and the spirit of togetherness,” a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said.
The message was recorded in the central London palace’s White Drawing Room on Dec 7.
“As London hosted a splendid summer of sport, all those who saw the achievement and courage at the Olympic and Paralympic Games were further inspired by the skill, dedication, training and teamwork of our athletes,” Queen Elizabeth will say.
“In pursuing their own sporting goals, they gave the rest of us the opportunity to share something of the excitement and drama.”
The Queen formally opened the Games in dramatic fashion herself, after taking part in a James Bond scene, which ended with the pair seemingly parachuting down to the Olympic Stadium from a helicopter.
It was one of the standout moments from her diamond jubilee year.
Exactly 80 years after her grandfather king George V first started broadcasting a speech on Dec 25, Queen Elizabeth will embrace 3D technology to mark her 60 years as the sovereign.
She has made a broadcast every year since coming to the throne except 1969, because a repeat of the landmark behindthe-scenes documentary “Royal Family” was already scheduled for the holiday period.
In footage released ahead of this year’s broadcast, the monarch is shown wearing 3D glasses to watch back part of her recording.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said the sovereign thought it was “absolutely lovely”.
“We wanted to do something a bit different and special in this jubilee year, so doing it for the first time in 3D seemed a good thing, technology-wise, to do,” she said.
“The Queen absolutely agreed straight away there was no need for convincing at all, she was absolutely ready to embrace something new in this year.”
The speech is one of the rare occasions when the Queen is able to voice her own views, since as a constitutional monarch she has to remain strictly neutral in political affairs.
She writes the speech herself and often draws on her own experiences, while at the same time reflecting current issues.
Members of the royal family are at her private Sandringham estate in eastern England, where they traditionally spend their winter break. Shoppers pass beneath an advertising sign that says ‘You Either Love It Or Hate It’ on Oxford Street in London, Dec 24. Sales in some UK
stores began on Christmas Eve. (AP) bloc shivers and Britain fights severe flooding after heavy rains, holiday-makers and residents in the south of France and in Italy have dug out their shorts and swimwear to welcome an unexpected blast of beach weather.
Temperatures on Sunday climbed to 24.3 degrees C in Biarritz on the Atlantic coast, nearly 12 degrees hotter than the seasonal average, and nudging the 1983 record of 24.4 degrees C.
“These are remarkable temperatures that we do not see every year,” French weather forecaster Patrick Galois said.
In Catania on Italy’s Sicily coast, beach temperatures on Christmas day are forecast to climb as high as 22 degrees C in some places, while in Austria, the small village of Brand at an altitude of more than 1,000 metres (3,200 feet), noted a December 24 record of 17.7 degrees C. Tim Palmer, professor of climate physics at Oxford University, told AFP the weather extremes are explained by the northern hemisphere “jet stream”, a ribbon of air that speeds around the planet high up in the atmosphere. The stream is akin to a length of rope “that you wiggle a bit”, said Palmer — its undulations differing from year to year.
This winter the jet stream is particularly wavy, pulling cold air in over Russia from the far north, and bringing hotter air up from the south over France and its neighbours.
“The question: Is the waviness and the unusual configuration of the jet stream the result of climate change? We don’t know. The models are probably not quite good enough to tell us,” said Palmer, though there was “some evidence” this may be the case. “It is quite possible that carbon dioxide (being pumped into the atmosphere by human activity) is having the effect of making this jet stream waviness more intense,” said the weather expert, but cautioned against apportioning premature blame for what may simply be localised weather glitches.