Her Majesty The Queen shares Instagram post

To celebrate the visit of The Queen to the Science Museum, Her Majesty formally opened the new Smith Centre by sharing an archive image on the @theRoyalFamily’s Instagram account.

The @theRoyalFamily’s Instagram account was set up in 2013 to share images and content of The Royal Family, their work, family celebrations and anniversaries and to invite interaction from followers across the world. To date, the account currently has 4.5 million followers.

The Queen’s Instagram post was published when Her Majesty touched the screen in the Smith Centre before invited guests.

As part of the visit to the Science Museum, Her Majesty had an opportunity to view iconic communications objects from throughout history, including an enigma machine and the computer on which the World Wide Web was created.

The Queen has long been a supporter of digital communications tools, and Her Majesty sent her first tweet during her last visit to the Science Museum in 2014.

In a similar act, The Queen launched the first British Monarchy web site in 1997.  Her Majesty sent her first e-mail in 1976, during an engagement at a military base, the text appears below in the timeline.

There is a long association between The Queen and the Royal Family and Technology.  Please find following a timeline commencing in 1878 with an entry referring to The Queen's great great grandmother, Queen Victoria.

Background

The advent of radio, television and the internet have meant that it is possible for images and audio of the Royal Family to be seen across the world by millions of people.

Below is a timeline charting how the Royal Family have kept up-to-date with new technologies throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

1878 – Queen Victoria meets Alexander Graham Bell and tries out his new invention, the telephone. ‘A Professor Bell explained the whole process which is most extraordinary’, the Queen wrote in her diary.

1918 – The first ever mass communication from a reigning British Monarch is sent out when a letter from George V is reproduced and distributed to all returning prisoners of war using lithography: ‘The Queen joins me in welcoming you on your release from the miseries and hardships, which you have endured with so much patience and courage.’

1932 – King George V makes his first Christmas Broadcast via radio: ‘I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all; to men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them’.

1937 - The Coronation procession of George VI becomes the first televised outside broadcast.

1940 – The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) makes her first ever radio broadcast accompanied by Princess Margaret on Children’s Hour on the BBC: ‘In wishing you all 'good evening' I feel that I am speaking to friends and companions who have shared with my sister and myself many a happy Children's Hour’.

1947 - The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) dedicates her life to the service of the Commonwealth via a radio broadcast from South Africa on her 21st birthday: 'I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service'.

1953 – The Queen allows television cameras inside Westminster Abbey for the first time during a State occasion for her Coronation. An extra half a million TV sets are sold in the weeks running up to the event.

1957 – The first live Christmas Broadcast on television. During her speech, Her Majesty mentions the benefits of new technology: ‘That it is possible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us ... television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes’.

1958 – The Queen makes the first phone trunk call from Bristol to Edinburgh.

1976 – The Queen becomes the first Monarch to send an email during a visit to an army base.

1997 – The Queen launches www.royal.gov.uk during a visit to Kingsbury High School in Brent.

2002 - 3,521 journalists from over 60 countries are accredited via an Internet-based virtual press office to cover events to mark The Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

2006 – The Christmas Broadcast, or ‘Queen’s speech’ is podcast for the first time.

2007 – The Queen launches the first official British Royal Family Channel on YouTube

www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel

2008 – The Queen uploads a video to YouTube during a visit to the ‘Google’ offices in London.

2009 – A redeveloped version of www.royal.gov.uk is launched by The Queen.

A British Monarchy Twitter account is launched www.twitter.com/royalfamily

Collectively there are now four official Royal Twitter accounts - @RoyalFamily, @KensingtonRoyal, @ClarenceHouse and @TheDukeofYork.

2010 – The Queen visited Research in Motion (RIM) headquarters in Toronto on her visit to Canada

A British Monarchy Flickr account is launched www.flickr.com/photos/britishmonarchy

A British Monarchy Facebook account is launched www.facebook.com/TheBritishMonarchy  

2011 – The first ever YouTube Live stream took place. Millions of people around the world were able to watch The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding in real-time.  

2013 - The British Monarchy Instagram account is launched www.instagram.com/theroyalfamily

2014 - The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry took part in the first Royal Google Hangout at Buckingham Palace, to mark the launch of The Queen's Young Leaders Programme. They talked to four people aged between 18 and 29 from around the Commonwealth about their work to make a difference in their communities.

2016 – A redeveloped Royal Website is launched www.royal.uk

2017 – The Royal Family’s first ever Facebook Live stream took place in the ballroom at Buckingham Palace at a Queen’s Young Leaders Award ceremony. Viewers from around the Commonwealth were able to watch recipients receive their awards from Her Majesty.

2018 – The Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting was live streamed on Facebook for the first time from Buckingham Palace.

Digital viewers around the world were able to watch the moment The Prince of Wales delivered a message from The Queen live on Facebook in Australia at the opening of The Commonwealth Games.

Both The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding and Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s wedding were streamed live simultaneously on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

ROYAL PRESS

The Duke of Sussex's speech on WE Day

Hello We Day!

It’s a great privilege to be back in this exciting, buzzing space, this time as President of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust; a platform we created for YOU where your ideas and creativity will be taken seriously – 

because it’s YOU that are making the most impact in your communities. 

I am proud to stand before you and see you just as enthusiastic as I remembered. 

With all of that activism, some might think you’d be exhausted – but look at you, (and listen to you) - you know the secret! 

That in giving back, in fighting the good fight, it doesn’t exhaust you, it energizes you. 

To be amongst all of you progressive, motivated, open minded, change-makers, is what gives me hope for the future. 

Your optimism is inspiring - you see opportunities where other people see challenges; you seek solutions when others just focus on problems. 

You are the most engaged generation in history. You care about values, doing the right thing, and championing the causes that will shape your future. 

You don’t judge someone based on how they look, where they’re from, or how they identify. 

In this room, you see the world for what it is - vibrant, colourful, mixed and full of promise.

That is who you are, and that is what makes me feel proud to stand in your presence as you tackle the world’s greatest issues. And you guys know as well as I do, we’ve still got so much to do. 

As far as I see it, there are two absolutely crucial issues that we need to focus on, and my hope is that a 1000 more issues will be cured in the process.

First, let’s take OUR mental health; 

which you’ve embraced whole heartedly, breaking the generational stigma and helping to normalise the conversation. 

After all, mental illness is about recovery, mental health is about consciousness, mental fitness is about well-being. 

To be happy is to be mindful, 

mindful of your feelings, 

mindful of your surroundings, 

and mindful of the 7.7 billion other humans that inhabit this planet. 

And while we’re on the topic of health, let’s talk about the health of our planet too.

Climate change, is a humanitarian issue not a political one, and one where we’ve been far too slow in waking up to the issues and acting on the damaging impact our ways of living are having on the world.

We now have the facts, the science, the technology and the ability to save not just our planet, but ourselves. 

I know you don’t sit back and wait for solutions, you take action and create them. 

Our world’s greatest assets are threatened every day and it is SO important that we support local communities to safeguard every element of this incredible world.

Every forest, every river, every ocean, every coastline, every insect, every wild animal. Every blade of grass, every ray of sun and every rain drop is crucial to our survival. 

It is all connected, we are all inter-connected. You in this room understand that and are already making this a safer, healthier and more resilient home for all of us and for generations to come. 

And for that I applaud you. 

If we look at the world we’re living in, 

I know it can feel challenging sometimes, but your role is to shine the light. 

Every day you are inundated with an overexposure of advertising and mainstream media, social media and endless comparisons, distorting the truth, and trying to manipulate the power of positive thinking. But you don’t let them sway you. 

Because you don’t need to hide behind your device to share your voice. You confidently voice your opinions because you can embrace them proudly. 

As my wife often reminds me with one of her favourite quotes by Martin Luther King Jr. - “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

You aren’t always going to agree,
you may find yourselves frustrated with the older generation when it seems like they don’t care.
But try to remove that judgment. 

Try to remember that not everyone sees the world the way you do,
but that doesn’t mean they don’t care. 

It means you have the incredible opportunity to help reshape mindsets, to empower those around you to think outside the box,  and to work with you, not against you, to find solutions. 

You know that if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything. 

So let that be your true north, let that be your call to action - to inspire those who stand for nothing, to stand for something -and to stand WITH you. 

So what’s next, what’s on your to-do list starting now...

Be braver

Be stronger 

Be kind to each other

Be kind to yourselves

Have less screen time, and more face to face time 

Exceed expectations 

Eliminate plastics

Conserve water

Protect wildlife and their unique habitat

Keep empathy alive 

Ask your friends how they are doing and listen to the answer

Be honest

Take risks 

Change your thoughts and change the world

Dare to be the greatest generation of all time

I am with you, we are with you!

ROYAL PRESS

Black advisers claim they were 'targeted' by Met Police

Staff reporter(wp/bbc):::

Three prominent, black community advisers have claimed they have been wrongfully searched or arrested by the Metropolitan Police.

The men work with police in London on youth violence but said their treatment harmed race relations with the force.

It comes 20 years after the MacPherson report said the Met was "institutionally racist" over its handling of Stephen Lawrence's murder.

The force has denied allegations of racial profiling.

It said the officers in the men's cases acted appropriately.

About 14% of Met officers are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

While this was the highest proportion in England and Wales, the 2011 census showed a far higher proportion of Londoners, 40.2%, identify as BAME.

As a result the force has said it wants to recruit 250 extra BAME officers a year.

Ken Hinds, the chair of the Haringey Independent Stop and Search Advisory Committee, has worked for decades to promote community cohesion.

In April, he was arrested after intervening in the search of a young black man near his home in north London.

He told the BBC: "This officer pushed me out of the way. I asked him not to put his hands on me.

"The next thing I know I'm under arrest for obstruction and assault, accused of head-butting."

Mr Hinds was charged and found guilty of assault.

But his conviction was quashed nine months later by an appeal judge who said the assault did not take place.

He said: "The community was so incensed by my arrest that we held a public meeting and decided we weren't going to deal with the police until my case was settled.

"As soon as I got arrested the whole establishment washed their hands of me.

"Being a black man in this area, it fits the racial profiling that we're the victims and perpetrators of violent crime."

The Metropolitan Police said it had reached out to Mr Hinds, who is in the process of pursuing legal action.

In 2009 Mr Hinds won £22,000 compensation after he was arrested by British Transport Police for watching a stop and search procedure.

Gwenton Sloley has won awards for helping young people escape violent lifestyles.

Mr Sloley said his home in Lewisham was raided by detectives last October, while he was an adviser to the Met Police - the officers were looking for a previous occupant who was involved in drug dealing.

"They totally destroyed the property, ripped off my air-vent, stole money from me, took my children's stuff, phones, earrings, parking tickets, letters, bank statements, pictures of me.

"They know I live here because they invoice me to the same property - the same people who searched the house."

After the raids, Mr Sloley said officers tarnished his reputation by telling his clients about the warrant, which resulted in them cancelling valuable contracts with him.

"The police are trying to stitch me up," he said.

"They've raided me twice in three months, desperate to take me down, telling people I'm too big for my boots."

Scotland Yard said the Directorate of Professional Standards was investigating.

Mahamed Hashi is a Labour councillor for Stockwell and a recent winner of a Community Champion award for his work to support vulnerable young people.

In 2017, he said he was stopped by police officers who surrounded his car in Brixton.

"They asked me 'have you been taking any drugs mate? Your eyes look glazed', and I said 'I don't smoke, I don't take drugs'."

"They put cuffs on me because they thought I was a threat. I said 'what part of me constitutes a threat?' And they said 'your size'."

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Mr Hashi has raised his concerns with the deputy mayor of policing.

"It feels like we're being targeted as specific people. I feel there should be apologies you know," he said.

"We're standing in Brixton where we've had four riots because of police action, and on one side we're trying to heal those rifts but it's being eroded by officers who don't seem to know any better."

How the most ethnically diverse police forces compare to the population

Proportion from Asian, black, mixed and other ethnic groups

Note: Figures for police are as of March 2018, population as a whole from 2011 Census

Met Police commander for community engagement Mark McEwan said he did not agree Mr Hinds and Mr Hashi had been racially profiled.

"They were dealt with due to the circumstances the officers perceived at the time and they acted appropriately," he said.

"I'm sorry that relationships have been damaged but this is not a case of right or wrong.

"Policing is a human endeavour and we will at times find ourselves in these situations.

"What's important is how we respond to that and reach out to the individuals involved."

Despite their concerns, Mr Hashi and Mr Sloley are still working with the Met, while Mr Hinds told the BBC now his appeal had been upheld he would engage with the police again.

Ipswich deaths: Tributes to 'lovely' mother and son found dead at home

Tributes have been paid to a "lovely" woman who died suddenly at home with her young son.

Police were called to Swinburne Road in Ipswich at 17:00 GMT on Wednesday after the woman's body was found. The child was treated at the scene but died.

Lisa Horne, who used to live next door, said: "It's just really shocking."

A boy, 17, was arrested at the scene. The grounds for his arrest have not been disclosed, but it is understood not to be murder or manslaughter.

Crime reporter
(wp/bbc):::

Ms Horne, who moved out of the road in December, said she believed the woman was in her teens.

"She always kept herself to herself," she added.

"She was in the garden with her son, or when we were doing the car she was there with hers. She always said 'morning' or 'hello'."

Ms Horne added: "She never had any issues and was quiet. I just feel at a loss, at such a young age for both of them, no life at all really."

The Reverend Mary Sokanovic, the priest in charge of the parish of Whitton with Thurleston and Akenham, said the church would be open for people to "find a quiet space or pray".

"It's absolutely distressing. There aren't words for it," she added.

She described the area as a "very mixed and varied parish".

Suffolk Police said the next of kin of both victims had been informed, and officers have appealed for anyone with information to contact them.

The teenager is being questioned at Martlesham police station.

Madeleine McCann: Netflix documentary 'could hinder search'

Pic--Madeleine McCann was three when she went missing in 2007

A Netflix documentary about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann could "potentially hinder" the search for her, according to her parents.

Madeleine was three when she was last seen while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

Gerry and Kate McCann said in a statement the film could affect the police investigation.

The documentary is due to air later this month. Netflix has been contacted for comment.

Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have pledged never to give up the search for their daughter, who vanished from the family's holiday apartment while they were dining at a restaurant nearby.

In a statement, they said: "We are aware that Netflix are planning to screen a documentary in March 2019 about Madeleine's disappearance.

"The production company told us that they were making the documentary and asked us to participate.

"We did not see - and still do not see - how this programme will help the search for Madeleine and, particularly given there is an active police investigation, it could potentially hinder it."

Mr and Mrs McCann also said their views were not reflected in the programme.

Scotland Yard launched its own investigation, Operation Grange, into Madeleine's disappearance in 2013, after a Portuguese inquiry failed to make any headway.

In November, a further £150,000 was granted to the investigation to allow it to continue until 31 March.

Bank of England's Saunders sees no rush to raise rates amid Brexit unknowns

Banking&Finance reporter(wp/reuters):::
The Bank of England should wait and see how Brexit unfolds before deciding its next move on interest rates, given that inflation is “reasonably well behaved” and economic growth is modest, rate-setter Michael Saunders said on Wednesday.

If Prime Minister Theresa May secures a deal to ease Britain out of the European Union, borrowing costs would need to rise in a limited and gradual way, but there are other scenarios with different implications for the BoE, Saunders said.

Britain is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29 but May is seeking last-minute concessions from Brussels to secure parliamentary approval and avoid a damaging no-transition exit. May has also raised the possibility of a delay to Brexit

Saunders, who was one of the strongest advocates on the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee for higher interest rates ahead of its two rate hikes in November 2017 and August 2018, struck a cautious tone about the near-term outlook.

His comments chimed with a generally more downbeat stance adopted by the BoE last month, spurred not only by Brexit but also by a slowing global economy.

“The possibility that monetary tightening might be needed in the future does not necessarily mean we need to tighten now,” Saunders said in a speech at Imperial College in London.

“Given that at present economic growth is probably not strong enough to create excess demand and inflation is reasonably well behaved, for now it makes sense to wait and to see how Brexit developments unfold.”

Britain’s economy looks set for its weakest growth in a decade in 2019, according to the BoE’s forecasts, and the outlook would be worse if Britain leaves the EU without the cushion of a transition deal.

Saunders, answering questions after his speech, said the BoE’s plan to raise rates gradually in the event of a Brexit deal did not mean a “fantastically slow” pace of increases.

He repeated the BoE’s consensus view that policy could shift in either direction after a no-deal Brexit and opted not to echo comments of Governor Mark Carney who last week said the central bank would probably give more support to the economy in such a scenario, even if its options were limited.

“I am generally unsure about that,” Saunders said. “There are very few, if any, good examples of countries that have gone through a process of reduced openness in the way that a hard Brexit would imply.”

Most of Saunders’ speech concerned the smaller-than-usual effect of the BoE’s last two rate hikes on rates paid by households for loans and received for savings, possibly linked to the ultra-low level of policy rates over the last decade.

“The MPC could allow for this issue by adjusting monetary policy slightly more actively (when the policy rate is low) in order to produce a desired impact on the economy,” Saunders said.

He said if the BoE’s interest rate was at 1.0 percent, say, then it might be more appropriate to cut rates by more than usual because each 25 basis point change in rates would have relatively less impact on the economy.

“The same point applies if the MPC want to tighten policy (at a low rate level),” Saunders said.

Although it was difficult to be precise about the threshold at which moves in the BoE’s interest rate became less effective, Saunders said his rough estimate was somewhere around 2 percent.

UK house prices show surprise spike higher in February - Halifax

Business reporter(wp/reuters):::
British house prices showed their biggest monthly jump since at least the 1980s in February, leaping by 5.9 percent from January, data from mortgage lender Halifax showed on Thursday.

But economists said the monthly index was volatile and Brexit uncertainty was still probably weighing on the market.

In annual terms, prices were up by 2.8 percent in the three months to February, the lender said, the biggest rise by that measure since August 2018.

A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a 0.1 percent increase on the month and a 1.0 percent annual rise in prices.

A Halifax spokesman said the monthly figure was in part a rebound from a sharp 3.0 percent fall in January. Halifax had also seen a disproportionate increase in house sales in southeast England, where prices are typically higher than elsewhere.

“This has played a part in the movement given the importance of the region,” the spokesman said.

Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax, said house prices had risen in annual, quarterly and monthly terms for the first time since October last year.

“Annual house price growth at 2.8 percent is within our expectations, but is fairly subdued compared to 2015 and 2016, when the average growth rate was 8.3 percent,” he said.

Britain’s housing market has slowed ahead of Brexit although some indicators recently, including a rise in mortgage approvals, have suggested more interest among buyers, albeit nothing on the scale of Halifax’s price jump.

Another mortgage lender Nationwide said last week its measure of house prices showed only a small pick-up in February.

Samuel Tombs, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, described the size of February’s pick-up in the Halifax data as implausible.

“All other indicators suggest that house prices essentially are on a flat trend,” he said. “The support to house prices from the combination of faster growth in nominal wages and extremely low unemployment is being offset, for now, by anxiety about Brexit.”

Sterling to slide to $1.20 if no Brexit deal agreed - Reuters poll

Business reporter(wp/reuters):::
Sterling would lose around 9 percent of its current value against the dollar and trade at $1.20 in the immediate aftermath of Britain leaving the EU without a deal, a Reuters poll of foreign exchange strategists predicted.

However, most economists expect the two sides to eventually agree a free trade deal, and medians in the Feb 28-March 5 poll of over 60 strategists said cable would be at $1.32 at the end of March as the divorce is due to take effect - close to the $1.314 it was hovering around on Wednesday.

In six months’ time the pound will have strengthened to $1.35 and in a year to $1.39, the poll found, little changed from a February poll and still significantly below levels it was trading at before the June 2016 referendum vote to leave the bloc.

All Reuters polls ahead of that vote correctly predicted sterling would fall in the event of the country choosing to leave the European Union.

A separate Reuters poll of economists on Wednesday showed the chance of a no-deal Brexit had fallen to 15 percent, but if the two sides do part ways without agreement, one forecaster predicted sterling could sink as low as parity to the dollar.

“Sterling is likely to fall to parity ...if the UK does not keep traffic flowing across the channel tunnel, preserve the Good Friday Agreement (with Ireland) and avoid the other negative consequences of a hard Brexit,” said William Adams at PNC Financial Services.

While no other respondents were that gloomy, even the most optimistic forecast for no-deal cable was a drop to $1.28.

“A disorderly Brexit - for us a very unlikely scenario - would push cable towards the cycle lows of $1.18-$1.20,” said Roberto Cobo Garcia at BBVA.

Likely offering some support for sterling, the U.S. Federal Reserve is in a holding pattern while the Bank of England is expected to raise borrowing costs towards the end of this year.

But interest rate differentials will provide little help for sterling versus the euro.

The European Central Bank is seen delaying a rate hike from record lows until 2020, another Reuters poll showed last week, but against the common currency the pound will barely move.

In one, three and six months, one euro was expected to worth 86.0 pence, the same as it was on Wednesday. In a year sterling will have marginally strengthened to 85.4p.

UK watchdog warns against 'get rich quick' cryptoasset purchases

Business correspondent(wp/reuters):::

Consumers think they can “get rich quick” by putting cash into unregulated cryptoassets like Bitcoin and Ether they may not fully understand, Britain’s markets watchdog said on Thursday.

The Financial Conduct Authority published reasearch on consumer attitudes to cryptoassets, and people it interviewed talked about wanting to buy a “whole” coin, suggesting they did not realize they could buy part of a cryptoasset.

“Despite this lack of understanding, the cryptoasset owners interviewed were often looking for ways to ‘get rich quick’, citing friends, acquaintances and social media influencers as key motivations for buying cryptoassets,” the FCA said in a statement.

The FCA and other regulators across the world have told consumers they could lose all their money in cryptoassets after huge falls in the value of Bitcoin.

But the FCA said the overall scale of harm may not be as high as previously thought, a finding that should stall the introduction of draconian new rules for now.

The UK government wants to encourage innovation in finance, particularly the blockchain technology that underpins cryptoassets.

The FCA said most UK consumers don’t even know what a cryptocurrency is, the most of those aware of it are likely to be men aged between 20 and 44, the FCA said.

Of those who had bought cryptoassets, around half spend under 200 pounds and finance the purchase from disposable income, the watchdog said.

More than half of the cryptoasset owners surveyed had bought Bitcoin, while one in three chose Ether.

“This will help us ensure we are acting on evidence as we seek to protect consumers and market integrity,” said Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s executive director of strategy and competition.

“The results suggest that although cryptoassets may not be well understood by many consumers, the vast majority don’t buy or use them currently.”

Cryptoassets like Bitcoin fall outside regulation in Britain, which means that consumers are not able to seek redress or compensation using FCA schemes if things go wrong.