Queens offered own Christmas speech

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a white background.

For gay men wanting to follow in the footsteps of Quentin Crisp and transmit their very own Queen’s Speech to the nation this Christmas, eBay may have the answer.

Users of the consumer website will have the chance to bid on the message which will be aired on the eBay homepage. The money raised will be donated to the NSPCC.

The message will be broadcast will be seen by up to 15 million people over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

“Plenty of things have been sold on eBay, but this is the first time that people have been able to bid for the site itself,” explained eBay spokesperson Richard Kanareck.

The 5-day listing can be found at www.ebay.co.uk/charity. It went live at 7pm on 8th December with a starting bid of just 99p, and closes at 7pm on 13th December.

This personalised Christmas speech which will be seen by three times as many people as the 5.7 million who watched Her Majesty’s speech in 2006.

Channel 4 has differentiated its Christmas schedules by broadcasting an alternative Queen’s Speech on Christmas Day, the first and most memorable of which was delivered by gay icon Quentin Crisp in 1993.