William, the second-in-line to the throne and eldest son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, became engaged to Ms Middleton while on holiday in Kenya in October, Clarence House said in a statement.

"The wedding will take place in the spring or summer of 2011 in London. Further details about the wedding will be announced in due course," said the statement from the official residence of Charles and his sons.

The future Princess Catherine has been given Princess Diana's blue sapphire and diamond engagement ring and bookies are tipping an August wedding.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/17/3068639.htm?section=justin

Of course the Pommy Royalty is a remnant of anti-democratic days. If Cromwell had had his ways, it would have long gone out of the picture... May we wish the happy couple a long and fruitful life and say: LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC!

Julie Burchill: If only Kate Middleton aimed a little higher, she would have made a top-flight air stewardess...

Prince Charles has said for the first time that his wife Camilla could be crowned queen, reopening a debate over the status of the woman he married eight years after the death of Princess Diana.

His comments in an interview with the US network NBC come days after Britain's royals were back in the spotlight with the announcement that Charles' son Prince William is to marry Kate Middleton.

Charles' words, which were recorded in August at a castle in Scotland but only being broadcast this weekend, are apparently at odds with the official position after the couple wed in 2005 that Camilla would have the title Princess Consort.

Charles hesitated after he was asked whether Camilla, whose current title is the Duchess of Cornwall, would become queen if and when he accedes the throne after Queen Elizabeth II.

"Well I mean, that's, that's, well, we'll see won't we? But, that could be," he told NBC.

Charles also discussed the effects of intensive media coverage on his sons, and of his fears when his youngest son Harry, 26, was sent to Afghanistan with the British military.

Polls have previously indicated that a majority of Britons do not wish to see "Queen Camilla", partly out of sympathy for Charles' first wife Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

Camilla was Charles' long-standing mistress through much of his marriage to Diana. Diana at one point commented in a famous television interview: "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/20/3071991.htm?section=justin

a letter from the SMH

For days now, the republicans have been screaming at the top of their voices that a hereditary monarchy is inappropriate for a democratic nation.

I would remind our republican friends that the systems of parliamentary democracy in Britain, of freedom of conscience in the Netherlands and of social welfare in the Scandinavian countries all flourished under stable, constitutional monarchies. These monarchies unite and embody their nations and for all the imperfections of the system, they do a wonderful job. So stop bashing the British monarchy. It's not the problem here; the problem is that it's not here. It's not our monarchy for our nation any more. So let's have our own Australian head of state. Maybe then we can appreciate the splendour and success of Britain's monarchy in peace. Oh, and congratulations to the happy couple.

Laura McAlister Killara

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/labors-reactionaries-will-stall-social-reform-20101121-182h5.html

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Laura... we're not your friends... What you've written here is all crap. "They do a wonderful job"?... So does the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and the gnome in the violet garden. They're only silly decorations in our illusions of reality. Royalties are remnants of our anti-democratic past. Oh, and congrats to the happy couple...

A football-loving, lager-drinking Church of England bishop has used Facebook to claim that Prince William comes from a family of "philanderers" and speculate his marriage to Kate Middleton won't last more than seven years. Bishop Pete Broadbent also denounced the couple as "shallow celebrities" and hoped their wedding would not be funded by taxpayers.

The Bishop claimed there are "more broken marriages and philanderers among these people than not", adding: "I give the marriage seven years." Saying he wanted to be out of the country during next year’s royal wedding, the republican clergyman recalled he had "managed to avoid the last disaster in slow motion between Big Ears and the Porcelain Doll".

Broadbent, who is Bishop of Willesden in north-west London, also denounced the "nauseating tosh" surrounding the engagement. "Never underestimate the capacity of the media to descend into the most fawning deferential nonsense and to rake up trivia and irrelevance until it comes out of their every orifice."

The Queen was today spared the embarassment of coming face to face with the Church of England bishop who said William and Kate's marriage would only last seven years and decried the "nauseating tosh" surrounding the royal engagement.

Bishop Pete Broadbent, who made the remarks on his Facebook page, was this morning suspended indefinitely as bishop of Willesden, London, shortly before the Church of England General Synod - its governing body - was due to be addressed by the Queen.

News of the suspension came hours after The First Post was tipped off by a source close to the bishop that he would not be attending the Synod meeting.

The decision of the Church to suspend the 58-year-old clergymen came in spite of his statement of regret issued yesterday. "I apologise unreservedly for the hurt caused," he said. "I recognise that the tone of my language and the content of what I said were deeply offensive."

Until this morning, the Church had stuck by its line that the bishop was entitled to his anti-monarchist views. But Bishop Chartres, the Bishop of London who is a close friend of Prince Charles, today ordered Broadbent's suspension, saying he was "appalled" by his comments. "In common with most of the country, I share the joy which the news of the engagement has brought," said Chartres. "I have been in touch in with St James's Palace to express my own dismay on behalf of the Church."

A pair of knickers said to have belonged to the Queen, who allegedly left them on a private plane in 1968, are reported to be going for auction in Britain as part of the estate of a flamboyant Hungarian playboy known as the ‘Hugh Hefner of Miami’.

The silk and lace underwear was supposedly given to the notorious lothario ‘Baron’ Joseph de Bicske Dobronyi – known to his friends as Sepy - by a friend after the Queen left them on the plane during a state visit to Chile.

According to a report by TMZ, the knickers were discovered following Sepy’s death in June and they are expected to fetch at least £5,000 when they go for auction.

A car containing Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall has been attacked amid violence after MPs voted to raise university tuition fees in England.

A window was cracked and their car hit by paint, but the couple were unharmed.

In angry scenes, protesters battled with police in Parliament Square. Hundreds were later contained on Westminster Bridge by officers.

Police say 12 officers and 43 protesters have been injured, while 22 arrests were made.

Prime Minister David Cameron said it was "shocking and regrettable" that protesters had attacked the prince's car.

Clarence House said the royal couple were safe and attending the Royal Variety performance as scheduled.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said there would be a "very serious and very detailed investigation" into the disturbances, in which 10 police officers have been injured.

The vote will mean fees will almost treble to £9,000 a year. The government's majority was cut by three-quarters to 21 in a backbench rebellion. Three ministerial aides resigned.

Only 28 Lib Dem MPs - less than half - voted for the government's plans for tuition fees. Six Conservative MPs voted against.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11954333

see toon at top...

The see-through dress worn by Kate Middleton at a charity fashion show at St Andrews University has been sold for £65,000 plus £13,000 buyer's fees.

London auctioneer Kerry Taylor had estimated the knitted dress would fetch between £8,000 and £10,000.

The prince was in the audience when Miss Middleton hit the catwalk wearing the dress with black lingerie at the university in Fife in 2002.

The pair, who met at St Andrews, will marry at Westminster Abbey next month.

The garment cost the mystery buyer a total of £78,000.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12764123

see toon at top...

Prince William will visit hurricane-ravaged parts of Australia on a tour that has taken in areas of New Zealand devastated by last month's earthquake.

The prince will see parts of Queensland state, meeting people involved in recovery work and others affected by Cyclone Yasi early last month.

The worst storm to hit the state for a century battered coastal communities.

In Christchurch, New Zealand, William said the people's response to the earthquake made them "an inspiration".

Speaking to a crowd of more than 30,000 people at a national memorial for quake victims, he said: "Courage and understated determination have always been the hallmark of New Zealanders.

"But to see them so starkly demonstrated over these terrible, painful months has been humbling. Put simply, you are an inspiration to all people."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12793661

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Yes, these people are an inspiration... but do we need a prince to tell us that?... I don't think so...

Princes and kings and queens are remnants of dinosaur social orders that only survive by the pompous illusions they project. Nice people they can be, but rulers they are not, except in despotic kingdoms... May this country become a republic sooner than later in a manner that leaves no confusion as to whom is in charge. The Whitlam dismissal still brings some sour taste in this country's history — whether we liked him or not.

See toon at top...

It may be the centrepiece of the big day – but Prince William and Kate Middleton's choice of wedding cake has raised eyebrows in fashionable baking quarters. The couple have opted for a multi-tiered fruit cake for the wedding breakfast, decorated with symbolic flowers. The design, in which Ms Middleton is said to have taken a keen interest, will be baked by Leicestershire-based Fiona Cairns, whose cakes are sold in Harrods, Selfridges and Waitrose.

Ms Cairns, 56, was contacted by the Prince's office in February and met with Ms Middleton at Clarence House six weeks ago to discuss ideas. She said: "I couldn't believe it. I'm very excited, very daunted and very privileged – a mixture of emotions."

However, rival cakemakers were a bit sniffy. "I'm surprised they've chosen someone who designs cakes for a supermarket," said one, "and brides don't tend to go for fruit these days."

According to Cakes By Kerry owner Kerry Kirchin, whose elaborate design appeared in an episode of the Channel 4 show My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, modern brides are more likely to go for chocolate and glitter. "It's certainly something different," she said. "Fruit cakes aren't popular nowadays like they used to be. At the moment, cup cakes are all the craze."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/why-william-and-kates-choice-of-cakemaker-is-causing-a-stir-2254769.html

My gosh... Royalties are all fruit-cakes...

The leader of the Pacific nation of Niue has mounted a robust defence of stamps marking Britain's royal wedding which have a perforated line that splits the happy couple.

Premier Toke Talagi admitted the stamps were "unusual" but said they showed Niue was celebrating the marriage.

The stamps are sold as a pair for NZ$5.80 ($4.53, £2.79), but can be torn down the middle.

Prince William's stamp is NZ$3.40 and Kate Middleton's is cheaper at NZ$2.40.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13047911

see toon at top...

see toon at top... and compare...

...

These headaches arise even before you factor in the six former partners of the pair who will reportedly attend, and the added complication that no one is allowed to turn their back on the Queen. All 300 guests will have to moon-walk around the reception to avoid breaching protocol.

Yes, let's hope the wedding planners have access to good quality beta-blockers. For it is a truth not always universally acknowledged that while nuptials bring joy and tipsy loved-upness, they can also be occasions of gut-wrenching horror.

And the greatest threat to the sanctity of any wedding is always the relos.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/kate-needs-to-worry-about-the-inlaws-20110419-1dnbf.html#ixzz1K0Rfy2j1

Oh for a republic...

A new poll shows support for an Australian republic is slowly declining.

The Newspoll conducted for The Australian newspaper puts support for a republic at a 17-year low of 41 per cent, down from 45 per cent four years ago.

The poll says 39 per cent of Australians are against a republic, while 20 per cent have no opinion either way.

The Australian Republican Movement has questioned the worth of a poll so close to a royal wedding, but Australians for Constitutional Monarchy says the poll confirms a firm trend.

The poll surveyed 1,200 Australians, with more respondents supporting Prince William and his future bride Kate Middleton as potential heads of state than Prince Charles and wife Camilla.

The chair of the Australian Republican Movement, Michael Keating, says such preferences are not helpful when it comes to determining what Australians want.

"The real issue of course is that we don't have any choice," he said.

"As a constitutional monarchy, we have as our head of state whoever is next in line in the Windsor family. And that is what the republic is about. That we don't want that. We want it to be about us, not about the Windsor family.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/25/3199690.htm?section=justin

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are not taking a lady-in-waiting or anyone to help with the clothes on their trip to Canada and the United States, according to Clarence House. But they are accompanied by the Duchess's personal hairdresser and the couple's 'adviser', Sir David Manning, former British ambassador to Washington, appointed to the part-time role by the Queen in 2009.

Senior members of the Household apparently felt that he was a suitably wise and experienced man to mentor Prince William's entry into public life.

He is indeed experienced, charming and understated in a very British way. But his glittering curriculum vitae contains a very toxic appointment in which he displayed poor judgment, if not worse.

Between 2001-2003, he was foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair and a member, along with Alastair Campbell and John Scarlett, of the 'sofa government' responsible for all the big (and disastrous) decisions on Iraq. Tony Blair's reward for him, once the Iraq war was safely started, was the ambassadorship to the court of George W Bush.

After giving public evidence to the Iraq Inquiry at the end of 2009, Sir David returned for a further session behind closed doors on June 24, 2010. A heavily censored transcript was subsequently published on the Inquiry's official website.

It makes interesting reading. His efforts to subtly distance himself from his previous master's views on regime change are neither convincing nor honourable. The transcript is festooned with the phrases "I don't recall" or "I can't remember". Certainly, based on his performance at the Iraq Inquiry, neither his loyalty nor his memory are going to be much use to Prince William.

Sir David is now a director of the US armaments firm Lockheed Martin and an adviser to the shadowy, ex-MI6-run consultancy, Hakluyt. Those are the sort of well-paying billets ex-ambassadors secure for themselves - but they are hardly appropriate for a courtier.

The dishonest debacle of our intervention in Iraq is no longer a prominent theme in British public life. Today, people are more worried by the problem of Afghanistan and the puzzle of Libya. But it hasn't gone away.

Hakluyt's international advisory board comprises senior figures with backgrounds in business and government. Current members include:

Professor Sir Roy M. Anderson [4] - Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and former Rector of Imperial College London

Don Argus - former chairman of BHP Billiton

Bill Bradley - managing director at Allen & Company and former three-term US Senator

Alexander Downer - Foreign Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007

Neville Isdell - former chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company

Dr Hans-Peter Keitel - former CEO of Hochtief, and president of the Federation of German Industries

Minoru Makihara - former chairman of Mitsubishi Corporation

Sir David Manning[5] - British Ambassador to the United States from 2003 to 2007

Sir Kieran Prendergast - former Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs at the United Nations

Sir William Purves - former chairman of HSBC

Sir Ralph Robins - former chairman of Rolls-Royce

The photographs of radical leftists such as Phil Cleary linking up with such avowed monarchists as Kerry Jones provide a permanent record of how the search for ideal outcomes can often be counterproductive. It is unlikely that there will be another referendum on Australia becoming a republic in the short term.

Without question, the Queen has been a popular and dutiful monarch over almost six decades. Yet Australia's head of state remains quintessentially a British figure.

On Sunday, Professor David Flint argued that Australia is "already a republic … we're a crowned republic". This is quite misleading - as Flint's very own position indicates. He is national convener of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy. He does not claim to represent such an entity as "Australians for a Crowned Republic". Britain is a constitutional monarchy. So is Australia. And so are other members of the Commonwealth of Nations such as Canada and New Zealand.

THE topless photographs of Kate Middleton may have enraged The Sun – the paper said it was "disgusting that a young woman on holiday with her husband can't relax and strip off by the pool in private" - but is the tabloid about to suffer a similar backlash over its Page Three girl?

As the Murdoch-owned tabloid backed Prince William's legal bid to sue the French magazine that published the photos, a new campaign to get the 'family' newspaper to drop its Page Three Girl suddenly took off last Wednesday. Since then, signatories to the 'No More Page Three' petition have surged from 2,500 to more than 20,000.

The campaign, on Twitter, Facebook and the specialist petition website change.org, personally targets the Sun's editor, Dominic Mohan. Rather than demanding that Page Three girls be banned outright, it asks him "very nicely" to "drop the bare boobs" from his newspaper.

Petition founder Lucy Holmes started the campaign three weeks ago after reading a copy of the Sun during the Olympics. Despite the extensive coverage given to victorious athletes such as Jessica Ennis and Victoria Pendleton, the dominant female image in the paper was still "a massive picture of a girl in her pants".

"It made me really sad," Holmes, an actress, told The Guardian. "It was the biggest female image in that issue, and I think pretty much every issue of [The Sun] for 42 years."

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/media/49094/thousands-sign-petition-end-suns-page-three-girl#ixzz26x6rwXD5

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Of course The Sun (UK) was the paper that published the naked pics of Prince Harry...  but then made much prude hoopla about the princess' tits... It's while back now but I remember the page threes like if it was yesterday... The Sun (in Australia) was published by the Fairfax Press — publisher of the Sydney Morning herald... the paper was hounded by feminists.... Nudity became reserved for specialist magazines... The Herald Sun is Melbourne paper published by Uncle Rupe

Page three nudity, of course, was "invented" by .... guess who... Rupert Murdoch...

Meanwhile see toon at top...

The most explosive claim made for former Justice Kirby ‒ the thing that obviously outraged the ACM chair David Flint and his followers ‒ is his statement that the Governor General is not the Australian head of state, but rather a representative of the Queen who is our head of state.

Quoting the Constitution (s61), he says:

"The executive power of the Commonwealth is vested in the Queen and is exercisable by the Governor General as the Queen's representative."

Kirby does not believe the constitutional monarchy is necessarily bound up in a belief of God and says there are many good Australian citizens who do not believe in God and, moreover, we do not have an established faith. Kirby says Crown does not belong to the Church of England or to the Christian belief and he supports Prince Charles’ wish to change the royal style to "defender of the faiths”.

In an attack on ACM and its attitude to the flag, Kirby says he does not know

"…where that comes from … It was never part of the ACM charter and the current flag is not essential to the constitutional monarchy, still less the presence of the Union Jack in our flag.”

He says the royal family needs to evolve with its unerring judgement to embrace new and modern times.

His speech appeared on the ACM website, but was taken down with minutes of appearing.

We asked the lord of the ACM, David Flint, for comment — but he did not reply.

Flint's saccharine, idiotic, references to anything or anybody royal is disturbing and it is a shame that former Justice Kirby's well reasoned arguments were deemed too inconvenient by the ACM to be made available to his followers — for more than 10 minutes.

You can read Michael Kirby's full speech as a PDF here. Follow Barry Everingham on Twitter @BarryEveringham.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/michael-kirby-delivers-monarchists-some-inconvenient-truths,5873

Long live the republic! See toon at top.

The governor general, Quentin Bryce, has used the final words in her last Boyer lecture of the year to offer support for an Australian republic.

The Queen’s representative in Australia told the crowd in Brisbane she hoped to one day see a young Australian boy or girl grow to be the first Australian head of state.

Bryce also appeared to express support for same-sex marriage, speaking of an Australia where "people are free to love and marry whom they choose".

It is thought to be the first time a sitting governor general has expressed support for a republic.

Bryce’s speech spoke of the lack of women in positions of power, and the equality and health gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

In the last portion of her speech, according to an earlier transcript, Bryce suggested a nation “where an ethic of care guides the way we lead. Where the young, the elderly, the Indigenous, the newly arrived, people with disabilities are treated with dignity and respect, and able to be the best and healthiest they can be.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/22/governor-general-quentin-bryce-australian-republic

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Gus: I will point out here that the final Boyer Lecture by the Governor General was in Sydney, at the ABC... The picture used by The Guardian was not taken on the night... (see highlights on Lateline, ABC TV). It is important to me that the news provider such as The Guardian be more accurate in their delivery, even on small matters.  I believe that when Tony Abbott made his allegiance to the Queen of England rather than to the people of Australia, he went on a slippery slope going backwards... See toon at top...

Tony Abbott is an idiot.