Monday, April 18

From The Palace

This Blog has some concern over the advice that the heir to the throne, HRH Prince Charles has received from Sir Michael Peat, HRH's Private Secretary over the fiascos surrounding the arrangements for the Royal Wedding in Windsor.

The mix-up over the venue was the start of a series of crises which resulted in Paddy Harveston, Charles's chief 'spinner' to spinning into action.
Repeatedly Mr Harveston did an excellent job explaing to the worlds press that there was not a crises at all. Clearly Harveston will go far in the Royal Household and perhaps we should note that Sir Michael's resignation will now be near.

The hapless Private Secretary's greatest disaster was to assure the media that the papal funeral would not have any effect on the Royal nuptials. Sir Michael Peat was struggling to persuade many significant figures to agree that the funeral in the Vatican would make no difference. The Archbishop of Canterbury (refered to as 'Grizzly' by HRH Prince Philip) stated that his first duty was to the whole Anglican communion and that he would be going to Rome.

It took Tony Blair - who was desperate to go to Rome to boost his ecumenical credentials and his world statesman image - to intervene directly. The PM advised the Queen to change the date.

Apparently informing Prince Charles that Sir Robin Janvrin, Her Majesties Private Secretary ( and the senior courtier at Buckingham Palace) had written to Peat with the change of wedding date details was not by all accounts a pleasant experience. Prince Charles was very fragile after his stagfest in Klosters and 'hit the roof' at Clarence House.

Demands of ''off with his head '' are now not the done thing under the Human Rights Act of 2000, this being of some comfort to at least one Royal servant
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