Tag Archives: debate

Raising a glass of Chinese brand, bottled Jersey milk to the camera, the Queen’s grandson Peter Phillips claims: ‘This is what I drink.’ Is it really? Come off it, Pete, mate. This is what you drink when an advertising agency pays you to do so. We all know it and …

For all the turbulence of recent months, the enduring pulling power of the monarchy is undiminished – as last night’s glimpse of a future ‘slimmed down’ House of Windsor made very clear. Here were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge hosting their first state occasion at Buckingham Palace on behalf …

There was perhaps just one consolation for the Prince of Wales yesterday — he was at Birkhall in Scotland, just about as far away from the centre of the royal drama over Prince Harry’s departure as he could be. Time and again at moments of crisis and great sadness Charles …

As with any major negotiation, the devil is in the detail.  And the more that we study the new template for 21st century reluctant royalty, the more issues that arise – from heraldry to trademarks and some very odd new titles. The Queen has certainly kept to her side of …

A new passport has just arrived in the post. I remember my first one, more than half a century ago, almost as clearly as I remember the arrival of my first child — with one big difference. The baby demanded responsibility. The passport promised freedom. For a scruffy kid who’d …

No one, in seven decades of exemplary leadership, has ever accused the Queen of exaggeration. She trades in understatement. When she says of the departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that ‘these are complex matters’, she is talking of profound challenges which she understands better than anyone else. …

Grace Kelly was a huge Hollywood star when she decided to marry Prince Rainier in 1956 The difference in the world-views of the Markles and the Windsors was always evident in the language they employed. After her engagement to Prince Harry, Meghan told Vanity Fair magazine: ‘I was born in …

Talk about history repeating itself. It’s 28 years since Lady Di broke up with Prince Charles and announced she intended to carry on being an independent member of the Royal Family. I can remember writing at the time that it was a bit like Bianca Jagger, after getting divorced from …

While most people might have spent Boxing Day walking off their Christmas lunch or snoozing through a film, Tim O’Donovan was settling down to do some serious arithmetic, as he always does at this time of year. And there can be no margin of error when your annual sums make …

Recalling the two younger Princes, the Prince of Wales’s housekeeper Wendy Berry found Edward ‘utterly charming and polite’, but Andrew (pictured) boorish and rude, writes CRAIG BROWN On November 28, 2001, Gyles Brandreth attended a reception at Buckingham Palace for bigwigs in the media. The Queen was telling a small …