UK News

from Fan Fare:

What’s wrong with a royal knees up?

I'm looking forward to the April 29th wedding of Prince William to his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton as a chance to celebrate some of the good things about Britain.

People on my street and the street next to it are considering clubbing together for a street party on one or the other, my seven-year-old is learning a little bit about the political make-up of the country where he was born and a Friday off work in spring in a country that's pretty miserly with the public holidays can't be too bad of a thing.

There are a few other things I'm looking forward to in connection with the royal bash. One is that my wife is a wicked dessert maker. Victoria sponges, chocolate cakes, tiramisu, apple crumble with custard!! I can't wait.

Another thing is the humour that will come out of it.

As a Canadian who has lived here for more than a dozen years and is now a dual citizen, I never tire of the unfailing efforts to "get a laugh" out of the triumphs and tragedies in this country on the radio, the telly, at work, in the papers and down the pub with your friends.

The British delight in poking fun at themselves is one of the great treasures that makes this crowded, tiny island so enjoyable to live on and is the sign of a nation secure in its cultural identity. This parrot is most definitely not pining for the fjords.

I will enjoy the pomp and circumstance a little bit because it is an amazing spectacle of history that connects us to a past that -- whatever your views about imperial guilt -- shaped the modern-day globe, made English the lingua franca of global commerce and provided the bureaucratic framework that governs much of the world.

Katie Nicholl on when to expect a royal engagement

Rumours sparked in a blog post written by journalist Tina Brown that a royal engagement would be announced on June 3 or 4,  fizzled by the end of last week.

Royal watchers have long anticipated that Prince William, elder son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, will marry Kate Middleton whom he met at university. Prince William is currently training to be a search and rescue Pilot with the Royal Air Force

Katie Nicholl, the royal correspondent for the Mail on Sunday newspaper, whose new book about the princes titled “William and Harry” came out on June 3, shares her predictions and insights with Reuters in the following video clip filmed at Harrods department store in London:

Reform of UK’s monarchy laws – enlightened or meddling?

Discussions between the British premier and monarch to reverse religious discriminatory laws going back 300 years have sparked consternation in a conservative newspaper while attracting little response from the Roman Catholic church.

Proposed changes of the 1701 Act of Settlement would allow a future king or queen to marry a Roman Catholic, but would still preclude a royal of that faith becoming monarch.

It would also give female heirs an equal claim to the throne.

Nevertheless, Steve Doughty writing an analysis piece in the Daily Mail suggested it was an attack on Britain’s constitution, heralding the end of the monarchy as we know it and the Church of England.

“The trouble with pulling down pillars of the constitution is that you never know what may fall with them,” he wrote.

“Tinkering with either the 18th century law or the principle of primogeniture would put a question mark over the future of the monarchy, at a time when its popularity has been rocky.”

He said repealing the Act may lead to calls for a return of the Catholic Stuart dynasty.