CURRENT EDITION: July, 11th 2001

(1) Prince Charles suggests that marriage is a possibility...

Editors had wedding bells ringing in their ears following publication
of an exclusive interview with Prince Charles in the tabloid DAILY
MAIL's colour magazine WEEKEND published on July 7. At the end of a
wide-ranging Q & A session, the Prince was asked if he expected to
marry again. 'Will I be alive tomorrow? Who knows what the good Lord
has planned? You can't be certain about anything. I don't know,' he
replied. Was that 'Yes', or 'No'? His Delphian reply was in sharp
contrast to the flat denials previously published by the Palace, and
the royalty soothsayers had a field day on Sunday. Broadsheets and TV
were unsure in their reading of the Highgrove Oracle. 'Charles and
Camilla - will they or won't they?' asked the republican OBSERVER; and
INDEPENDENT TELEVISION NEWS headlined their story 'Marital
Uncertainty'. The tabloids however were in no doubt. 'It's Charles and
Camilla Mountbatten-Windsor', headlined the SUNDAY MIRROR, and went on
to castigate the Prince for reopening marriage speculation at this
time. 'Charles should have kept discreet silence,' suggested James
Whitaker, their Royalty pundit. The SUNDAY PEOPLE headlined: 'Charles
to marry Camilla', and continued with a leader ('Charles deserves to
marry Camilla') and a Comment piece headed: 'Time to get on with their
lives' by royal biographer Brian Hoey. Claiming that earlier marriage
denials were issued without the Prince's approval, the tabloid quotes
an unidentified aide as saying: 'Nothing is being considered for the
short term but it WILL happen.' The aide is further quoted as saying:
'She will never have royal status or a royal role. It is not that the
public wouldn't accept it , but Camilla wouldn't want it or accept it
either...Camilla has no social ambitions, she just wants to be married
to the man she loves and who loves her. Officials however were quick to
play down the Prince's crystal-ball musings which were seen by all the
media as what the DAILY MAIL described as the latest step in the
carefully orchestrated campaign to win public endorsement for his
relationship with Mrs Parker Bowles. A St James's Palace spokesman said
it did not amount to a statement about the future plans of the pair. 'I
don't think the situation has changed at all,' he said. 'It's a
statement saying 'I'm not going to answer that question,' who knows
what the future may bring.' Prince Charles himself had nothing to add.
'Leave me alone,' he told a reporter on Saturday who asked him to
clarify the situation.

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(2) ...While speculation ensues over the Princess Royal's marriage

Earlier in the week, Princess Anne's relationship with her husband,
Commander Tim Laurence RN, was the focus of media attention following
media comment that he has missed several key royal gatherings recently.
The tabloid MIRROR headlined an exclusive dated 2 July: 'Princess Anne
marriage on the rocks'. It followed up the story with pundit James
Whitaker's Comment piece 'It was waiting to happen', and an inside-page
article 'The Family still treat Tim like an equerry. He's expected to
mix the martinis.' A worker at Gatcombe Park, the marital home is
quoted: 'She [the Princess Royal] can be very caustic. He is not the
dominant type.' The paper noted that the couple had not been seen
together since April but quotes a Palace aide as saying: 'They'd never
separate. They are too loyal to the Queen.' INDEPENDENT TELEVISION NEWS
however was cautious about jumping to conclusions. 'He has aspirations
to become an Admiral and takes his navy career very seriously. Princess
Anne, meanwhile, is well known for keeping up an exceptionally hectic
schedule. Long periods of separation seem to be part and parcel of any
royal marriage. It remains to be seen whether that has weakened the
affection Anne and Tim Laurence felt for each other when they married
eight and a half years ago.' Princess Anne has scant respect for
tabloid intrusion into her private life. She used an exclusive
interview published by the broadsheet The SCOTSMAN on 8 July to honour
her installation as Dame Commander of the Order of the Thistle at St
Giles Cathedral to make it plain that her private life was not open to
discussion. 'There's certainly a difference in my mind between the
public and the private,' she said. 'As you've noticed recently, there
is none as far as the media is concerned.' She commented further on her
own philosophy in life, noting that she always maintains an outward
appearance of calmness in the face of human tragedy because she
believes it helps the healing process. 'It's the most helpful demeanour
to have. Over the passage of time, you learn that its no good getting
over-excited when things go wrong because it tends to make things
worse.' A smiling Anne was photographed by the broadsheets and the
Scottish tabloids at the St Giles ceremony. Commander Tim Laurence was
there.

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(3) Business as usual for the Wessex Windsors

The Lord Chamberlain's long-awaited report on minor Royals' commercial
activities was finally published at the weekend. Expected to propose
radical Palace reforms, its watered-down guidelines gained a mixed
press reception. The Duke of Edinburgh was generally credited with
having torpedoed the expected proposals for tough new guidelines
banning minor royals from running their own businesses

On 6 July, the republican broadsheet GUARDIAN stated: 'Prince Philip
has forced the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Luce, who has drawn up the
guidelines, to water down restrictions which would have prevented the
Earl and Countess of Wessex from continuing their film production and
public relations businesses while remaining working members of the
royal family. The guidelines...are understood to be similar to the
existing rules, suggesting the whole exercise has been little more than
window dressing.' On the same day the TIMES noted: 'Prince Charles has
already let it be known that he believes being a member of the royal
family is incompatible with having a prominent role in running a
commercial business.' It went on to comment: 'The Duke of Edinburgh's
veto is the strongest rearguard action yet...The Prince has always been
opposed to big reforms of the monarchy and is said to have decided to
draw a line over the plans to end business links.' The TIMES concluded:
'The Duke of Edinburgh's victory will be seen as a huge blow - going
against all the work to improve the image of the royals with the public
and to avoid any future scandals that could be exploited by the tabloid
press.'

The Royalist TELEGRAPH and the tabloids were guardedly more sympathetic
and optimistic. The TELEGRAPH's leader of 8 July, headlined 'Worker's
Rights', said: 'The old-fashioned approach would be to say that only
the armed forces would be a suitable career for young members of the
Royal Family, and failing that, a life of bucolic decadence. The idea
that they should be encouraged to lead careers more closely related to
those of their contemporaries may carry more risks, but it is designed
to keep the image of the monarchy more in tune with the change in the
nature of the country as a whole.' The paper noted however that not all
the Royals were happy with the end result, quoting a St James's Palace
aide: 'The Prince of Wales is disappointed by the new guidelines but
accepts them and will support them reluctantly.' The aide went on to
say: 'He believes that the conclusions of the review are a missed
opportunity for the Royal Family to address more vigorously the issue
of potential conflicts of interest between commercial careers and royal
duties.' The inter-Palace controversy that erupted over the report is
described by the TELEGRAPH, which noted that the Princess Royal and
many of the Queen's most senior courtiers had shared Charles's vision
for the future. They had been overruled by the Queen, influenced by
Prince Philip. 'It just shows that the Duke of Edinburgh is still Mr
Powerful at the Palace,' an aide to Prince Charles told the paper.

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(4) Diana Garden Memorial announced

News that the Government-organised Diana Memorial Committee, chaired by
Chancellor Gordon Brown, had finally chosen a site in London's Hyde
Park for the still nebulous 3 million pound memorial fountain after
three years of press releases was overshadowed by details of a 20
million pound six-acre rose garden and water feature being built in St
Albans, Hertfordshire to commemorate Diana. It will be one of three
gardens. The others will commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee and the
life of the Queen Mother. This was announced by the Royal National Rose
Society at the opening of the Royal Horticultural Societys annual
Flower show at Hampton Court Palace last week. On 2 July, the
broadsheet TIMES described the garden, which will open in 2003, as one
of the largest public memorials to the Princess. It will feature a 95ft
spire covered in gilded lead and set in a 45ft-wide rock imported from
China. Water will tumble down the spire and rock into a pool, along a
staircase to a lawn and more pools. RNRS director general Ken Grapes
said at the plan's unveiling: 'This will be the people's garden for the
People's Princess and will be a fitting and lasting tribute to
England's rose. It will be a place of peace where people can remember
Diana.'

PLUS...

-'Tacky' tributes keep on growing on Diana's birthday

On 1 July, the 40th anniversary of the late Princesss birthday, the
broadsheet INDEPENDENT noted that four years after her death, she has
spawned a 40 million pounds-a-year industry. Referring to the recent
spate of media coverage of Diana, the paper said: 'We've had tearful
interviews with members of her entourage, gushing tributes from her
fans, and endless speculation about her private life.' It warned
however that 'in the grand tradition of all great media bandwagons, we
ain't seen nothing yet'. The paper continued: 'In the murky realm of
mail order websites and back street souvenir shops, 'Dianamania' is
enjoying a renaissance. Opportunist manufacturers are still defying the
pleas of her family and friends by flooding the souvenir market with
all manner of kitsch cash-ins.' The INDEPENDENT quotes experts as
believing 'that the 'cult of Diana' is undergoing a subtle
transformation from an explosion of mass hysteria into a longer-term
movement similar to the tide of hero worship of deceased Hollywood
idols like Elvis Presley.' Referring to the plethora of media attempts
to resurrect Diana's tortured life, the tabloid DAILY MAIL quotes
Prince Charles: 'The children mind about the way in which she is dealt
with...I wish people could just let her soul rest in peace.'