Fergie Dances But Fears For Children(Royal Palace News)
Prince William will be competing for an Edinburgh place among the
`ethno-yahs'(Yahoo: The Scotsman)
FISHY BUSINESS AS CHARLES GREETS CHINESE NEW YEAR (PA Newscentre)
DUKE PRESENTS SYMBOL OF RECONCILIATION TO BOMBED CITY(PA Newscentre)
PRINCE'S TRIP TO AUSTRIA CALLED OFF(PA Newscentre)
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Fergie Dances But Fears For Children
Fergie was pictured in the newspapers over the weekend enjoying a rather
latino-cum-rock and roll dance with the boss of Mercedes in Italy, Eberhard
Laur. The Duchess was obviously enjoying the dance quite a lot but another
report in the press over the same period shows that all is not a bowl of
cherries for the famous redhead. The 'other' report tells of how Beatrice
and Eugenie, Fergie's daughters and of course the granddaughters of the
Queen, would be without British armed protection while they attended
finishing school in Switzerland. Fergie is said to be less than happy at the
decision to remove the girls bodyguards. On the one hand it is obvious that
the powers that be would not want to act in a way that may compromise the
judiciary of another sovereign nation while the sheer cost of having the
bodyguards and, perhaps their families too, relocated abroad would not have
been discounted either. On the other hand it is the safety of the Queen's
grandchildren that is the issue and perhaps Fergie will have to place her
trust in the services of the Swiss police forces to protect them while they
make that difficult transition from little girls to young ladies.
~*~
Prince William will be competing for an Edinburgh place among the `ethno-yahs'
In defiance of Royal tradition, it appears that Prince William must perform
as well as any other student to secure his place among fellow socialites at
Edinburgh University.
The prince will be accepted by Edinburgh if he attains three Grade Bs in his
A-levels in English, history of art and geography. The offer of three Bs -
made by the Faculty of Arts - is the standard minimum entry requirement for
A-level applicants wishing to study history of art at Edinburgh.
The prince has insisted he wishes to attain his place at university on
academic merit alone, unlike his father, the Prince of Wales, who was
accepted at Cambridge University with lower grades than other students.
Prince William is likely to fit perfectly into his desired course, which has
a reputation for attracting affluent youngsters who pay more attention to
their glittering social lives than to their studies.
Sophie Pumphrey, 20, a third-year fine art student who studies history of
art at Edinburgh University as part of her degree, claimed that boisterous
"posh types" were a constant annoyance in lectures.
"The course is full of horribly pretentious posh people. We call them
`ethno-yahs' - they are mostly very loud, very confident public school types
who have taken gap years in far-off countries and `found themselves' before
coming to university.
"And they all seem to look so similar," Ms Pumphrey, of Kew, Surrey,
continued. "This year, all the girls seem to have short blonde bobs, and
wear pink pashmina scarves - not forgetting the obligatory posh-girl's puffa
jacket. It's a nightmare trying to study with them - they constantly talk
during lectures and play around on their mobile phones."
Ms Pumphrey insisted that Prince William might be surprised by the academic
rigour of the history of art degree at Edinburgh, which takes about 150 new
students each year.
"History of art is not a dosser's degree, despite its reputation," she said.
"A lot of people come to university hoping to be able to continue the kind
of art appreciation they may have done at school.
"Instead, they are bombarded by lots of quite difficult intellectual ideas
and theories - the approach to the subject at Edinburgh is really history
with a few pictures thrown in."
Duncan MacMillan, the head of the university's Talbot Rice Art Gallery in
Old College, agreed that history of art was an intellectually challenging
degree.
"History of art is not a soft option by any means. Much of the degree is
text-based - students must of course be able to study hard and read and
write well."
Prince William will attend three hour-long history of art lectures and one
tutorial per week during the first year of his four year MA (Hons) history
of art degree if he is accepted. The amount of time he devotes to studying
will be boosted in his first year by two outside courses of his choice.
The prince will alternate between lectures in George Square and smaller
tutorials at the National Gallery of Scotland, five minutes walk from the
university.
In the first year he will study a broad chronology of art's history,
spanning from the Renaissance masterpieces to modern-day pop art. The entire
first year workload of around 12 hours of classes per week will still leave
the prince ample time for enjoying himself.
He may well join the crowds of arts faculty students who inhabit the stylish
cafe-bars that surround the university's main study area, George Square.
Zoe Drayson, 21, from Forfar, an arts faculty representative at the
university, said: "Places like Iguana, off Bristo Square, do a roaring trade
in well-off arts students `doing' lunch or wasting away spare hours between
their lectures.
"You have to be fairly minted to dine regularly at Iguana - the cool and
exclusive atmosphere of the place does not come cheap."
Janicke Cook, a first year arts faculty student who was drinking coffee with
her friends at Iguana yesterday evening, said: "This is interesting news -
perhaps I'll hang around here even more next year if he gets in to
Edinburgh.
"You don't happen to have the prince's phone number, do you?"
Cynics will be quick to point out that the knowledge Prince William gains
from the degree could be superfluous if he succeeds in his reported career
aim to join the SAS after university.
The current Edinburgh University Alternative Prospectus, in which students
give honest accounts of the courses they are studying, criticises the
"inconvenient" 5pm lecture times for history of art, which interfere with
students' dinner schedules.
The prospectus rates the course's difficulty at three out of five - harder
than the easiest course, Chinese literature, but a stroll in the park
compared to the most difficult, chemical engineering.
Margaret Holder, a Royal expert, last night praised Prince William's
decision to reject Royal privilege in vying for a place at Edinburgh on
equal grounds with other students.
"William is academically bright, and I have little doubt he would get the
grades required of him, if not better," she said.
"It seems that William is breaking the mould just as Charles broke the mould
in his day to be the first Royal to stay in conventional university
surroundings and gain a degree - whether he merited his place or not.
"It is widely understood that to be the People's Prince, you have to be part
of the people in some shape or form; you have to undergo some of the hazards
faced by other young people and not have all the wheels oiled for you all
the time."
Harold Brooks-Baker, the publishing director of Burke's Peerage, urged the
young royal to get a full flavour of Scotland by studying at both Edinburgh
and Glasgow.
"William should go to both Edinburgh and Glasgow universities, just as I
went to Oxford and Cambridge. That way, he will be able to appreciate both
the east and the west coasts of Scotland. It might take him a good few
years, but they are both beautiful cities, so I expect he probably wouldn't
mind."
An Edinburgh University spokeswoman refused to comment on Prince William's
reported conditional acceptance at the university. She said: "We never
comment on the offers made to any student by the university."
A spokeswoman at Buckingham Palace said: "William's education is a personal
matter between him and his father."
~*~
FISHY BUSINESS AS CHARLES GREETS CHINESE NEW YEAR
The Prince of Wales was mixed up in some fishy business when he celebrated
the Chinese New Year.
The Prince was entertained by a Chinese magician who produced a live fish
from between the heir to the throne's legs.
Ti Yue Li travelled from China to London's China Town in Soho especially for
the royal performance.
The magician dangled an empty fishing line in front of the Prince and,
magically, hooked a large fish.
The Prince, who was sitting on a stage for VIPs watching the outdoor show,
looked astonished.
Earlier, with paintbrush in hand, he painted the eye of a Chinese dragon,
symbolising life and energy.
The Chinese marked the new millennium on February 5, five weeks behind the
Western calendar, and saw in the Millennium Year of the Dragon.
Charles stayed for an hour and was entertained in a Chinese restaurant
before shaking hands with many well-wishers in the streets of China Town.
~*~
DUKE PRESENTS SYMBOL OF RECONCILIATION TO BOMBED CITY
The Duke of Kent is to present a replica orb and cross to Dresden's
cathedral, bombed by the Allies during the Second World War.
In a speech to be made in German, marking the 55th anniversary of the
devastating Allied bombing raid, the Duke will praise efforts to rebuild the
former East German city and the famous Frauenkirche Lutheran cathedral.
He will describe the gilded orb and cross, to go in the place of one
destroyed in the bombing, as a potent symbol of suffering, reconciliation
and rebirth.
The eight-metre high orb and cross was made in London by goldsmiths Grant
Macdonald, where one of the craftsmen, Alan Smith, is the son of a British
pilot who was involved in the 1945 Dresden raid.
Among those attending the hand-over ceremony on Sunday will be the German
Chancellor, the Minister President of Saxony, the Bishop of Coventry, the
Bishop of Saxony and more than 100 patrons, trustees and members of the
Dresden Trust, of which the Duke is president. Coventry, which suffered
badly from German air raids, is twinned with Dresden.
Before the presentation, the Duke will lay a wreath at the Heidefriedhof
cemetery where many of the dead from the Allied air raid were buried in mass
graves.
He will also attend a commemoration service in the Kreuzkirche when he will
read a lesson, also in German.
Following the service, the Duke will join a procession to the baroque
18th-century Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) to light memorial candles as
the bells of Dresden toll at the time when the Allied bombing began.
Restoration of the Frauenkirche is scheduled for completion in 2006,
Dresden's eighth centenary.
~*~
PRINCE'S TRIP TO AUSTRIA CALLED OFF
A trip by the Prince of Wales to Austria planned for May has been called off
following the furore over the inclusion of Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom
Party into the country's government.
The decision was taken after the Foreign Office cancelled a planned British
trade fair in the Austrian capital due to be visited by the Prince in early
May.
Austria faces international isolation and domestic controversy over Haider's
inclusion in the Vienna government.
A spokeswoman for the Prince said: "In the light of the current
circumstances, the Prince of Wales's visit to Austria has been postponed.
"A decision about a future visit will be considered in due course.
"The Prince of Wales, like other senior members of the Royal family, travels
overseas on advice of the Government."
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "As soon as the new Austrian government was
appointed, we submitted advice to the Palace and we have been in constant
touch with them."
The spokesman would not elaborate on what changes to the Austrian
administration would have to be introduced to make it possible for the
Prince to visit the country.
The Prince's spokeswoman said: "The visit had not been announced because the
details had not been fully worked out.
"But the plan had been, in general terms, that the Prince was due to visit a
British trade fair in Vienna in May, on the advice of the Government."
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