IN a second conciliatory gesture in 10 days, the Queen has ended the
Duchess of York's exclusion from official royal gatherings by inviting her to
the Windsor Castle ball.
The rapprochement between the Duchess and the
Royal Family follows the Queen's meeting with the
Prince of Wales's long-term companion, Camilla
Parker Bowles, at a barbecue at Highgrove earlier
this month. The invitation ends four years of exile
from the royal circle. The last occasion she attended
as a family member was the funeral of Diana,
Princess of Wales.
But while it indicates a cessation of hostilities it
should not be interpreted as an embrace back into
the fold. Relations between Prince Philip and his
former daughter-in-law remain decidedly cool, as
do those between the Duchess and the Prince of
Wales.
The Windsor Castle ball, on June 21, is being held to celebrate four royal
birthdays: Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's 100th, the Princess Royal's
50th, and Princess Margaret's 70th, which are all in August, as well as the
Duke of York's 40th last February.
Although it falls on Prince William's 18th he will not be attending due to exam
pressure. While there is no official state guest list, each of the four has drawn
up a list of 100 friends and the Queen and Prince Philip have compiled their
own family list. It is understood that the Duchess appeared not only on her
ex-husband's list, but also on the Queen's. Buckingham Palace declined to
comment, as did the Duchess.
The Duchess was in Birmingham yesterday to open the Teenage Cancer Trust
Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston. The £240,000 unit is
tailored for the needs of young people.
Mrs Parker Bowles has not been invited to the ball, but her former husband,
Andrew, is on the guest list of the Princess Royal, whom he used to escort.
He is also a close friend of the Queen Mother, regularly escorting her at race
meetings.
The Duchess's invitation comes shortly after an interview with the Duke of
York during which he told Tatler magazine that neither he nor his ex-wife had
ruled out the possibility of remarriage. They continue to live under the same
roof with their two daughters, Princesses Beatrice, 11, and Eugenie, 10, at
Sunninghill, their Berkshire home, despite their divorce in 1996.
The ensuing speculation did not thrill the Duke's father, who has often stated
that he believes the Duchess to be "odd" and the couple's living arrangements
"even odder". His long-standing feud with the Duchess, whom he believes has
heaped ridicule on the Royal Family, shows no sign of abating.
He once told friends that Prince Andrew would not remarry her "during his
lifetime". His remarks provoked the Duchess's father, Major Ron Ferguson,
into a stinging attack on Prince Philip in which he said: "I really do believe the
time has come for forgiveness. Okay, Sarah has committed one or two errors,
the marriage didn't quite work out and they got divorced, which I believe was
quite unnecessary."
The Duchess, who ran up a £4 million debt and was embarrassingly
photographed with her former financial adviser John Bryan, has attempted to
moderate her behaviour of late. The "one or two" past mistakes alluded to by
her father include being humiliated on the Ruby Wax television show as well
as blistering attacks on her former father-in-law on American talk shows.
Wounded at not receiving an invitation to Prince Edward's wedding to Sophie
Rhys-Jones, she recently revealed that the trouble between her and Prince
Philip was hurting her daughters, who could not understand her banishment.
Her father also referred to the Duchess being forced to spend several
Christmases at Wood Farm on the edge of the Sandringham estate while
other members of the family were at the "Big House".
~*~
Queen loses role as final arbiter for all
students(Electronic Telegraph)
By Liz Lightfoot, Education Correspondent
THE Queen is to lose her historic role as the final arbiter of disputes between
students and universities.
Students have had to wait up to eight years for decisions by the Privy Council,
on behalf of the Queen, or by bishops and members of the aristocracy who
act as "visitors" to older universities. Established in the Middle Ages, the
visitor is the final appeal for student complaints against older universities and
the system denies them access to the courts.
Lady Blackstone, the higher education minister, welcomed proposals
yesterday for an ombudsman for student complaints and said the Government
would legislate to remove the role of the visitors once the universities had set
up a better system. "We need solutions on this important issue quickly," she
told a conference considering a new code of practice on student complaints
and academic appeals drawn up by the Quality Assurance Agency, the
quango which oversees higher education standards.
Lady Blackstone said: "The Government wanted to see proposals on a
replacement system by the year-end. Universities and colleges, in line with all
public institutions, should treat complaints fairly, quickly and effectively."
Visitors of 135 universities and Oxbridge colleges include the Queen, who
acts through the President of the Privy Council for 17, Prince Philip, Queen
Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the Duchess of Kent, the Archishop of
Canterbury, six bishops, hereditary and life peers.
Dr Dennis Farrington, deputy secretary of Stirling University, said students
often waited years for the visitor to finish their appeals and in one case, eight
years. The procedure was inefficient and secretive and denied students access
to the courts. He said students would seek to challenge it when the Human
Rights Act came into force in October.
The system was "doomed" and ought to be replaced, said Prof Graham
Zellick, Vice-Chancellor of London University. "I am somewhat disturbed by
evidence about the role of some visitors in some of the institutions - the
various bishops, archbishops, lords and dukes who carry out these functions
without, I suspect, the faintest idea of what their role is."
Alex Galloway, clerk to the Privy Council, who handles complaints on behalf
of the Queen, said there had been a sudden explosion of cases before the
council. They had risen from six to 24 over the last two years.
~*~
Prince drops in to village pub (UK Times)
BY DOMINIC KENNEDY
THE Prince of Wales helped villagers to drown their
sorrows about the woes of rural life when he made an
unexpected visit to a country pub.
At the bar of the busy Hawk and Partridge at Bloxham,
Oxfordshire, he discussed how farming was going through
a bad time, learnt that the village still had a post office but
not a bank, and asked the publican if he was a supporter
of fox-hunting.
The Prince, who was visiting Bloxham to hear a church
concert on Saturday, saw that the pub was smothered
with Union flags inside and out. He stood at the bar in
front of a display of cockles, mussels, pork scratchings
and pickled eggs, and requested a Scotch.
Sipping a large, straight Glenlivet, the Prince turned to
Peter Smith, 56, whose herd of pedigree beef cattle has
lost half its value in five years. Mr Smith, who has 250
acres of pasture land, said: "He seemed quite interested.
He said, 'Farming isn't very good at the moment. It has
been a bad time'." The Prince also shook hands with Mr
Smith's son Benjamin, 16, and was introduced to Carl
Wright, 61, the pub's owner.
Mr Wright's wife, Heather, said: "He touched on the fact
that various village shops were having to close." When he
found that the village had no bank, he asked: "I suppose
you have to use a hole in the wall?" The reply was: "No,
we haven't even got one of those."
The Prince turned his attention to the display of horse
brasses and photographs of horses on the walls of the
16th century inn. Mr Wright said that he owned
racehorses and had once spoken with Queen Elizabeth
the Queen Mother when they owned rival horses in a
race.
The Prince asked: "Do you prefer Flat or National Hunt?"
Mr Wright replied: "National Hunt." Prince Charles put
both thumbs up and said: "Me too. You must be
pro-foxhunting." Mr Wright said: "Yes."
The publican recalled: "He thanked me for all the Union
Jacks. Actually, I put it up for the football."