THE Duke of Edinburgh is close to winning his fight to prevent the Earl and Countess of Wessex giving up their businesses as part of the Queen’s review of the working royals.
The inquiry by Lord Luce, the Lord Chamberlain, into the role of the minor royals will be concluded within a matter of days. But it emerged last night that Lord Luce, the most powerful official at Buckingham Palace, appears to have bowed to pressure from the Duke over the role of the Earl and Countess.
The unprecedented inquiry was authorised by the Queen after the Countess was taped making indiscreet remarks about the Royal Family and senior politicians to an undercover reporter posing as an Arab sheikh offering £500,000 of business to her company, R-JH Public Relations.
The Duke, as The Times reported last month, is adamant that the Countess should continue to work and pay her way, combining her professional career with official duties on behalf of the Royal Family. He has also told Lord Luce that there should be no change in the status of the Earl, whose film company, Ardent Productions, has been accused of exploiting his royal background.
Downing Street, which has been kept informed of the progress of the inquiry, still hopes that Lord Luce will make a clear divide between royals who carry out official duties and members of the family who risk being accused of exploiting their royal links for commercial gain.
A senior royal source said last night: “The Duke of Edinburgh thinks the Queen was bounced by a tabloid entrapment operation. He has put his foot down and at the moment the Queen appears to be going along with it. There is still time to defeat this.”
The Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal told Lord Luce that the Earl and Countess should choose between their careers and being full-time working royals.
The Countess has insisted that she should be allowed to continue to run her company.
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Diana statue dressed to frill (Electronic Telegraph)
By Ben Aris in Moscow
RUSSIA'S most successful and controversial sculptor, who Muscovites say has ruined the city's skyline with a series of kitsch monstrosities, has turned to a new subject: a 6 ft-6 in statue of Diana, Princess of Wales.
The one ton bronze-coloured statue shows a less than recognisable princess, with a bouffant hairdo, standing on a plinth and wearing a frilly dress.
The princess's name is carved on a plaque shaped like an old parchment with a crack running almost all the way through it.
The statue is to be exhibited at a Moscow museum but Zurab Tseretelli, 67, said he was considering donating it to the Royal National Rose Society, which is planning to build a memorial garden for the princess.
Ken Grapes, the director-general of RNRS, said: "I think we'd be extremely interested in hearing about it. I can't say as I haven't seen it," he added. "It would be nice though, wouldn't it?"
Thanks to his close friendship with the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, Tseretelli has peppered the capital with his distinct brand of monumental architecture.
His work has made him a hate figure for intellectuals. His 300 ft statue of Peter the Great on top of a ship is universally disliked by Muscovites, who organised demonstrations outside the mayor's office when the plans were first announced.
The statue started life as a 500-ton monument to Christopher Columbus which he offered to Miami.
Officials in the Florida city turned down the statue, calling it a "monstrosity". It now stands in the river Moskva near Gorky Park.
The statue of the princess may be a midget in comparison, but Tsereteli is ready to go monumental if needed. "It can be made bigger," he promised.