Kim C, Diana may not have been his first choice, but neither was he Camilla's. Cats at work said Camilla could not be queen, but if my understanding of the (unwritten) UK constitution is right, she certainly can be, and in fact WILL be. The titles they've been dreaming up are just a smokescreen because her subjects-to-be are not yet ready to get their heads around "Queen Camilla."

Presumably, freda, this news will bring forward by at least a day or two, the Australian republic? Indeed if the Queen lives on for 10-20 years (easily possible) Charles could be well into his 70s by the time he gets the big job, and that would put a UK republic on the agenda too. I'm not sure how Big Pink Lad works out that presidents in constitutional democracies are more extravagant than the British royals. (Mary McAleese in Ireland, for instance?) And when monarchists sneer at the alternatives, why do they always cite the prospect of President Thatcher rather than (say) President Betty Boothroyd?

And I can't believe Giok is serious in commending Charles's ignorant opinions about architecture, which amount to a brainless tirade against progress. Thanks to his intervention the National Gallery is saddled with an extension that must be one of the crassest, blandest faux-tradition developments in Europe. We must go to the Louvre to see how excitingly old and new can work in harmony together - and to get an idea of what Charles rejected for London.

Charle's household, more so than the other royal households, is a den of iniquity, in which one of his most intimate aides has been sheltered from prosecution for males rape, alleged by one of the Royal footmen, and employee rights go out of the window. Remember how Charles whined recently when one of his staff complained about lack of career-development opportunities? He saw this as an example of modern schooling encouraging people to apply for jobs above their station, notwithstanding that the woman in question was perfectly well qualified for the opportunity she sought. (Just a woman in a man's world.) And notwithstanding that he gets his own job by birthright.

I cannot believe that there is people in this day and age willing to bow down before this nonsense and parrot like sycophants that there is no alternative.