UK News 25-02-2005 Town Hall Too Common For Her Majesty who: The Queen what: Says she won`t be attending Charles and Camilla`s wedding when: Tuesday snippet: "From the moment the Prince of Wales announced his intention to marry his long-term mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, there has been controversy and confusion," says The Telegraph, "bordering, at times, on the embarrassing." Last week they had to switch the venue for the civil ceremony from Windsor Castle to the town`s Guildhall when royal aides discovered they would be setting a legal precedent that would allow members of the public to get married at the Castle for at least three years. Then the legality of the wedding was called into question, with legal experts informing us that the Marriages Act of 1836 exempted royals from the legalisation of civil marriages and this exemption was not lifted with the passing of the Marriage Act in 1949. It was even suggested that Charles and Camilla would have to get married in Scotland, just as the Princess Royal did when she married for the second time in 1992. Luckily for the happy couple, Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer stepped in for the record to conclusively and officially state that the Human Rights Act puts the legality of a civil ceremony "beyond doubt". But that was far from the end of the controversy. "The Prince of Wales at times makes the Prince of Denmark look like a paragon of decision-making," writes Alan Hamilton. "Blunder has descended to farce," says Thursday`s Daily Mail. "Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong." And it was hard not to agree with their choice of words, as derisory as they may be, when news broke that The Queen had decided not to attend her son`s wedding. "The Queen will not be attending the civil ceremony because she is aware the prince and Mrs Parker Bowles wanted to keep the occasion low key," was the official statement on Tuesday night. Neither of the Princes Philip, Andrew and Edward nor Princess Anne will be there. If Her Majesty does not want steal the couple`s thunder, how come she is going to attend the blessing in St George`s Chapel? ask The Guardian`s Sandra Laville and Stephen Bates. It has been mooted that her religious faith precludes from attending a religious ceremony, but it is understood she was going to be at Windsor Castle. Other reasons suggested for her absence include security fears, but arguably the most plausible are that she thinks the Guildhall is too common and/or she simply does not approve of her son`s future wife. In other royal news, The Independent says the Japanese government may soon give the go-ahead for three-year-old Princess Aiko to be named the first ever female heir to the Chrysanthemum throne. And more prosaically, The Telegraph reports from an employment tribunal in Croydon where Paul Kefford, a senior aide to the Prince of Wales, is being accused of "inappropriately touching" his secretary, Elaine Day. [... more]

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