We are currrently in the midst of national insect week this week, and the intiative was launched by none other than Prince Charles in the organic gardens of Clarence House this week.

He was joined by a group of children from Wolsey Junior School in New Addington, Croydon, south London, who had been invited to go on a bug hunt at the royal residence, and Dr Luke Tilley, who is National Insect Week co-ordinator.

One of the insects Chaz caught - and I promise I am not making this up - was a parasitic wasp.

Lady Gaga has debuted a new song entitled Lady Die at her latest Melbourne Gig. Judging from this YouTube clip, its unlikely to trouble the upper reaches of the charts. 

The end of the song, whose chorus is "Princess Die, I want to see her cry", is inspired by Diana's tragic death in Paris in 1997:

And wish that I would go
In my rich boyfriend’s limo,
Right after he proposed
With a 16-carat stone wrapped in rose gold
With the papparazzi all swarming ’round
In my Louis Vuitton white button-down
Oh, it’s not that deep
So bob head your head for another dead blonde
Whose real prince is in heaven
She just wants to sleep

Reaction is pouring in to the Queen/McGuinness handshake in Belfast yesterday.

Max Hastings in the Daily Mail is unconvinced by the gesture, writing, “Thinking about McGuinness yesterday dragged me back through a time warp to the decade that began in 1969, when I seemed to spend half my life in Ulster. Those were terrible years, when I saw whole streets in flames, rival mobs armed with petrol bombs and dustbin lids hammering each other in Derry and Belfast; then men with guns and bombs killing and maiming in indiscriminate mayhem…I am cynical enough to doubt whether McGuinness is much interested in reconciliation. I fancy he shook the royal hand because he made a cold calculation that such a gesture would boost his political stature. He lost last year’s presidential election (in the Republic of Ireland) because many Irish people saw through the mask and recognised him for what he is.

 More forgiving is the elderly daughter of Lord Louis Mountabtten, who was killed by the IRA when a boat he was in was blown up by the IRA at the Irish seaside resort of Mullaghmore. Countess Mountbatten, 88, who also lost her 14–year–old son Nicholas Knatchbull in the bomb, tells today’s Telegraph: "I think it's wonderful," she said. "I'm hugely grateful that we have come to a point where we can behave responsibly and positively."

The Irish Times says, “All is changed, changed utterly, and the Provisional republicans have irrevocably gone from the clenched fist to the open hand.” 

The Daily Mail  disputes  the estimate that Kate's clothing budget, paid for by her father in law, was $50,000. It's much more like $150,000 says the paper today.

They neglect to mention that the orignal sum was arrived at by none other than, er, the Daily Mail.

The Queen and Prince Philip have both shaken hands with former IRA commander Martin McGuinness.

Prince Philip's uncle Lord Mountbatten was killed by the IRA in 1979, when a bomb was placed on his boat in the Irish seaside resort of Mullaghmore.

Mr McGuinness has admitted being a member of the IRA, but claims he left the organization in 1974.

In fact, the monarch and the former IRA man, who is now Northern Ireland’s democratically elected deputy first minister, shook hands twice. The first handshake took place behind closed doors at Belfast's Lyric Theatre and was not recorded. The second, which was filmed and photographed, took place on their departure.

The Royalist has been investigating the royal curtsey row, talking to courtiers and friends of the royal family, and intriguing theories have been emerging that the edict may be a Queenly show of authority regarding Prince Charles’s regal modernisation plans, which were showcased at the Jubilee when the new 'slimmed-down' monarchy of just six individuals appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony.

There is general agreement inside palace walls that the leaking of the revised, “Order of Precedence” document, which indicated that Kate Middleton, the future Queen, must curtsey to the ‘blood princesses’ Eugenie and Beatrice if she encounters them without her husband by her side, was unfortunate. The document has shone a light on the increasingly well-camouflaged feudal, snobbish and sexist core of the institution of Royalty.

Beyond that, there is a certain level of mystification. Why it was felt necessary to put all this information down in print? Was a point being made? Would a quiet word not have sufficed, particularly as friends of the young Royals also say that Kate is likely to not be particularly upset about the instructions to curtsey to Eugenie?

The Queen today met relatives of the victims of an IRA bombing in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Enniskillen was the scene of one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles when 11 people were killed on Remembrance Sunday in 1987.

The Queen and Prince Philip are on a two-day visit to Northern Ireland as part of her Diamond Jubilee tour. Tomorrow, the Queen will shake hands with former IRA man Martin McGuinness.

Stephen Gault, who was injured in the bombing, and whose father, Samuel, was killed, said he was honoured to have met the Queen.

"It highlights the point that the Enniskillen victims will not be forgotten, when Her Majesty the Queen made time in her hectic schedule, in her Jubilee year to come to Enniskillen," he said.

Martin McGuinness, the former member of the IRA who is now deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, has said he would welcome his handshake with Queen Elizabeth tomorrow being recorded, paving the way for cameras to be allowed to film the encounter.

Mr McGuinness has said on several occasions that he was a member of the IRA, but claims he left the organisation in 1974.

The comments came in an interview with independent Irish journalist Eammon Mallie:

"Throughout the world this will be seen as one of the most symbolic handshakes ever seen. For me its about extending the hand of peace and reconciliation. Why should I see any value in disrespecting the unionist community? ... This will send a very clear message to people that the conflict is over."

Prince Charles is paying tens of thousands of pounds a year for Kate Middleton's glamorous outfits.

Although the palace has refused to be drawn on precise details, and says that no breakdown for clothing spend will be released when the Prince's accounts are published on Friday, estimates in the UK press are that the bill could top £35,000 (about $50,000) for clothes Kate has worn in the past six months alone, as she insists on not taking discounts from designers to avoid allegations of impropriety.

The Royalist has learned, however, that it is indeed Prince Charles who is footing the bill for Kate's 'work-related' outfits. The bills are paid through his massive income from the Duchy of Cornwall, a private estate of land and property holdings which last year provided a cool £19.7million.

A royal brouhaha this morning as it was revealed that Kate has been ordered to curtsey to the 'blood Princesses'.

Royal writer par excellence Robert Lacey, author of, most recently, The Queen: A Life in Brief, tells the Royalist:

"The job of the Queen is to be just like us, but at the same time entirely different. This question of who curtseys to whom falls into the 'different' category. 

"The royal family and inmates of Buckingham Palace take it incredibly seriously. Maintaining the proper 'blood' hierarchy is a matter of team discipline. 

Prince Harry has been a sterling supporter of the charity Walking With The Wounded – even venting his frustration from the podium in Washington last month when a team of injured former servicemen were forced to call off their attempt to climb Everest because the mountain had become dangerously unstable following the warmest spring on record – and he is now hoping to join an expedition to the South Pole.

Edward Parker, a co-founder of the Walking With The Wounded charity, tells the Daily Telegraph that the Prince has already talked to him about joining the expedition.

“He would love to do it — he’s told us so,” Parker says. “He’s a 26-year-old bloke who loves adventures, and the core of what he is is a soldier. He considers himself to be one of them, and they consider him to be one of them, too.
“That element of competition will give it an extra edge,” says Parker. “We just have to wait and see now if the Prince’s military and royal commitments would allow it. If he is able to show his support for the wounded, then he will undoubtedly do so. It’s very close to his heart.”

Palace sources promised his birthday would be low-key, and William celebrated the milestone last week by being dragged through the freezing sea in a tube near his Welsh home.

The experience was booked by his 30 year-old wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, several weeks ago in the expectation that the weather would be “summery”, it was claimed. Instead, the Duke was pulled behind the boat in freezing conditions, pouring rain and bitter winds, leaving him, “soaked to the skin”.

The Duchess, Prince Harry and a small group of his closest friends including Thomas van Straubenzee, Harry Aubrey-Fletcher and David Jardine Patersonwere said to have “roared with laughter” as he bounced through the waves.
At one point the Duke lost his grip of the “doughnut” and was flung out to the sea, The Sun reported.

A source told the newspaper: "For most 30-year-olds who have just inherited £10 million, the last thing they would want to do is freeze themselves on a wet weekend in Wales. But this is typical of William."

The Royal family spend much of their time attempting to convince the British public that they are a modern and forward-looking institution. But, now and again, the hidebound cat of tradition sneaks out of the bag and shows their people just how tightly the British monarchy still clings to some of its most anachronistic customs, how it still lionises birth and breeding over talent or usefulness and how it still imposes barely credible, highly sexist and feudal practices on its members.

The latest reminder of these uncomfortable truths has come this weekend in the leaking of the details of a document that the Queen has recently caused to be circulated among the upper echelons of the Royal family, an updated copy of the Order of Precedence, an official paper which lists, in descending order, the rank that different members of the Royal family hold.

With snobbish predictability, the document says that Princess Kate, because she was born a commoner, must defer and curtsey to all ‘Blood Princesses’, including Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, when she is not in the presence of her husband William. If Kate is with William, then she assumes his rank, and the tables are turned, and all Royal ladies – excluding the Monarch, must curtsey and scrape to her.

Carole Middleton, the most succesful mother in Britain, today attended Royal Ascot, riding in the third carriage of the Royal Procession with her husband Michael.

Well, it's a start....

David Beckham has outed himself as a true Royalist, naming Buckingham Palace as his number one London tourist destination in an Olympics guide app to London for UK tourist agency Visit Britain and Samsung.

"I've always been brought up to love the Royal Family and this year is a special year with the Queen's Jubilee. Buckingham Palace is in the heart of London and it’s been the scene of so many great moments in British history – none of us will ever forget the amazing wedding last year and best of all, it’s open for visitors during the summer so you can have a look around the State Apartments."

His other choices include a traditional pie and mash shop in the East End.

We'll take the palace any day of the week.

To the great surprise of absolutely no-one, the Queen is to get a bumper pay rise of 20% next year to £36 million  after her property holdings, the Crown Estate, posted a record profit of £240.2 million today.

Under a new deal hammered out with the government last year, the Queen now gets 15% of the profits generated by the Crown Estate – which is the biggest landowner in the UK and also owns the seabed, a handy asset in the era of offshore windfarms - rather than a set grant which was known as the civil list.

This was intended to ensure that the Queen’s pay rose and fell in line with the health of the nation, but, with Britain stuck in recession and massive cutbacks being applied to public spending across the board, the Queen’s big uptick in income is sure to provoke howls of outrage across the UK today.

“It's a great set of results and I'm sure everyone's going to be happy,” Crown Estate Chief Executive Alison Nimmo said.

Young men’s thirtieth birthday parties are frequently fun-filled, rowdy and boisterous affairs, so it is understandable that the UK gossip columnists managed to convince themselves that William would be having a major blow-out today to celebrate his big 3 – 0.

Alas, contrary to reports that his wife was planning to throw him a gigantic bash – a massive birthday party recreating one of his favourite London clubs had been mooted by some gossips, while others had Kate matchmaking Pippa - Prince William will actually be celebrating his birthday in a ‘low-key way’ today, according to informed palace sources.

In truth, the idea that Prince Charles’s country house, Highgrove, would be transformed to resemble the London tiki club Mahiki – where William hasn’t actually been seen since before his wedding – was always about as likely as Prince Harry being left in charge of the dress code at the next royal fancy dress party. Although it has proved almost impossible for the gossip mags to resist running with the rumours, the unspectacular truth is that William will be at work as normal this week, at RAF Valley in Anglesea, working the irregular shifts that are standard in the search and rescue business. He may have a glass of wine with his birthday dinner, but, given that he recently qualified to captain rescue helicopters, anything more than that it is unlikely. Flying on a hangover is a major no-no these days.