Royal News Roundup

Starting with northern Europe, Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark brought some cheer to the victims of the recent brushfires during their visit to the Crown Princess’ native Australia. The couple later opened a special anniversary concert at the Sidney Opera House and attended other events to promote Danish exports. In the Kingdom of Sweden, the King met with honorary Swedish consuls serving in Africa this week as well as some other routine business but the big news was the revelation from mother-to-be Princess Madeleine that she will be having (surprise) a girl. Across the North Sea in Britain, the BBC got a reprimand from the Minister of Defense for a joke on “Have I Got News for You” that Prince Harry uses cocaine. The line was read by Jo Brand, a well known republican traitor. The Defense Minister called it “disgraceful, shoddy, appalling and out of order” and called for the BBC to apologize. However, the state-run media outlet refused though they did later apologize for getting the name of one of the godparents wrong (the joke involved Prince George’s christening). The BBC should have been flooded with angry calls and messages until they apologized for calling a royal prince and combat veteran a crack-head, because if that had happened they certainly would have.

However, the most infuriating news came courtesy of Labour Party London Assembly member Tom Copley going on an internet tirade against the tributes for the little Prince of Cambridge by Members of Parliament which he called “stomach churning”. He bemoaned that “two very wealthy aristocrats” are being praised for procreating while there is a civil war in Syria, rising costs of living and a bad economy in Britain which Parliament should be dealing with. Well, here’s a “News Flash” for you Tommy, you traitorous, little toad, the Parliament voted on the civil war in Syria and decided to do nothing about it and the Parliament has had years to deal with the economy and have done nothing but make the problem worse. You might also stop spewing your own brand of bigotry just so your ignorance is not put on such display, such as when you refer to people as being “rich” and “wealthy” -get a dictionary before you try to insult someone Tommy, those are the same thing. Traitor Tommy also had the lack of imagination to point to the figure of 650,000 London children living in poverty for…reasons I guess. This is class warfare and reverse snobbery at its most blatant. Does he think there are 650,000 children in poverty in London because people congratulated the Royal Family on a happy occasion? Does he think if Britain became a republic those 650,000 children would suddenly have parents with good-paying jobs they could hold down? However, a member of the Tory Party probably said it best when he said, “On the positive side, this kind of dour killjoy attitude shows why republicanism has never caught on in the UK”. Indeed.

Anyway, some better news on the continent. In the Kingdom of Belgium, after his first one hundred days as monarch, King Philip is winning greater public support. Even in Flanders where the republican/secessionist cause has been so vigorous, support for King Philip has gone up 10% since he came to the throne with 59% expressing confidence in him. A wider poll showed 79% of Belgians supporting King Philip which is encouraging and good news to hear. And, in The Netherlands, it has been confirmed that, despite some recent tensions, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will be visiting Moscow next week and will be received by Russian President Vladimir Putin to mark the 400th anniversary of Russo-Dutch diplomatic relations. And, further down on the continent, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco paid tribute to his late mother, the beloved Princess Grace at the opening of a special exhibition devoted to her in her native Philadelphia. Another member of the family, mother-to-be Charlotte Casiraghi was complimented by her current boyfriend and babby-daddy Gad Elmaleh who said that Charlotte will be the “best mother in the world”. Great, but I wonder what the mother of the son he already has thinks about that, and if she’s so wonder why does he not make an honest woman of her and marry the girl? Sorry -not a big fan of the Gad-fly.

Finally, it has been a rather busy news week in the Land of the Rising Sun. In a country where kawaii rules, TM the Emperor and Empress met the large cartoon-star bear Kumamon, earning a ‘thank you’ from HM the Empress for his welcome dance. Kumamon has 300,000 Twitter followers, fans all over the country and has been pressed into service as mascot for the southern city of Kumamoto. It was also announced this week that TM the Emperor and Empress, as well as the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, will be visiting India in November visiting numerous local sites and meeting with all the appropriate officials and dignitaries. The Imperial couple also met with Prince Felix and Princess Claire of Luxembourg on their visit to Tokyo. It was the first official engagement for the couple since their wedding and the two visited Sophia University in Tokyo to mark the 100th anniversary of that institution. Luxembourg Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich, a former professor there also attended. Later a special mass was held at St Ignatius chapel on Friday which was attended by the Luxembourg royals, TM the Emperor and Empress as well as Raffaela Cardinal Farina representing Pope Francis. Most out of the ordinary though was politician and anti-nuclear activist Taro Yamamoto breaking protocol by handing HM the Emperor a letter on Thursday expressing his fears about the impact of the Fukushima incident. This set of considerable outrage as an effort to involve HM the Emperor in a political matter, many taking it as a sign of disrespect for the imperial position which is to be completely above politics.