William came on his own time (the prince is training to be a helicopter rescue pilot, and he's on vacation now) and the Queen picked up the tab, so Australia did not have to pay.
The prince had no formal duties, such as opening the new Supreme Court building in New Zealand, and made just one official (and amusing) speech, at Government House in Melbourne on Thursday.
The idea that the palace wasn't watching to see how the prince was received, as it were, well, that's just silly.
Read more »The visit of Prince William is an opportunity to restate the case for limited monarchy. One can be forgiven for ambivalence towards our system since its defenders at the last referendum, Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, ran a dishonest but winning campaign.
By campaigning on "Not this republic", it admitted defeat on the core principle and damaged the credibility of its good cause. Part of me would prefer Australia was a wholehearted republic than a grudging, limited monarchy, yet the case for celebrating our present arrangements is compelling.
Read more »By all indications, it seems that India is fastly getting frustrated with the new dispensation in Kathmandu. The UPA government with the nudges from the Left had hoped that the Maoists would come to the mainstream and dance to its tunes which is why from 2002 onwards there is ample evidence that India's intelligence agencies were actively trying to bring Koirala and the Maoists together. Shyam Saran who had close contacts with King Gyanendra resided in Kathmandu with a single purpose:- somehow pressure the King to sideline the parties so that he would naturally fall into the trap.
Read more »Empowered with the Dar Na-Nga, endowed with the Raven Crown, the Druk Gyalpo Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck became an embodiment of the people as an unprecedented crowd took part in the Coronation celebrations.
Children, women, and men came to offer the Thridar and His Majesty the King embraced the public in every sense. As the images of the Coronation flashed around the world, the unanimous view was that this was a Monarch, who truly touched, not just his own people, but everyone who saw or met him.
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