One’s first wedding

The soon to be new Duke and Duchess of somewhere

Verily I have refrained with all my R(r)epublican fibre from commenting on the “Great Event.” But the demand for information on the Royal Wedding has been insatiable, particularly from my Blogistas across the pond who previously rejected the tea and taxes of Farmer George and his rapacious redcoats. Ever since I revealed my chance meeting with Wills and Kate (at Marylebone Station of all places!) and then, in a moment of untypical hubris precipitated by The Royal Magic, revealed that One was invited to the Great Event I have been deluged with requests for snippets of Royal Fairy dust to share with my impoverished readers. It is with no great pride I must report to you that, by popular acclamation, I have been made into that strangest of creatures, A Royal Expert!


Metal detectors and barriers on the streets leading to the Abbey.

So as the wedding of Price William and Kate Middleton approaches London’s streets and corners are being gradually doused in red, white and blue. In the lead up to April 29th, flags, bunting - and, increasingly, people decked out with Union Jack emblazoned t-shirts, umbrellas and picnic blankets - are colouring-in the areas around Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace with. Soon we can look forward to vox pop interviews with toothless grannies in Union Jack T-shirts camping out on pavements to get the best view telling us “it’s luverley innit, it’s something we’ll remember for the rest of our loives, or seven days, whichever is longer!”


The Pearly King of Wandsworth displaying his Cockney charm to a motorist in front of the Abbey

Rather than Canute like resistance to the Royal Curiosity I decided to give in to the flowing tide and sate my Blogistas with details of the Great Event which, let’s face it many of them are paying for. So dejected, hunched of shoulders and shuffling of foot, I took myself the whole five minutes from my office to Westminster Abbey to record the burgeoning preparations for the 29th April in London. You soon realise this is theatre performed by the world’s press but with an edge. Part of the edge is security and the first thing you notice is metal detectors and car bomb proof barriers set up in a ring of steel around the Abbey. Indeed in the days before the wedding even residents of the area have to remove their cars to facilitate the cordon sanitaire which surrounds the event as the Great and Good and dubious rulers from dictatorships around the world make their way to the Abbey.


Horse drawn tourists soaking up The Royal Magic


The flag of Saint Edward the Confessor flying over Westminster Abbey. He founded the Abbey and his shrine and tomb are at the centre of the Abbey in their own chapel. He was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066. Once Patron Saint of England (before St. George) he is the Patron Saint of the Royal Family. This is the flag which is flown except when the Queen is in the Abbey when the Royal Standard is flown. The Abbey is a "Royal Peculiar", under the personal control of The Crown and the clergy are appointed by The Queen, not by the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England.

Two people who won’t be making their way there are former LABOUR Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. This appears particularly ungracious as Tony Blair probably single handedly saved the monarchy after their insensitivity after the death of Princess “The People’s Princess” Diana outraged the world. What we are seeing being played out in London in the run up to this wedding is not really the “Royal Magic” but the “D Factor.” The D Factor is that this is William, the son of Diana, Prince of Wales, who is getting married in the same church where her brother Charles’s Spencer thundered in his polemical eulogy on September 6 1997;

“Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity, a standard-bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.”

Earl Spencer’s words seem slight on their own but in the context of the Life and Death of 36 year old Diana Spencer they were explosive. Knowing what had transpired in Diana's life - the betrayal shortly after her marriage by the man she loved, her divorce, the removal of her title and the apparent coldness of the royal family towards her - you begin to see the real meaning behind the words. Spencer stressed that his sister was essentially a British girl, a definition surely aimed at the German background of the royals. She no longer needed, he said, a royal title (earlier removed) to generate her particular brand of magic.





The Royal Family sat stunned and humiliated at this searing condemnation but worse was to come as the funeral service inside the Abbey was interrupted by the sheer crescendo of applause coming through the thick stone walls of the Abbey. The people had spoken and were with Earl Spencer. Tony Blair saved their bacon and the lead head courtiers and flunkeys surrounding the Royal Family don’t even invite him but have room for the Ambassador of Zimbabwe and the Ruler of Bahrain, fresh from throttling pro-democracy protesters?




A reporter in front of the Abbey bringing the joyful news to the world

It is that brand of Diana’s magic being perpetuated today and is the reason that the streets of London are choked with visitors and TV crews from around the world. This does not come cheap; want a photographer to stand on scaffolding on the roof of Methodist Central Hall overlooking the Abbey, that will be £900 for the day. Want a temporary studio in front of Buckingham Palace, that will £60,000 and the lead heads of the Palace will turn off the floodlighting on the facade at 12.30 just as the breakfast bulletins start in New York.




Buck House and the press centre in front of it from which the world will receive detailed analysis of the spontaneous balcony kiss

I saw myself in Westminster light standards and manhole covers being checked and locked days before he was due and whole roads were closed off. At Westminster Abbey Police snipers were on neighbouring rooftops and a search team with 4 sniffer dogs searched the Abbey beforehand. Hidden automatic TV cameras are in the stonework on either side of the Abbey’s Great West Door through which the couple will emerge and the stone dais in front of them is in fact scaffolding for more cameras. Meanwhile the Abbey resembles a giant wiring loom as it is cabled up for the event.


A tasteful selection of priceless memorabilia

Early risers in London were given a sneak preview of the pomp and grandeur to expect on Friday as up to a thousand members of the military carried out a pre-dawn royal wedding dress rehearsal. The full-scale walk through in preparation for the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton saw British Army, Navy and RAF members lining the route the couple will take to and from Westminster Abbey. Participants wore full military dress, but marching bands refrained from playing their instruments as the whole exercise was complete before 6.30am.


The pre-dawn royal wedding dress rehearsal

The eyes of the world will be on Prince William and Kate Middleton when they begin their journeys to and from Westminster Abbey. So nothing is being left to chance with the dry run in which timings were tested to the second and all armed forces taking part got the chance to practise their role in their service uniforms.


Remote control cameras being set up in alcoves by The Great West Door of the Abbey

The coverage of Kate Middleton’s family, who seem hardworking and decent, has been patronising and nauseous imbued with class snobbery - it is not as if they are from Wolverhampton! I already feel sorry for the girl as when she goes into a shop every item is plastered over the pages the next day as it seems the Press think her function in life is to be a clothes horse. But who is Kate Middleton who went to a £29,000 a year private school and a prestige University where (like Prince William) she studied “History of Art.” What is this onerous subject for it must have been so difficult as to cure them of their illness as neither of them has shown the slightest artistic inclinations since?




The front and back of Ye Olde Stone camera stand in front of The Great West Door of Westminster Abbey, from which Mr. Prince and Consort will emerge

But who is Kate Middleton for we have no idea of her views on anything for we have never heard her speak or give the slightest pretence at an interview. Like William’s great grandfather George VI in “The King’s Speech” she surely has a voice but we have not heard it?








Westminster Abbey - At £16 entrance charge God and Mammon live in harmony?

And just what is silent Kate getting herself into by joining “The Firm.” In these days of diversity and inclusion we should remind ourselves of a certain institutional prejudice on the part of the British state. The Statute Law of England, in the Act of the Williamite Succession, describes the Pope as “An Anti-Christ and Object of Perdition” – In this of course it is repeating the words of the same King Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up along with his parliament, James VI of Scotland and I of England in his preamble to the official bible of the Church of England, the “King James” Bible. His mummy, Mary Queen of Scots, would have been very cross with him if she had not been beheaded by his predecessor, Elizabeth I. James I of England (James VI of Scotland) will be at the wedding as he is buried in Westminster Abbey between the bodies of two of his male “suitors.” This somewhat inaccurate tract translated from the Greek and Hebrew is 400 years old this year and is hailed as a masterpiece of English literature responsible for the spread of the English Language around the world. Be that as may be did the words of simple fishermen of Galilee require poetic embellishment?




Press and photo stands in front of Westminster Abbey

More seriously, the same act prohibits both the Sovereign or their Consort from being Catholic or the heir to the throne and their Consort. It goes further and says that neither the Sovereign’s First and Second Lords of the Treasury (namely the Prime Minister and The Chancellor of the Exchequer) nor The Lord Chancellor (The head of the English legal system and successor in office of Sir Thomas More) can be Catholics thus institutionalising sectarianism at the very centre of the British state and legitimising the somewhat snide anti-Catholicism still fashionable in some quarters. They of course can be any other religion or indeed none but they cannot be Catholics. It remains to be seen if Queen Catherine will stay with The Firm, which doesn’t have a good recruiting record, and if the lead heads surrounding the Monarchy will get with the agenda of the modern world. You will need to look elsewhere for updates on these issues.


Royal Wedding Route

Let’s take a look at the route that Kate Middleton will take on her way to Westminster Abbey to her wedding on April 29, 2011 and the schedule for the “big day.”

10:30am – The Princess-to-be and Prince William will leave travel separately to the service. Kate will go by car starting from either Buckingham Palace or Clarence House and head along the Mall, cross the Horse Guards Parade and head towards Parliament Square.

11:00am - The ceremony will start at Westminster Abbey which can hold up to 2,200 guests.

12:00pm – At noon the couple will return along the same route via horse-drawn carriage.

12:30pm – The couple, after being wed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, will go to Buckingham Palace after the ceremony by carriage along a route which will include sights like Parliament Square, Whitehall, Horse Guards Parade and the Mall. Once inside the Queen will throw a reception, a fancy one as you can imagine, for the couple and 700 of their friends and family.

1:30pm - Kate and Will are expected to make an appearance on a balcony at Buckingham Palace to kiss for the cameras.

6:00pm – After the “official reception” the couple will enjoy a private dinner with the Prince of Wales… dancing of course will follow.

For now my dear Blogistas whatever side you are on do your best to get through this coming Friday.

Here, for you, are the amazing details of One’s chance meeting with Wills and Kate @ Marylebone Station

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/02/wills-and-kate-marylebone.html

And, even more unbelievable, the details of One’s invitation!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/03/one-is-invited.html


And, this is truly unbelievable, exclusive advance shots of the ceremony!

St. George’s Day in Aylesbury

St. George in person in Aylesbury!

The 23rd of April is St. George’s Day, the feast of the Patron St. of England. This of course would have been a great surprise to St. George who, being a Minor Asian, never knew the place existed. What is clear is that Richard the Lionheart, a French Plantagenet, who actually spoke English badly and spent less than six months in England as King endorsed St. George as Patron Saint because the Crusaders identified with his being martyred in land which they held as part of The Kingdom of Jerusalem and then of Acre in the 13th Century. George's reputation grew with the returning crusaders. A miracle appearance, when it was claimed that he appeared to lead crusaders into battle, is recorded in stone over the south door of a church at Fordington in Dorset. This still exists and is the earliest known church in England to be dedicated to Saint George. The Council of Oxford in 1222 named 23rd April as Saint George's Day.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/03/for-st-george-and-england.html



So today in Aylesbury our out of touch Town Council organises St George’s Day events to demonstrate its irrelevance and its increasingly urgent need to justify its own existence. Afterwards to recover a gentle stroll to our wonderful (they only overspent by £18,000 a seat!) new Waterside Theatre and then to the adjoining canal basin which is the terminus of the Aylesbury Branch of the Grand Union Canal.






WARNING; Scenes of Morris Dancing in Kingsbury Square

Laugh if you may but Aylesbury, the County Town of Buckinghamshire, is not unknown to the stars of stage and screen. Part of Clockwork Orange was filmed in our concrete underpasses, Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh lived nearby at Notely Abbey, David Jason lives by Coombe Hill and Sir John Gielgud lived in the South Pavilion, Grendon Underwood House, now Tony & Cherie Blair’s country house. Many made their way to the Prime Minister’s country house at Chequers 2 miles from our modest cottage and Burton, Taylor and many famous luvvies used to wine and dine at the Bell in Aston Clinton when it was a rather top restaurant. And then there was an actor who began his acting career in Aylesbury more than 60 years ago.






The shape and use of materials in the Waterside Theatre is designed to echo the wooded rolling Chiltern Hills with their limestone underlay


Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury


Ronnie Barker's statue

A bronze statue of the late comedy legend Ronnie Barker was unveiled last September at the opening of the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury. The Porridge and Two Ronnie’s star, who died five years ago, was born in Bedford and Aylesbury Vale District Council commissioned sculptor Martin Jennings to design the statue as part of its Waterside development project. It now takes pride of place in the new public space in Exchange Street. The statue was officially unveiled by Mr Barker's widow, Joy.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/ronnie-barker-in-aylesbury.html

The Aylesbury arm runs in a beeline from Marsworth Junction, on the Grand Union Canal which connects Birmingham to London, ending up in the town basin, the home of the Aylesbury Canal Society. From Marsworth Junction to Aylesbury Basin is around six and a quarter miles and sixteen locks, the Marsworth seven and Aylesbury nine. The canal arm took just three years to build after over fifteen years of 'planning'. The canal takes most of its water from the Grand Union through Marsworth Junction - Aylesbury Canal Locks 1 and 2, the only staircase locks on the southern Grand Union Canal system.
















Aylesbury Canalside

Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. In the 2001 census the Aylesbury Urban Area, which includes Bierton, Fairford Leys, Stoke Mandeville and Watermead, had a population of 69,021, which included 56,392 for the Aylesbury civil parish. This is expected to be over 90,000 after the 2011 census.
The town's population has doubled since the 1960s due to new housing developments, including many London overspill housing estates, built to ease pressure on the capital, and to move people from crowded inner city slums to more favourable locations. Indeed Aylesbury, to a greater extent than many English market towns, saw substantial areas of its own heart demolished in the 1950s/1960s as 16th-18th century houses (many in good repair) were pulled down to make way for commercial developments.



Traditionally the town was a commercial centre with a market dating back to the Saxon period. This is because it was established on the main Akeman Street which became an established trade route linking London to the southwest. In 1180 a gaol was established in the town (it is still there though has moved locations two or three times) which only really happened in main towns across the country.






Market Square, Aylesbury

By the late 19th century the printers and bookbinders, Hazell, Watson and Viney and the Nestlé dairy were the two main employers in the town, employing more than half the total population. Today the town is still a major commercial centre and the market still meets on the cobbles of the old Market Square four days a week. Nestle and Hazell, Watson and Viney have both gone, as has the US Automotive parts producer TRW, who left the town in 2006. Although three major industrial centres make sure the town has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.


Britain's most unlikely Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beconsfield


Sir John Hampden, the local MP whose refusal to pay the Ship Tax to Charles I led to the English Civil War

Stoke Mandeville was also the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games, which first took place in 1948 and are now known as the World Wheelchair and Amputee Games. The Games, which were held eight times at Stoke Mandeville, were the inspiration for the Paralympic Games, also called The Stoke Mandeville Games, which were organised in Rome in 1960. The wheelchair aspects of the 1984 Paralympics were also held in the village. The London 2012 Summer Paralympics mascot, Mandeville, is named after the village, based on the games once held there. Stoke Mandeville Stadium was developed alongside the hospital and is the National Centre for Disability Sport in the United Kingdom, enhancing the hospital as a world centre for paraplegics and spinal injuries.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/paralympic-games.html

As well as the convenient and much improving shopping, educational, medical, entertainment and employment opportunities of Aylesbury what most people appreciate here is the position at the centre of the fertile Vale of Aylesbury just the far side of the Chiltern Hills from London. Buckinghamshire is one of the loveliest of the Home Counties - some say the loveliest - and its Chiltern Hills and beechwoods, beautiful River Thames and the rolling acres of Aylesbury Vale make it a place for visitors to enjoy. Country walks run between picturesque villages with a host of welcoming pubs.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/chiltern-spring.html

The Chilterns lie only a few miles north-west of London and yet they are an unspoilt area of rolling chalk hills, magnificent beechwoods, quiet valleys and charming brick and flint villages. A wonderful mosaic of woods, fields, hedges, sunken lanes and clear streams.







So that is the attraction of Aylesbury, a sizable town with facilities which make it convenient set in lovely Buckinghamshire countryside within 50 minutes commute of London and with good travel connections to the rest of the UK and to London’s airports.


The Chiltern Hills