No way to start a marriage
Modern life is fraught with questions of etiquette, largely because most of the forms have been abandoned in favour of casual Fridays and tie-less dinners, killed by rudeness and ghastly table manners, buried with baseball caps and BlackBerrys -- both left on in public.
On no occasion is etiquette more obvious than a wedding, and no wedding more hidebound by rules and convention than any marriage involving members of the British Royal Family.
All weddings are pageants and this marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton will bring forth the rites and rituals which the Crown evokes. (For example, at commoners' weddings, the mother of the bride enters the church last, just before the bride. At royal weddings, the Queen gets that privilege.)
This pageant will also spawn mawkish sentimentality and the kind of gushing and oohing usually reserved for one's own children, and then only when they are infants.
Ignored among all the breathless coverage of this wedding is the tasteless plea for money.
Not for the newlyweds, of course, but for charity.
And while etiquette mavens are sure to cut Wills and Kate some slack -- they likely have every conceivable trinket available -- can we all agree right here and now that shilling for cold cash in lieu of wedding presents is a vulgar bit of greed.
This is clearly a case of Do Not Try This At Home. This does not mean it's open season on guests' wallets and it does not mean that you, the ordinary bride and groom, can try this stunt yourselves.
The couple has set up a charitable trust called The Prince William & Miss Catherine Middleton Charitable Gift Fund to which guests and other well-wishers are asked to make a donation.
The monies will go to charitable causes, from support for children to conservation.
The Alberta government has seen fit to mark this royal nuptial with a five-figure donation of our money -- $25,000 -- to be split among seven youth shelter programs in the province. According to the Calgary Herald , Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said: "This gift, on behalf of Albertans, reflects a concern of the royal couple and of Albertans that all young people have the opportunity to reach their full potential. It also carries out the royal couple's wish for charitable contributions instead of gifts."
If that's what it takes for the government of Alberta to pony up a miserable bit of cash for vital programs aimed at young people -- $15,000 between Edmonton and Calgary programs and the remainder sprinkled around the province -- then let's marry off all the remaining royals down the line and generate some real money for these causes.
British Royal Family Blackmail - News
On no occasion is etiquette more obvious than a wedding, and no wedding more hidebound by rules and convention than any marriage involving members of the British Royal Family. All weddings are pageants and this marriage of Prince William and Kate
Behind many of the injunctions she has worked on, she said, lies a seamy world of betrayals and tabloid bidding wars for kiss-and-tell tales, “not to mention blackmail and harassment of some of these people.” “If you're a public figure and a fan you've
On no occasion is etiquette more obvious than a wedding, and no wedding more hidebound by rules and convention than any marriage involving members of the British royal family. All wedding are pageants and this coming week's marriage of Prince William
Watching in high-def (a first for a British royal wedding), I was struck by both the intimacy and grandeur of what the cameras captured: best man Harry's sly look backward at Kate's long approach down the aisle while his brother faced forward — he
In my opinion AV allows a minor party (Lib Dems in current case), to basically blackmail one of the major parties into going against their own policies to uphold an 'alliance'. If the minor party can unduly influence parliament when they have much less
Royal in blackmail plot outed | Stuff.co.nz
The member of the British royal family targeted in an alleged "sex and drugs" blackmail plot has been outed.
The Queen's nephew Viscount Linley, the son of the late Princess Margaret, cannot be identified in Britain, but has been named on websites and newspapers elsewhere, including Australia and on US television.
Buckingham Palace has not commented on the affair, saying it is a police matter. British newspapers have contacted 45-year-old Linley, who has likewise refused to comment.
Linley is married with two children, and makes his living as a high-end furniture designer.
Property developer Ian Strachan, 30, and Sean McGuigan, 40, appeared at a London magistrates' court on September 13 each charged with one count of blackmail. They were remanded in custody until December 20.
The men allegedly demanded £50,000 ($NZ136,840) in return for not publicising tapes they claimed indicated the royal had engaged in a sex act with an aide.
The Times newspaper reported that it was an alleged homosexual act.
In telephone calls to the royal's office in August, the alleged blackmailers also claimed to have proof that the royal supplied an aide with an envelope containing cocaine, The Sunday Times newspaper said.
They claimed to have video footage of the assistant snorting the drug, it said.
Linley did not appear on the tape.
The weekly broadsheet reported that the royal called in the police, who duly set up a sting operation at a plush London hotel.
Giovanni di Stefano, a high-profile lawyer whose previous clients include executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, is representing Strachan.
He said of reports that a sex act was captured on video: "There is no tape in existence".
"What there is in existence are tapes both audio and visual of an assistant to a member of the royal family boasting of how he received a sex act from this royal family member.
"Whether that act took place I do not know.
"At no time did my client call the royal household. He, in fact, called the private business office of the individual concerned.
"My client denies that he asked for any money and that it was in fact the office of the individual concerned who first offered money."
According to The Sunday Times, it is the first blackmail case involving a British royal in more than a century.
In 1891, the then future king Edward VII discussed with his solicitor paying off two prostitutes he frequented in return for letters he had written to them.
British Royal Family Blackmail - Bookshelf
Blackmail, scandal, and revolution, London's French libellistes, 1758-92
Presumably he wanted to clear the royal family of suspicion, although that cannot be ... and soured French views of the British government and constitution . ...The Rome II Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations, A New International Litigation Regime
No better illustration can be provided than by the recent (2007) blackmailing case involving the British royal family, which – quite remarkably – involved ...Sexual blackmail, a modern history
Even the royal family was not spared. In the 1930s a deranged man, ... Eventually the British Embassy in Paris purchased the letters for £20000 and they ...The English royal family of America, from Jamestown to the American Revolution
Young Garth conceived a scheme to blackmail the royal family with certain ... The blackmail scheme failed, and in 1816 Thomas Garth entered the British ...In and out of Hollywood, a biographer's memoir
... supposedly to re- trieve certain British royal family letters but in my view to find ... 36 Boulevard Emile Augère, where the blackmail plot took place. ...Information Source Directory
Royal family roiled over sex tape blackmail scheme
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Royal blackmail trial - Female First
A member of Britain's Royal Family was blackmailed by two men for £50, ... Strachan allegedly offered the tapes to British newspapers including the News of the ...
Royal target of alleged blackmail tape - CNN
Authorities have named the two men accused of trying to blackmail a member of the British royal family.Ian Strachan, aged 30, and Sean McGuigan, aged 40, are both due ...