Queen finally meets the Middletons

Kate’s parents to have private lunch at Windsor Castle as David Cameron makes u-turn on morning dress To the relief of traditionalists, conventional royal wedding etiquette has been restored with the significant announcements that the Queen has now met the Middletons and the prime minister will now be wearing tails to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Buckingham Palace formally confirmed that the Queen and Prince Philip had hosted Michael and Carole Middleton “at a private lunch at Windsor Castle today”. It is understood to be the first time the Queen, who is official host and in whose name the gold-embossed wedding invitations have been sent, had met the couple. The fact she had hitherto reportedly “not yet felt the need” to meet them raised some eyebrows. But proper social niceties were observed when the Middletons, self-made millionaires through their party planner mail order business, made the short trip from Bucklebury, Berkshire, to the gathering, described by a discreet source as having enjoyed a “warm atmosphere”. While unlikely to find its way into the official court circular, the meeting had apparently been pencilled in some time ago, thus cocking a royal snook at speculative reports that the couple’s first chance to rub shoulders with the monarch and her consort would be on the wedding day. Meanwhile, Downing Street announced that David Cameron, in an apparent U-turn, would now be wearing morning dress and not a business suit. Reports that the prime minister, who eschews formal dress for fear of reviving his privileged Old Etonian image, would wear a plain suit provoked criticism from many quarters. Bruce Anderson in the Daily Telegraph fulminated that the move could be evidence of “idleness, contempt for tradition, or merely a lack of self-confidence”. But it has emerged that the wedding story has, apparently, all been a misunderstanding – the result of an ill-judged and incorrect briefing to journalists by a No 10 aide. A picture of the future prime minister in tails, while a member of Oxford University’s Bullingdon Club, was mysteriously withdrawn from public view in 2007. Royal wedding Kate Middleton Prince William The Queen Prince Philip David Cameron Weddings Caroline Davies guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 20, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.