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2002-02-12 11:10 a.m.

Of cabbages and kings

Of cabbages and kings

Last night on BBC Radio 4 there was a programme about the Royal Family. Now, personally, I consider the monarchy to be just about tolerable on the strength of their r�le in the tourist industry, but the programme was mostly about the remarkable way in which they have stage-managed their own fall from grace. And I also learned that Bagehot (the name of the founder of The Economist) is pronounced as "badge" + "ot", with the stress on the first syllable, and that "equerry" (some kind of royal flunky or minion) is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable.

At one point Ned Sherrin (a minor radio celebrity in the UK) was rather dismissive of the Scandinavian "bicycling monarchies". In particular he seemed unimpressed by the idea that the heir to the throne might marry a commoner who had a child by a convicted drug-dealer.

But the ex-commoner in question seems to have won over most of the doubters. The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet recently ran a gushing story with the headline

Modeexpert: "Mette-Marit �r snyggare �n n�gonsin"

(Fashion expert: Mette-Marit is more attractive than ever).

Bear in mind that this is a Swedish newspaper, writing about a Norwegian princess:

Aftonbladet's story My translation
Det st�r helt klart att Mette-Marits popularitet v�xer allt mer. Och fler l�gger m�rke till hennes f�rvandling - inte bara i Norge.

Tyska tidningen Bild korade henne nyligen till Europas mest popul�ra prinsessa.

It's quite clear that Mette-Marit's popularity continues to grow. And her transformation has been noted beyond just Norway.

The German newspaper Bild recently named her as Europe's most popular princess.

Which seems more admirable to you, gentle reader: someone from a relatively unprivileged background who has won over an initially skeptical public, or a Prince so oafishly charmless that he has successfully dissipated most of the considerable goodwill the public once had for him?

In fact, I would argue that Prince Charles's only redeeming feature is the eloquence with which he makes the case for a republic.

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