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| Britain |
| Prince William to share Queen's duties |
| 2009-12-13 |
| Treasury document reveals secret plan to make him the 'Shadow King' The Queen is to hand over a substantial part of her public duties to Prince William to help him prepare for the day when he becomes King, according to a confidential document obtained by The Mail on Sunday. Secret papers reveal that plans to ease the strain on the 83-year-old monarch and her 88-year-old husband, Prince Philip, are at an advanced stage. The disclosures come despite months of denials from the Palace that the Queen was planning to step back from her official work in favour of her 27-year-old grandson. The information is contained in a briefing note written by Chancellor Alistair Darling’s Treasury officials about new financial arrangements for Prince Charles and his sons. Key paragraphs, disclosing the reason for the changes, are blacked out. But this newspaper has obtained an uncensored version of the document which confirms that the Queen is grooming William as a ‘Shadow King’. One blacked-out line states that ‘the Princes [William and Harry] will increasingly incur expenditure when undertaking engagements on behalf of The Queen’. Another censored section, stressing the key role for William, says that ‘from next year, it is expected that HRH The Prince William will spend a significant part of his time on official engagements . . . we need to put the necessary provisions in place in anticipation of that’. The leak will add to speculation that the Queen believes William, rather than Charles, represents the best long-term interests of the monarchy, and will raise new questions about the timing of William’s long-anticipated engagement to his girlfriend Kate Middleton. The breach of secrecy caused alarm at the Palace last night, with a senior Royal source expressing concern that the private details had been leaked in ‘unredacted’ - the official term for uncensored - form. The reaction reflects the extreme sensitivity over the issue of the Queen’s future in public life - and how to promote Prince William without undermining the monarch or Prince Charles. It is bound to lead to new speculation that when the Queen dies, the monarchy could skip a generation, with the Crown bypassing Charles and being handed straight to William, although Royal sources strongly discount this option. The Treasury document was prepared for Mr Darling in the run-up to April’s Budget. The announcement that he was granting Charles tax relief worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, by allowing him to deduct his sons’ official expenses from his tax return, was slipped out on Budget Day in a separate ministerial note and was picked up by newspapers only several days later. The tax perk funds an office at St James’s Palace, with six members of staff, which for the past few months has been organising the affairs of Princes William and Harry. Previously, the Princes had been represented by Charles’s staff. The blacked-out words in the Treasury note say 'But as Sir Michael¿s letter sets out, the Princes will increasingly incur expenditure when undertaking engagements on behalf of The Queen' The briefing note, released following a Freedom of Information request, contained a third blacked-out section which showed that the entire operation to transfer duties to William was orchestrated by the Queen and Prince Charles. It shows that the approach to the Government was made by Sir Michael Peat, Charles’s private secretary, who is also a confidant of the Queen. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 NewC: I think you have you're princes mixed. Williams is the SAF serving one, who wanted to serve. Harry is the Nazi-costume idiot. |
| Posted by: Charles 2009-12-13 16:42 |
| #3 Well, at least she knows what her baby boy is worth. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-12-13 05:38 |
| #2 I see the George Soros and Obama arrangement is catching. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-12-13 05:17 |
| #1 Too bad it's not Harry, but better than Charles. I'm losing countries here. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-12-13 12:59 |