THE FUTURE QUEEN OF ENGLAND

We now know who the future Queen of England will be in a couple of decades. Assuming there are no revolutions that abolish the monarchy, and that normal life expectancy rates hold, then the next queen but one will be called Kate, after Kate Middleton this week accepted an offer of marriage from her long-standing boyfriend Prince William. Many congratulations to them both!

Miss Middleton has already said that joining the British royal family will be "daunting", which is a bit of an understatement. No less daunting will be managing the ever-present and fickle British press. That process starts almost immediately with the choice of wedding venue, a potential minefield given bad memories of Prince William's parents' marriage and the state of the economy. If she gets through the next year relatively unscathed, then she will have demonstrated that she has what it takes to be queen.

Walter Blotscher