Not sure what to make of Chas & Camilla. The idea of her getting the HRH doesn't quite sit right.

I contacted monarchist Theodore Harvey for his opinion. Part of his response:

[I]f one accepts that Charles and Camilla's relationship was not going to end, and rejects (as Charles himself obviously does) the idea that he should be forced to renounce the throne in order to marry her, there remain only two possibilities: either an indefinite continuation of their public non-marital relationship, or marriage. When the issue is framed this way, I think all monarchists have to be glad that Charles and Camilla have chosen the latter.

I do wonder if the announcement that Camilla will be merely "Princess Consort" and not "Queen" when Charles becomes King is merely a ploy to try to gradually prepare the public to accept her, and if they are hoping that by the time he succeeds to the throne, memories of 1992 will be so distant that it will be politically possible to proclaim her Queen after all. [I suppose I had this thought because I've read that Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, whose assassination in 1914 provoked WWI, secretly intended to raise his morganatic (unequal) wife to Imperial status after he became emperor.] But this is pure speculation on my part.

In summary, I would say that while I have my reservations, I am basically glad at the news and wish the couple all possible happiness.

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From The Spectator:

"Mark Steyn says it’s time for limp, languid Tory toffs to join the fight for freedom." Great subhead, that.

Paul Johnson takes up split infinitives and copulation (in the grammatical sense):

I don’t give a damn for grammar, or syntax either. Having learned to ‘parse’ as a small boy, and done ten years of Latin and eight of Greek, I take it all for granted. But I love semantic and grammatical niggles and rejoice in the way some people get red in the face with rage at the lapses of others. Thus Earl Granville, when foreign secretary, telegraphed to Sir Stafford Northcote in Washington that the substance of the treaty between Britain and America (eventually signed 8 May 1871) was all right but that ‘in the wording of the Treaty Her Majesty’s Government would under no circumstances endure the insertion of an adverb between the preposition “to” and the verb’. The Earl was something of a stylist. Two years later he was out riding with Bishop Wilberforce, the famous ‘Soapy Sam’, when the bishop was flung from his horse on to his head and died instantly. The Earl recorded that his death was ‘essentially prelatical’. ‘He must have turned a complete somersault. His feet were in the direction in which we were going, his arms straight by his side — the position was absolutely monumental.’ Imagine Jack Straw writing like that!

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Some Telegraph obits (free registration required):

Lady Aitken: Society beauty who entranced George V and stood unwaveringly by her son during his tribulations.

Major Sir Rupert Clarke, Bt: Landowner and soldier to whom George VI complained about the quality of the bath water.

Max Schmeling: World heavyweight champion who had two famous fights with the 'Brown Bomber', Joe Louis.