18 February

Polly Toynbee writes in The Guardian Weekly that she wished Charles and Camilla had eloped to Gretna Green to avoid the avalanche of “monarchalia”. She ponders whether Camilla is planning a quick trip to the IVF clinic in Rome that supplies babies to the post-menopausal and labels this all rather disgusting “and certainly not a dignified way of arriving at who should be head of state.” She calls upon Prime Minister Blair to set up a constitutional convention after the next general election to look at the question of a second British republic. She says that Charles is not warmly embraced as the next monarch and few care one way or another about his marriage. She hopes that Camilla will be a wise influence on Charles and speculates that the marriage will be a watershed reopening debate about the monarchy. She thinks that if Charles were clever “he might convene a great constitutional convention himself. The very least he might propose is a referendum to gain the consent of the people before ascending the throne” – WfaAR comment: now there’s a novel use for a referendum.