Contrasting glimpses into the royal soap opera greeted us on the front page, the damaging revelations about the Duke of York alongside the curiosity aroused by Kate Middleton’s wedding dress. The editorial was uncompromising in its assessment of the “undiplomatic envoy”, while the rumours about the wedding dress design together with Times 2 revealing Lady Antonia Fraser’s wedding secrets perhaps give an insight of the coverage to be endured as the big day approaches.
Libya seems to have the capacity to cause daily embarrassment to the great and the good, from the Duke of York to the SAS and the Foreign Office. One soon forgot the farcical raid, however, when reading Martin Fletcher’s graphic account of the few thousand rebels resisting Gaddafi’s power in Zawiyah. In the criticism of tactics, motives and allegiances, we were reminded powerfully not to forget the human struggle and sacrifice encapsulated in the photo of the face of a wounded fighter.
Elsewhere, I greatly welcomed Libby Purves’s views on “real education”; I share her concern that in its present form the curriculum is too narrowly formulaic. As ever the cartoon hits the right note, depicting the exasperation of Cameron and Osborne as their hot air balloon fails to leave the no-fly zone.