Years into their careers, he found, they were still taking their washing home to their mothers.Such behaviour seems rather pathetic; it could also be a form of realism. I trust I am betraying no confidences by reprinting selected extracts from one or two of them here today.The following was a first draft I penned at the end of the year Her Then Royal Highness the Duchess of York had incautiously allowed herself to be photographed in her Birthday Suit while an assiduous adviser simultaneously attempted to extract a bee-sting from her left foot."Christmas is a time for families and friends to come together but also for differences to be forgotten," Her Majesty begins her Message. We aim to send her subjects from their Christmas repasts with a spring in their collective steps, ready to greet the year that lies ahead with renewed industry and servility.These past years, this vital note of optimism has proved more and more elusive as the fortunes of the Windsors have leapt with gusto from the frying pan to the fire and back again via the stove. It is an open secret that I have played the major role in composing Her Majesty's Christmas messages these past few decades. It has long been Her Majesty's wish that we inject a positive, optimistic note to each missive. And I am glad to say that your faithful columnist had more than a hand in ousting Auntie Beeb (!) from her Palace residency.Let me begin at the very beginning (shades of the delightful Von Trapp family, methinks!). May I bring a hint of Jack Frost to your breakfast table this July morn? For it is to the vexed subject of Christmas that I wish to address myself today.

I daresay the powers that be at the BBC (or 'Auntie' as one used mischievously to term it in the rib-tickling days of Punch magazine!!) are reeling in shock at the decision by Her Majesty to allow their deadly rivals at ITV to produce her Christmas Broadcast to the Commonwealth. Well, bully for them, quoth Arnold! It is high time the bully boys at the Beeb (yet another affectionately comical term for that venerable institution coined by we inky humorists of Monsieur Le Punch!) were given a sharp smack on the wrists by Buckingham Palace. If you typed in a URL, please make sure you have typed it correctly. In particular, make sure that the URL you typed is all in lower case. InSkinParams = new Array(); InSkinParams['srv_SectionID'] = '124015'; InSkinParams['srv_Keywords'] = 'home'; InSkinParams['srv_Categories'] = ''; InSkinParams['srv_UseSAS'] = 'false'; InSkinParams['sas_PauseAdTag'] = ''; InSkinParams['plr_InSkinID'] = 'myPageSkin'; InSkinParams['plr_ContentID'] = 'myContent1'; InSkinParams['plr_ContentW'] = '975'; InSkinParams['plr_FrameTop'] = '90'; InSkinParams['plr_FrameSide'] = '130'; InSkinParams['plr_FrameBottom'] = '90'; InSkinParams['plr_TotalW'] = '900'; InSkinParams['plr_TotalH'] = '600'; InSkinParams['plr_ContentType'] = 'PAGE'; InSkinParams['plr_HideElementsByID'] = ''; InSkinParams['plr_HideElementsByClass'] = ''; InSkinParams['plr_ExpandableDetached'] = 'true'; InSkinParams['plr_NoSkinInSkinResize'] = 'true'; InSkinParams['plr_AssumeSkin'] = 'false'; function addEvent( obj, type, fn ) { var obj = ( obj.constructor === String ) ? document.getElementById( obj ) : obj; if ( obj.attachEvent ) { obj[ 'e' + type + fn ] = fn; obj[ type + fn ] = function(){ obj[ 'e' + type + fn ]( window.event ) }; obj.attachEvent( 'on' + type, obj[ type + fn ] ); } else obj.addEventListener( type, fn, false ); } if ((navigator.platform.indexOf("Mac") == -1) && (navigator.platform.indexOf("Linux") == -1)) { addEvent(window, 'load', function() { var adjustment = 0; InSkinParams['plr_ContentH'] = jQuery('#InSkinPageContainer_' + InSkinParams['plr_InSkinID']).height() + adjustment; if (screen.width >= 1235) { InSkinLoad.init(InSkinParams); } }); }. That is the real and terrible danger of taking the passion out of democratic politics..

Those groups contain real passion of a sort that it is almost impossible to find in Westminster. Much worse, the young may decide that the only way of advancing change is to join a terrorist movement. If they want to save the planet or improve the lot of the world's poor or persuade humans to treat their fellow creatures more decently, they might join Greenpeace or Save the Children or the animal rights movement. Listening to this, young people who have a real passion for changing the world might agree with Ms Short's advice to her hypothetical daughter and decide not to enter politics.