For months the battle has raged indecisively between the partisans of a pompous past and the champions of a folksier future. With such rebels as Malcolm Muggeridge and Lord Altrincham on the one side demanding that Britain's monarchy bring itself democratically up to date, and the outraged ranks of the old guard on the other demanding that the Queen's critics be drawn and quartered, it has long been obvious that something must give. Last week, a terse, two-sentence announcement from Buckingham Palace tolled the knell of doom for the first innocent victims of the battleĀthe 800-odd young maidens who each year...
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