Chelsy Davy has headed off on a four month “world tour” before starting her postgraduate studies in politics at Bristol university.

Originally, the trip was billed as a way of taking her mind off Prince Harry’s overseas deployment, possibly to Iraq. However, it now seems Harry may go to Afghanistan in October.

In the meantime, he has a very comfortable billet in the Windsor barracks of the Blues and Royals, with an easy schedule from 8.30am to 4.45pm weekdays, and evenings and weekends off. Why then has Chelsy chosen to remove herself for four months while he is mostly available in Britain? There surely can’t be trouble in paradise, can there?

As a farewell gesture, Harry treated his girlfriend and her mother and father to dinner at the Windows restaurant on the 28th floor of the Park Lane Hilton.

A secret deal is being negotiated between Clarence House and the Ministry of Defence that will allow Prince Harry to operate in a war zone without endangering his, or his men’s, lives.

Harry’s Private Secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former member of the SAS, has suggested to the top brass that Harry should be able to serve as a watchkeeper, a liaising role out of the main line of fire and requiring computer and logistical skills. His job would entail monitoring communications between base camp and the front line.

It’s thought Afghanistan is the most likely posting for him as British troops are doing relatively well in Helmand Province, despite a massive Taliban presence. Senior sources in the Blues and Royals believe he could be sent to Kabul or Kandahar, where other NATO forces are fairly thick on the ground.

Both Clarence House and the MoD state that no decision has yet been taken on Harry’s deployment.

Anyone with access to Britain’s ITV network can watch a TV show called, Kate Middleton V Paparazzi scheduled for 10pm GMT this coming Thursday.

The programme covers familiar ground for readers of this site in speculating whether Kate is the “new Diana”, and asks if the paparazzi and the authorities have learned anything at all since Diana’s tragic death.

It will be interesting to see if the programme makers have anything new to say on the topic, or if it’s just a rehash of what’s being said in the press and online.

It’s not clear right now if ITV will broadcast it over the net on itv.com, but we’ll keep you informed should they decide to do it.

The extraordinary Golden Globe winning performance of Helen Mirren in The Queen, a film about the period following the death of Princess Diana, has reopened the controversy about the real Queen’s handling of the crisis.

HM’s decision to remain in Balmoral for five days after the car accident has been questioned by many, despite the need to look after her two grandsons and prepare them for the ordeal of the funeral.

Mirren’s brilliant performance with a script hostile to the Queen and Monarchy, has produced a different response from the public than the one at the time.

One of the Queen’s oldest friends is quoted in the Mail : “Her responses were entirely honest, but in the wrong century, I’m afraid. You have no idea how upset she was when she arrived in London and could see for herself, and feel, just how much she had misunderstood the public. But she maintained then, as she still does, that the public also misunderstood her.”

The Mail reports : “Her close friend the Rev. Michael Mann, former Dean of Windsor, believes that the Queen’s initial refusal to leave Balmoral was because she believed this was best for William and Harry.”

“With the Queen, it was primarily a case of looking after her two grandchildren and keeping them out of the spotlight when they had just lost their mother. I think the public instantly took against her for this because such an image had been built up of Diana that she was like Snow White.

“The public looked at it only from the point of view of Princess Diana, whereas grandparents of all kinds have other considerations when the family suffers such a terrible shock.

“I think the public weren’t sympathetic to the Queen’s position, which doesn’t reflect on the Queen so much as on the public.”

The Queen herself admits she made mistakes, the worst perhaps was allowing that ruthless old ham Tony Blair to hog the limelight for five days.

This reassessment is long overdue. Strange then that it comes from a movie that sets out to do a “hatchet job” on the Monarchy. What no-one expected was that a luminous performance by its leading lady would bring waves of public sympathy and warmth to the film’s main target, the People’s Queen herself.