The BBC will tonight unveil historical records from 1956 revealing that the French Prime Minister of the time, Guy Mollet, suggested a merger between Britain and France, with the Queen as Head of State.

“A Marriage Cordial” will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Document programme at 8pm tonight, Monday, January 15.

The idea was taken seriously by Britain’s Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden, especially as it echoed Winston Churchill’s offer to France after the country fell to the Nazis in 1940.

However, the request was later turned down by the Government and France invited to become a member of the British Commonwealth instead.

The Cabinet record of Mollet’s visit to Britain on September 10, 1956, says : “When the French Prime Minister, Monsieur Mollet was recently in London he raised with the Prime Minister the possibility of a union between the United Kingdom and France.”

A later note on September 28, 1956, describes a conversation between Eden, a well known Francophile, and Sir Norman Brook :

“Sir Norman Brook asked to see me this morning and told me he had come up from the country consequent on a telephone conversation from the Prime Minister who is in Wiltshire. The PM told him on the telephone that he thought in the light of his talks with the French : “That we should give immediate consideration to France joining the Commonwealth.

“That Monsieur Mollet had not thought there need be difficulty over France accepting the headship of Her Majesty.

“That the French would welcome a common citizenship arrangement on the Irish basis.”

Well, it didn’t happen. And probably just as well. If the Irish were grumpy bedfellows before they gained independence, imagine what the French would have been like. The kindly English would probably all be speaking French now and wondering what had become of the English language.

Two vanloads of police turned up on Saturday night to watch over Prince Harry’s 4am exit from the Cuckoo Club in the West End with his girlfriend Chelsy Davy. The reason given was that there were a large number of paparazzi in the area waiting for Harry’s exit.

However, the police simply looked on as Harry, dressed smartly in a pink shirt and jacket, and Chelsy (pictured), in a black and white patterned dress, walked a few yards from the front door to a waiting Range Rover. It was the second night running that the Prince and Chelsy had partied until the early hours.

On Friday night –- just a few hours after she had flown in from Harare, Zimbabwe, Chelsy was out with Prince Harry at Mayfair’s Mahiki Club. The couple were said to have shared a potent £100 ($196) Treasure Chest vodka cocktail. An onlooker said, “It’s meant for eight people but in between rather a lot of kissing and cuddling, they polished it off completely”.

Chelsy Davy is in England for a ten-day private holiday, and is reported to have had several “deep and meaningful” talks with Harry about his possible deployment to Iraq. A two-day predeployment training course he attended this week sparked some speculation that he could serve on the frontline.

The course teaches life-saving skills such as patrol techniques and mine awareness as well as instructing soldiers in basic Arabic phrases.

Both the Ministry of Defence and Clarence House yesterday insisted that no final decision has been made. “Harry’s presence in Iraq would present a terrible security risk and we have to think about the safety of those around him,” a senior Army source said. “It is important for all soldiers to take part in preparatory training, but this does not mean that Harry is a certainty to go.”

Chelsy, who is moving to England later this year, is said to be concerned about the level of press attention she will receive. Her fears have been imcreased by the situation of Kate Middleton, who has become a major target for foreign paparazzi.

A source close to the Davy family is reported to have said: “Chelsy loves Harry very much and although she is young, definitely sees her future with him. The trouble is that as a member of the Royal Family, he has a phalanx of bodyguards at his side — whereas Chelsy is very vulnerable.’

One British Sunday newspaper, the rather downmarket News of the World, has a front-page splash that Prince Harry will go to Iraq in the spring, when his regiment, the Blues and Royals, is deployed there.

The whole story is based on the news that Harry is being given a 2-day course on the country, including learning a few phrases of Arabic. It’s difficult to see what else could have been done with him while his own men are involved on the course. It doesn’t mean he will be going to Iraq.

None of the other papers have picked up this story, although tomorrow’s press will probably comment on it.

The bottom line is that our soldiers are ill-equipped and under-resourced in Iraq. Even the top brass has complained bitterly about the conditions. Local commanders have probably warned the Ministry of Defence already that their job is hard enough without having to protect Prince Harry as well.

You can imagine what Al Quaeda and many of the local militia groups would do if we sent the third in line to the Throne to Basra. He would become an immediate target for the death squads and the roadside bombers, which means his men would be in the firing line too.

Many of the British barracks are mortared day and night, killing too many of our troops. Harry’s barracks would come under the fiercest bombardment of all. It would be a nightmare for commanders on the ground. It would also become a political disaster for Government ministers, who will already have noted the publicity given to this, even before it’s happened.

The view of this website is, as it has been from the beginning, that Harry will not be deployed. The case of Prince Andrew in the Falklands was a different one because he was based on British ships, not on the ground with “the poor bloody infantry”.

If Harry goes, it will be a disaster politically and militarily. It won’t happen.

Two eminent Royal watchers have made speculative predictions today for both the engagement and wedding dates of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Richard Kay, a friend of Princess Diana, and the journalist in whom she confided her most intimate thoughts in the period before her divorce, has written a lengthy piece with Geoffrey Levy, an experienced writer on Royal events. Here are their predictions :

“So just how Imminent is an engagement announcement? February is the traditional month for senior Royals to reveal wedding plans. Charles and Diana announced their engagement in February, 1981, and married the following July. What an appropriate gesture it would be if William did the same.”

Well, it’s not hard fact, but it fits in with our predictions for 2007, so it can’t be that far out.

The rest of the article analyses the characters of William and Kate and their relationship as Royal Anecdotes did last Thursday.