In what sounds like a paving-the-way statement, the British Ministry of Defence said today that Prince Harry will not quit the Army if he is left behind from the new deployment in Iraq.

“He will take it on the chin like an Army officer”, was the gist of the statement. Such a sentiment can only have come with Harry’s approval.

Why say it now? It’s the kind of statement made when a decision has already been taken and the ground needs to be prepared before announcing it.

On that basis, it seems as if Harry may be excused this mission. As this is an unpopular war, a member of the Royal Family should not really be serving there in any case. Harry should cut his losses and get back to entertaining girlfriend Chelsy Davy, who is back in London specifically to spend time with him.

If he is left behind or deployed elsewhere, he might look across at the girl who could have been his sister-in-law, Kate Middleton. There were no sulks from her when she was put aside from the role she clearly cherished.

Follow Kate’s excellent example, Harry, and the public will support you even more.

With girlfriend, Chelsy Davy back in England to spend time with Prince Harry before his proposed mission to Iraq, discussions are hotting up on the wisdom of deploying the third in line to the Throne.

Following Royal Anecdotes’ call to pull Harry out of the six-month tour of duty, the Ministry of Defence has announced a review of the decision at the highest level.

Insurgents are said to be getting ready to target the Prince’s troop of 12 men in four Scimitar armoured vehicles. They made their presence felt last week by destroying a Scimitar in the south of Maysan Province where Harry will operate.

The militias have reportedly said they will cut off his ears if captured.

This morning the Ministry of Defence has told Sky News that operations “are under constant review, based on intelligence and information on the ground”. Harry, they say, is not being treated any differently from his colleagues. “It is still our intent that Prince Harry will be deployed as a troop leader”.

Speculation is now growing that he will be involved in relatively low-risk missions. In plain speech, he’ll be given a desk job at HQ.

“It is likely the Army will be very selective about the operations he will be sent on. Perhaps he will not go on as many combat patrols as his colleagues. His chiefs will be very careful about accusations of favouritism, but could use the excuse that on some occasions he would put his men at too much risk.”

A review by the Army’s top brass is unlikely to settle on the status quo. After the recent naval fiasco, if Harry is seen to be the same sort of sitting duck our Navy personnel were when captured by the Iranians, heads would roll, starting with the Secretary of State himself. The repercussions would go all the way up to Number 10.

Stand by for significant changes of definition for Harry’s mission in Iraq.

Royal Anecdotes’ advice remains the same. Don’t send him. You’ve all got too much to lose if Prince Harry loses his ears.

You couldn’t make it up. Yet another coroner has resigned from the interminable inquest for Diana, Princess of Wales, which has yet to get underway 10 years after the event in question.

Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss has walked away from the case citing lack of experience. Is the obvious cause, though, the constant delaying tactics of Mohamed Al Fayed’s legal team, which would clearly like to whack the inquest into the long grass forever?

Butler-Sloss will be replaced by one of Britain’s most experienced judges, Lord Justice Scott Baker. Already delayed to October, the inquest is now unlikely to get started even then because of the mountain of case notes the new coroner has to master.

Why the delay? Initially, it was the long French inquiry, which found that the car crash that killed Diana and Dodi was caused by the driver, Henri Paul, who was found to be a long-term alcoholic.

A British inquiry was then set up under Lord Stevens which came to the same conclusion after a meticulous investigation lasting three years.

The inquest will finally draw a line under the tragedy, especially for those accused of conspiring to murder the Princess. Once the inquest has delivered its verdict, the facts will be clear and we can all move on.

In a new book, The Diana Chronicles, Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and Tatler, gives a damning indictment of Diana’s character and life.

Brown claims to be a friend of the late Princess, having lunched with her in New York just weeks before she died. The book, written to coincide with the 10th anniversary of her death, is set to be a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic.

The book is significant because of the number and quality of the people who have spoken out for the first time. It comes out just two weeks before the Concert for Diana in July, and must be causing her two sons and the organizers some considerable consternation.

Since we don’t yet have a review copy of The Diana Chronicles, here are a few juicy snippets gleaned from a newspaper account, from which you’ll gather Tina Brown didn’t think very much of her :

“Diana was a spiteful and manipulative neurotic.”

“Diana wanted a ‘guy with a Gulfstream’ [a private aircraft]”

“She loved Charles’s title more than him.”

“Charles did love Diana and wanted her back.”

“She did not throw herself downstairs [when pregnant, as she claimed in the Morton book].”

“Diana ogled herself in newspapers.”

“She would never have married Dodi.”

Strong stuff, which adds to the mountain of contradictory reportage available on her life. When accounts of a person vary quite so much as Diana’s do, it usually reflects a person who tries to be all things to all people.