A tailor-made-for-Sunday headline in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday informed us:

“Queen: Kate should get a proper job.”

Ho, ho, ho, that should put on a few hundred thousand copies. The online header is even more explicit. “Queen: Kate should get a proper job before Prince William announces their engagement.”

But is it true? It depends what you mean by “true”.

Reading between the lines, here’s my imagined scenario of how this story emerged into the light of day — I could be totally wrong.

Katie Nicholl, the Diary Editor, had written a piece about Kate Middleton for her inside column. It covered the continuing criticism of Kate’s apparent lack of a job, which seems to exercise some people almost to the point of madness.

The article, which was basically supportive, obviously drew on inside information from the Middleton family for its detailed descriptions of Kate’s involvement in the family businesses as a kind of creative director, including shooting product photos for the websites.

However, in another part of the newsroom, the MoS editorial department had received a briefing from a Palace “source” telling of the Queen’s doubts about Kate Middleton — “a nice enough girl” — and specifically mentioning HM’s belief that Kate should get a job or develop a career before an engagement is announced. This is graphically described as the “Kate Problem”.

The story was written up and tacked onto the diary piece under the Diary Editor’s byline to make a great front-page Sunday splash.

It’s my belief that what we’re seeing here is an attempt by a growing anti-Kate Middleton faction in the Palace to brief against her in the press. The Mail is just reporting what it’s been told and drawing the desired conclusions.

The basic facts of the briefing may just creep into the lower levels of accuracy in that the Queen has undoubtedly discussed Kate many times with William and close friends. She may well have agreed that Kate needs a focus for her life, especially as she’s had to wait it out for her big moment for nearly seven years. But I’m sure HM would never have wished her views to be made public in this way or made to look as if she were packing Kate off to the Reading Job Centre.

The case of Sophie, now Countess of Wessex, is still a live one. As a career woman in the PR business, her position eventually became an untenable nightmare for the Palace and the Queen. Every time she landed a plum contract, she was accused of abusing her Royal position, as was her husband, Prince Edward, with his TV production company. They are now fulltime working Royals, bringing up a young family.

Stories like the Mail’s yesterday are going to pop up all the time as people get bored with waiting for firm news, and factions develop among courtiers and officials — they can be quite excitable at times.

As Royal Anecdotes has been saying for more than a year, the “Kate Problem” is not a problem with Kate at all, but with Prince William’s determination to drag out his marriage decision interminably. It’s beginning to look like the old political manoeuvre of “kick it into the long grass”. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a Royal Commission is just around the corner.

The problem is a William one. He should heed the wise counsel of his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, “For God’s sake marry the girl or let her go.”

The big day dawns for Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly with controversy swirling around the supposedly private wedding in St George’s Chapel, Windsor.

The Queen and Peter Phillips together on a cruise

Indeed, so private will it be that only Hello! magazine photographers will be allowed into the church for the ceremony and to Frogmore House for the reception. A small number of selected snappers will be permitted shots of the couple on the steps of the Chapel after the event. A single official photograph will be released to commemorate the occasion.

Buckingham Palace officials have said they knew nothing of the arrangements for the Hello! photographers, nor that they had been sold exclusive rights to the wedding for Wednesday’s edition.

It’s clear the Queen did not know either, but will surely be aware of it now, following her return from a State visit to Turkey with Prince Philip.

Peter Phillips and his wife-to-be seem to have placed the Queen and the Duke in the embarrassing position of emulating the likes of Victoria Beckham and Paris Hilton for this occasion.

One can imagine the Duke’s response. The Queen will probably be more emolient but must be displeased that she has been undermined in this way. Simply going to the event will make her complicit in the WAGish elements of the day.

The public should not have to pay for access, via a celebrity magazine, to the wedding of the Monarch’s grandson, which is partly supported by public funds.

At least Prince William is well out of it, hidden away in the African bush.

In the wake of her recent successful stay at Windsor Castle, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been talking about her impressions of the Queen and the British Monarchy.

“It was terribly scary but also an incredible adventure,” she said. “It was like arriving on another planet. Never in my life did I think I would meet the Queen of England.”

She told of her amazement that the Queen personally showed her to the apartment where she would be staying at Windsor Castle, and said, “Here’s your bathroom.”

The French First Lady admits she took a crash course in Royal protocol before the visit. “I asked for advice from the protocol section of the Elysee, but also from the British Ambassador’s wife. I tried to imagine how to do the curtsy.”

The Royals were “a real family,” she declared. “One really feels it when one is with them. And for me it was an absolute honour.”

Carla seems to have hit it off with the Duke of Edinburgh. He played the perfect host as the Queen and the President chatted in French.

“Prince Philip is a person with whom it seemed to me very easy to follow protocol.” He also had “impeccable French”. The Duke had explained “everything that was going on, what we saw, the right thing to do. … He’s a fantastic guide.”

The British public and press were very taken with her too.

Prince Philip has just left hospital after spending three days undergoing treatment for a serious chest infection.

It’s unclear whether the 86-year-old Consort to the Queen will attend his two engagements tomorrow, Monday, or one on Thursday.

Everyone will welcome this news after yesterday’s false reports.