If you were to ask any decent publicist to assess the extended and lengthening relationship beween Prince William and Kate Middleton, the report would make dismal reading.

Information is sparse and much of it false, suggesting not just that reporters are relying on poor sources, but that regular smokescreens are put up to confuse journalists.

The fact is we shouldn’t have been speculating for years about this. If what some courtiers are reported as saying is true (and haven’t we heard that before?) William should have made Kate’s status clear some time ago. Instead she’s almost totally boxed in while getting small windows of his time occasionally.

I can’t help thinking that William has not handled it very well. The sudden SAR announcement last year must have knocked her for six. The only explanation that makes any sense is what a friend of William said three years ago: he’s hoping she’ll get fed up and find someone else.

The problem with that idea is that he did ditch her two years ago then went crawling back after a few months. Even that incident was thought by some to be a ploy to get rid of the paparazzi.

The Mail’s Richard Kay, who knew William as a boy, hinted in a TV documentary last year that Kate was being used as a decoy for other activities. With his contacts within the Palace, that must be taken seriously. But then the thought arises as to what these other activities are. Speculation from sporadic facts is never profitable and can be wildly wrong.

The signals are all over the place. It’s beginning to remind me of Gordon Brown. Not a good sign.

Prince William shrugged off a pointed question about his marriage plans during a visit to a new rehabilitation centre for service personnel in a former private hospital.

The new President of the British Film Academy (BAFTA) was asked by Simon Brown, a blind serviceman, if he might be invited to his wedding. William replied jokingly, “You’ll have to wait a while yet, I think”.

It was said in a way that seemed to push the event into the distant future. Indeed, if any such occasion were planned, we would be seeing much more of Kate Middleton and her family.

No such publicity programme is underway or on the horizon. The disappearance of Kate is one of the mysteries of the Royal scene at present.

Apart from a genuine friendship there doesn’t seem any enthusiasm from William to promote a future bride to the public.

If the plans for a Middleton family cake shop on the Fulham Road in Chelsea are to be believed, a Royal wedding is not in the offing any time soon.

Robert Jobson, author of the excellent 2006 book, William’s Princess, wrote in yesterday’s News of the World:

Prince William has ruled out marriage to girlfriend Kate Middleton next year because he is too busy.

Instead, he will step up his role as a roving royal with two ground-breaking official tours to South Africa and Australia.

The prince is also determined to complete his tough helicopter training course, to become an RAF search and rescue pilot.

His hectic schedule means Kate and Wills — both now 27 — could be approaching 30 before they wed. One high-ranking Palace figure told the News of the World: “All this talk of a wedding next summer is wide of the mark.”

William’s trip to Australia is expected to take place early in the New Year.

He will travel to South Africa in June, where he will carry out a series of engagements and attend the World Cup in his role as President of the FA.

While there he will also promote England’s bid to host the 2018 tournament.

I won’t comment on the sourcing of this information, merely point out that it fits with what I’ve been writing here for two years.

Another year, another excuse.

John Evans

I’m often asked why I don’t report on the many rumours zipping around about the endlessly ongoing relationship between Kate Middleton and Prince William.

The simple answer is that most of them are untrue.

Now Judy Wade of Hello! magazine has shot down another batch of these phantom birds.

First, the plausible sounding report that Kate and William will be off to meet the Queen at Balmoral at the end of August. It’s definitely not on, says Judy. Nor is the linked tale of an engagement announcement on August 31, the anniversary of William’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales’s death.

That never seemed a goer for me, since the two events are completely incompatible. The same goes for a wedding at St Paul’s Cathedral.

The new (or rehashed) idea that Kate is yet again planning a rendezvous with New York to enhance her photographic skills, explodes when you consider the paparazzi onslaught that would result in a city far from the protection squad she would need.

If Princess Eugenie is under the cosh for taking police guards abroad, how much more intense would it be for a non-Royal, non-engaged girlfriend of a Prince? And whatever happened to Eugenie’s arrival at an American university? Newcastle is a long way from New England.

It seems that Kate enjoys the privacy that working from a home office allows her, despite the constant barrage of derision it brings. I can understand that as I do the same myself. She will not lightly give it up in favour of a stint in an overseas city, however tempting that might be. Prince Harry’s reception by New Yorkers was a foretaste of what it might be like.

The story appears to be an echo of the Mario Testino affair last year, which went the rounds until he declared, “Where did this story come from? It’s new to me.”

There’s a rhythm to all this speculation. Stories are punted, based on clearly misleading information, only to be shot down later as “completely untrue”.

It may be that William’s friends are putting up smokescreens, like helicopter chaff, to deflect attention from what’s really going on, or, more likely, the sheer humdrum nature of both his RAF training and Kate’s work with Party Pieces.

The true story of Kate and William’s romance would never have become a Barbara Cartland novel, that’s for sure.