Agencies/London

 

 

The home page of the official royal wedding website is seen displayed on a computer screen, in London

A new website providing all the latest official information on the upcoming wedding of Prince William to girlfriend Kate Middleton was launched yesterday. Royal officials say the website, www.officialroyalwedding2011.org, will be regularly updated with new details about the ceremony on April 29, as well as featuring photos, features, and video content.

It will also be the first place where details of Middleton’s dress will be revealed on the day of the wedding. A second government website, www.direct.gov.uk/royalwedding, has also been launched with practical information to help tourists planning on coming to London or Britons organising events in their local communities.

Meanwhile Prince William was yesterday urged by a rising Labour MP to shun his father’s “Castle of Mey-style indulgence” and “anti-Enlightenment” campaigns against modernity.

Television historian Tristram Hunt said the young prince needs to make a clear break from “bling and conspicuous consumption” and to appoint courtiers from more varied walks of life.

“The young prince and future king needs to be true to himself, to find his own authentic approach — but a little less of the Castle of Mey-style indulgence of his father and late grandmother, the Queen Mother, would be more in tune with the times,” wrote Hunt in an essay on the future of the monarchy for PPR, the magazine of the Institute for Public Policy Research.

The Castle of Mey in Scotland was one of six homes owned by the late Queen Mother, who spent a fortune saving it from ruin. “Leave the bling and conspicuous consumption to the Russians and Saudis at One Hyde Park — the royal family should be about understated style,” he said.

Prince Charles’s office declined to reply to comment yesterday morning. But Tory MP Patrick Mercer said: “If Hunt has problems with the royal finances he should get involved through the proper parliamentary procedures.”

Hunt, a friend of Lord Mandelson who at one stage became close to Prince Charles, also said the royal family needed a wider circle of courtiers.

“It still seems as if the British army and a spot at Cirencester is the defining attribute for appointment to the royal palaces,” he said.

“Prince Charles has shown the way in broadening his circle, but it is up to his son to do more.”