What are Prince William’s motives for choosing the RAF over Kate Middleton?

Whichever way you look at it his motivation for deciding on four more years in the military is hard to read. The choice is made more puzzling by his apparent sudden change of mind.

Just a few weeks ago William seemed set to spend 2009 learning about constitutional affairs, interspersed with some Royal engagements and other duties. Although it was never explicitly spelled out, most observers had pencilled in a summer wedding with Kate Middleton.

Then, anonymous voices claiming inside knowledge began to put it about that marriage had been postponed for 18 months at least. No reason was given, which made the claims less credible at the time.

Last week the absent bits of the jigsaw puzzle fell into place. William had decided to train for the RAF’s Search and Rescue unit and was intent on becoming a helicopter pilot on active duty around Britain’s shores and wild places.

So what were his motivations, and how does Kate feel about his apparent desertion? The obvious reason is that he enjoys the excitement of service life.

It may also be true that he views marriage as a millstone round his neck. However much he likes being with Kate, it may simply be “the institution, stupid”.

It’s possible that only one of these motives is the real one. Which one would be interesting to know. There’s a lesser probability that both figured in his decision, in which case maybe the French Foreign Legion would be a better choice.

If the first reason is the primary cause of his sudden change of heart, it holds up to the world that he may never be ready to settle down into the boring routine of marriage and Royal duty — at least until he is considerably older.

An even longer life for his grandmother, and an extended reign for his father, might be very welcome to the reluctant Prince.

I’m also beginning to think that Kate may share those views, although not to the extent of being separated from him for the best part of four years.

She may recognize that you have to swallow some bad stuff in order to realize your dreams. As a middle-class female she probably has a better grasp on the realities, like the necessity to compromise a little and settle for what you get.

William, though, as a Prince born to greatness and worldwide fame, may just believe he can have it all without any diversions down unwanted paths and alleyways.

There’s a disconnect somewhere here. Let’s hope neither of the two personalities in this affair gets hopelessly hurt.

It may be that a Christmas announcement is still in the schedule for a May or June wedding next year. In which case the trajectory remains intact. But some sources are warning this is not so, and normal life has been postponed in the foreseeable future.

Since the future of the Monarchy rests on their shoulders, it would be of great assistance if someone known and credible explained the reasons behind this radical change of tack to the great British public.

Do you sometimes get the feeling you are being led a merry dance, or up the garden path and down an Irish country mile? That’s what the wedding of Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly on Saturday at Windsor, is beginning to feel like.

The wedding has been full of contradictions from the moment it was announced.

First, it would be held at Windsor, but then it was moved to Scotland — to the church at Balmoral. Now it’s back at Windsor again in St. George’s Chapel and with a full complement of Royal guests.

Then we were assured that Peter would renounce his rights of succession to the Throne, as his bride-to-be is a Roman Catholic. But hold on, Autumn will now renounce her Catholicism instead.

The situation has not been much clearer over the girlfriend duo either. Chelsy Davy wasn’t invited at first, but Kate Middleton was. Now Chelsy is invited but Kate won’t go.

Prince William would be a supporter (best man), then an usher. Now he’s going on holiday. His change of mind is alternatively given as a reluctance to see Kate upstage Autumn, or as a gesture against the pre-wedding publicity.

Could all this be a deliberate ploy to keep the press and public guessing, or is the whole wedding a fiasco worthy of Gordon Brown?

Peter is known for being an intensely private man with few pretensions. The wedding, we were told, would be low-key and mostly off-camera. Now the couple has sold the wedding to Hello! magazine, which published a 20-page spread last week. Hello! also has some rights to exclusive pictures of the wedding itself. The fee is reported to be £500,000 ($1m).

It does seem to be a strange way to organize what is, in all but name, a Royal wedding at Windsor in the presence of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Or might they be delayed on their return from a State visit to Turkey?

Anything could happen between now and Saturday. We’ve got our ears to the ground. Both of them.

The Press Association has reported that Prince Harry has been serving on the front line in Afghanistan for 10 weeks. The news was leaked by The Drudge Report and reluctantly confirmed by the Ministry of Defence.

It seems likely that Harry will be recalled, as he will now become the one and only target of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The PA report states :

Prince Harry has been fighting the Taliban on the front line in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

The 23-year-old Household Cavalry officer has spent the past 10 weeks secretly serving in war-ravaged Helmand Province.

The deployment had been cloaked in secrecy under a news blackout deal agreed across the UK media to prevent details reaching the Taliban and endangering Harry and his comrades.

But the arrangement has broken down after news was leaked out on the US website the Drudge Report.

As part of the deal a group of journalists had visited the Prince in Helmand on condition that details would only be publicised once he was safely back in the UK.

The deal was arranged after Harry’s planned tour to Iraq last year had to be cancelled because of a security risk sparked by publicity.

After the disappointment over Iraq, when Harry was due to work as a Scimitar light tank troop leader, he retrained as a battlefield air controller known as a JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller) with a view to going to Afghanistan.

He flew out on December 14, two months into the current winter tour.

He spent several weeks working in Garmsir in the far south of Helmand Province, operating just 500m from front line Taliban positions. He has since left Garmsir to work in another part of Helmand Province, details of which can not be reported for security reasons.

There is no immediate steer from the Ministry of Defence on the future of his deployment.

Let us hope they move him to a place of safety. After 10 weeks, he deserves his medal.

Update: ITN’s Political Editor is suggesting that Harry’s deployment is now over. Everyone is amazed they managed to keep it quiet this long. He was due to stay until April, but will return home a hero having fought on the front line and controlled aircraft movements over various battlefields.

ITN has lengthy interviews with him on the ground. He seems fit, happy and glad to be there. The Queen and Prince Charles have said how proud they are of him, and Prince William has written to him saying how proud their mother would be at this moment.

For those who didn’t see the splendid five-part BBC documentary Monarchy: The Royal Family At Work, Amazon has the DVD out tomorrow, Monday.

Amazon.co.uk is offering a 40pc reduction at a value price of only £14 (around $27).

The documentary was shot by RDF Media for the BBC and caused a furore at the press launch when the Queen was said to have “stormed out in a huff” from a photoshoot with American star photographer, Annie Leibovitz. The footage actually showed her walking briskly into the session.

Some very senior executives lost their jobs in both RDF and the BBC before the matter was finally resolved and a re-edited version agreed with Buckingham Palace.

The scene — now shown in the correct sequence — is the first to be shown in Episode 1 of the series.

If you are at all interested in British Royalty — and you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t — this is a must have collectors’ item. The DVD also has a bonus of half an hour of unbroadcast material, so contains around six hours of truly sumptuous viewing.

Let’s hope the extra footage has been cut in the right order.