31st October (addendum):

As a card-carrying Republican, the views of your congenial host on the Royal family should require no further explanation. However, I did find it interesting that our Chuck courted controversy yesterday during his tour of Pakistan by bringing up the case of a British citizen currently awaiting execution on Death Row during his meeting with President Musharraf.

Could it be a coincidence that the following day’s programme – a visit to an Islamic school in Peshawar which was arguably the centre-piece of Chuck’s tour – was cancelled at short notice due to alleged safety concerns and a military deployment in the area? Call me a conspiracy theorist but the group’s unscheduled 2nd day in Islamabad may well be a slap round the back of the legs for having poked a highly-visible finger into the murky waters of domestic politics.

Stranger things have happened.