Brits love a royal wedding
2005-02-12 21:06
London - Britons are warming, slowly, to the long-simmering love affair of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles and approve of their upcoming marriage, according to a poll published in The Times newspaper on Saturday.
Forty-three percent approve of the union of Britain's heir to the throne and his longtime lover, compared with 22% who disapprove and 30% who said they did not care, the poll found.
The announcement of their engagement on Thursday, and of the April 8 wedding date, set off speculation about whether the public will accept a second marriage of Charles, given the fierce loyalty still widely felt to his first wife, the late Princess Diana.
But The Times survey found growing acceptance for Parker Bowles, a 57-year-old divorcee who has known Charles, 56, for more than three decades and been his live-in companion for the past several years.
Last June only 32% approved of a marriage between the two, while 29% disapproved and 38% did not care, it found.
A noticeable rise in support came from middle-aged Britons: 56% of 55- to 64-year-olds approve, compared with 27% of that age group polled last summer.
Half of those polled believed the marriage would have no effect on the monarchy, while 33% said it would weaken it and eight percent said it would strengthen it.
But the poll also found that Britons were largely opposed to Queen Elizabeth II, now 78, abdicating in favour of her son.
The poll, conducted by Populus, was carried out among 502 adults by telephone on February 10 and 11.
A similar survey, published on Friday in The Daily Telegraph, showed a 65% approval rating for the marriage, compared with 24% disapproval and 11% of respondents who did not know.
The numbers were up dramatically from a similar poll taken in 1998 - only a year after Diana's death in a car crash in Paris, and two years after her divorce from Charles following a painful, public break-up.
In 1998 only 40% had approved of a union with Parker Bowles, whom Diana had blamed for the ruin of her marriage.
- SAPA