Queen Elizabeth II kicked off her Diamond Jubilee celebrations by attending Epsom Derby with other members of the royal family.

The Queen received a rapturous welcome as the royal motorcade made its way onto the course, and she was greeted by Katherine Jenkins’ rendition of the National Anthem as she emerged from her car. In addition to her husband, she was also joined by several of her relatives, including the Duke of York, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, and Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

The Queen is a keen horsewoman, and the Epsom Derby is one of the highlights of her year. In past years, she has had a horse in the race, and it is said that winning the Derby is one of her fondest ambitions. She has already won the 1,000 Guineas, the 2,000 Guineas, the Oaks, and the St. Leger. Last year, her horse Carleton House came in third.

“She’s incredibly knowledgeable. Her knowledge of thoroughbreds and breeding goes way back,” said Anthony Cane, chairman of Epsom Downs Racecourse.

Epsom had a carnival atmosphere this year, with a dramatic parachute fall by the British Army’s Red Devils taking place shortly before she arrived. Spectators were treated to a performance by Ashleigh Butler and her dog, the winners of Britain’s Got Talent. There were also stiltwalkers dressed as guardsmen, complete with trademark red tunics and bearskin hats.

Today’s race is traditionally called the Coronation Cup, but it has been renamed the Diamond Jubilee Coronation Cup. After the race, the Queen presented the trophy to trainer Aiden O’Brien. His horse, St. Nicholas Abbey, also won last year.

Elsewhere in Britain, the start of the Jubilee was marked by a 41-gun salute in London, and 21-gun salutes in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. On Sunday, the Queen will take part in a pageant on the Thames that will see over 1,000 boats sailing down river. On Monday, there will be a picnic for 10,000 members of the public at Buckingham Palace, followed by a pop concert featuring such luminous names as Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Tom Jones, Sir Elton John, Robbie Williams, and Stevie Wonder. Come nightfall, 2,012 beacons will be lit across the country. The Jubilee celebrations will conclude on Tuesday with a Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral, after which the Queen will attend a reception in her honor hosted by the Lord Mayor of London at Mansion House. Meanwhile, millions of her subjects will take part in street parties and other local events.

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Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh underwent sudden heart surgery after suffering chest pains at the royal family’s winter retreat.

According to Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II’s 90-year old husband Prince Philip underwent a successful “invasive procedure of coronary stenting” at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire. Given his age, he is likely to remain in the hospital for a few days for observation.

The royal family usually spends Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk. But just a few days after his arrival, the duke began to experience chest pains, and so he was airlifted to Papworth, which specializes in disorders of the heart. Doctors diagnosed a blocked coronary artery and performed the stenting to try to remove the blockage. During the procedure, a balloon surrounded by a metal stent is inserted into the artery. After inflating the balloon in order to compress the plaque, it is withdrawn, leaving the stent behind to ensure an open path.

Despite his age, the Duke of Edinburgh is known for his good health, and he was an avid carriage driver into his 80s. The last time he was in the hospital was April 2008 when he suffered a chest infection. While most of his contemporaries are well into their retirement, the duke continues to be an active member of the royal family. He recently accompanied the Queen on an 11 day tour of Australia, and the BBC reports that he appeared to be in good health at a recent luncheon. In past years, he has undertaken around 400 official engagements annually, though as his 90th birthday approached, he announced his intent to reduce his workload.

Former royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter told Britain’s Daily Telegraph that the duke’s medical troubles were probably nothing to worry about. “He has had these chest pains before and I don’t think it’s anything untoward, but given his age they are being safe rather than sorry.”

He may, however, have to miss the traditional Christmas Day service at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene and the Boxing Day shoot.

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Former England rugby captain, Mike Tindall, has endured a few testing months on both personal and professional stages, all of which culminated in his being awarded a £25,000 fine and dropped from the England Elite Squad this past week. Tindall entered into the British Royal Family when he married Zara Phillips, daughter of the Princess Royal six weeks ago.

He was given the fine due to ‘unruly behaviour’ during England’s World Cup campaign back in September. As a sport, rugby union has long been associated with a macho culture of drinking, both by its fans and players.  This is partly due to its struggling to find its identity following the adoption of professionalism in the 1990s.

Given this relatively recent move from an amateur sport to a professional one, many of the current players grew up playing the sport during the amateur era.  The drinking and socialising with teammates outside of the sport is still a critical part of developing team chemistry.

Though this ‘drinking culture’ in rugby is generally accepted, as the players usually maintain high standards of behaviour, Tindall was not allowed to get away with his unruly actions due to the increased media scrutiny at the World Cup. Tindall was photographed drinking and showing raucous behaviour with teammates Chris Ashton, Dylan Hartley, and Toby Flood in the Altitude Bar in Queenstown, New Zealand.

Following this, allegations were made that he had cheated on his wife and that he and his teammates’ behaviour had involved ‘throwing dwarfs’ amongst other incredulous stories. With the bar manager, Rich Deane, assuring the press that nothing of the sort had happened and with the Rugby Football Union concerned with keeping the England management focused on the World Cup, no action was taken until the competition was over.

Many players have jumped to Tindall’s defense, especially given the fact that fellow teammates, James Haskell and Chris Ashton, have been given far more lenient punishments of suspended £5,000 fines for similar behavior during the tournament.

This has lead to criticism being laid at the feet of RFU Operations Director Rob Andrew, who many believe is looking to make Tindall a scapegoat for England’s disappointing exit at the quarterfinal stage of the competition.

Tindall will appeal against the fine and has the full support of the Rugby Players Association, who described the punishment as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘extraordinary’. Although Tindall must accept that, as a member of the Royal Family, his behavior is held to standards above even a professional athlete, he does feel that he has genuine grounds to be disgruntled with a punishment that likely spells the end of an illustrious international career.

His career has seen him pick up 75 caps for England, as well as winning the World Cup in 2003.

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Even royalty get into bad company. This is the realization one gets from a recent row on the British Isles over Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and his friendship with the American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. The hedge fund mogul served 13 months in jail in 2008 for soliciting an underaged girl for prostitution in Florida and Mr Epstein remains under investigation by the FBI for his alleged involvement with underaged girls. Prince Andrew, who is no stranger to scandal, was implicated when a photo emerged of him at Epstein’s mansion with his arm around an underaged prostitute. It was also revealed that the Prince had made an agreement with Epstein to donate a significant sum of money last year to bail out Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York’s, of debt.

The scandal is polluting the run-up to the royal wedding of a decade – Prince William and Kate Middleton will marry in late April and this event is expected to bring a much needed boost the throne. However, the attention has now been temporarily diverted by Queen Elisabeth’s second son and questions have been raised whether the Duke of York should be allowed to continue his job as Special Representative for International Trade and Investment. The skepticism is fueled by the fact that this incident is not the first display of the Prince’s questionable choice of friendships.

Among the examples is Prince Andrews close relationship with Saif Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s brutal dictator as well as ‘close ties’ with the President of Azerbaijan, Aliyev, who is thought to have engaged in torture, election-rigging and the imprisonment of opponents. And three months before the revolution in Tunisia, his royal highness hosted a lunch at Buckingham Palace for the son-in-law of the recently ousted dictator, Ben Ali. Officially, the British government has taken his defense and supported the Prince’s continuous role as Special Representative. The Business Secretary Vince Cable has stated that Prince Albert has done ‘very good work’ opening doors for British trade, but did not wish to comment on his continuous diplomatic responsibilities. However, according to Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, more than one anonymous government official has disowned the Duke and his conduct to the British media.

Bad company happens to not be the only issue dragging behind the fourth heir to the British throne. Chris Bryant, who worked at the Foreign Ministry under the Labour government, has called the Prince a ‘national embarrassment’ and accuses him of conducting his work for his own benefit and not that of the nation. Bryant also criticized his travel arrangements as ‘extravagant’, leaving the taxpayers with a yearly cost of £436.000.

The Duke’s marriage and divorce to Sarah Ferguson has been another publicity issue for the Royal family and their relationship continues to give birth to scandals once in a while. The latest example was in May 2010 when Ferguson offered to set up contacts between a businessman and her ex-husband in exchange for £500.000, unaware that the ‘businessman’ was in fact an undercover tabloid journalist. She later apologized for her ‘lapse in judgement’ while it was denied that Prince Albert had any knowledge of the set-up.

In the wake of the FBI investigation, the Prince told the media that he has cut all ties with Mr Epstein but it is not further back than December that the Prince had been on a four-day visit to Epstein’s home in New York. The Prince will most likely keep his position as a Special Representative, if not as much diplomatic as ceremonial, but it seems that the name given by Simon Wilson, a retired British diplomat, fits Prince Alberts long list of blunders: ‘His Buffoon Highness’.

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