Is Prince Chuckie Being Dumped?

It looks that way.

From the UK's Daily Mail comes a story that gives weight to the long standing rumor that Queen Elizabeth has decided to dump Prince Charles in favor of the next generation, with Prince William taking on a number of her public duties and becoming Britain's 'shadow King':

The Queen is to hand over a substantial part of her public duties to Prince William to help him prepare for the day when he becomes King, according to a confidential document obtained by The Mail on Sunday.

Secret papers reveal that plans to ease the strain on the 83-year-old monarch and her 88-year-old husband, Prince Philip, are at an advanced stage.

The disclosures come despite months of denials from the Palace that the Queen was planning to step back from her official work in favour of her 27-year-old grandson.

The information is contained in a briefing note written by Chancellor Alistair Darling’s Treasury officials about new financial arrangements for Prince Charles and his sons.

Key paragraphs, disclosing the reason for the changes, are blacked out.

But this newspaper has obtained an uncensored version of the document which confirms that the Queen is grooming William as a ‘Shadow King’.

It's long been something of an open secret that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip do not exactly get on well personally with Prince Chuckie and Camilla. Among other things, they have very different views on subjects like Islam,terrorism and heavy Muslim immigration into Britain.

Her Majesty was famously named by al Qaeda as 'one of the severest enemies of Islam', while Chuckie is noted for his affinity for Islam, to the point that he's announced that he wishes to be named 'defender of the faiths' at his coronation, as opposed to the traditional title. It's also pretty well known in Royal circles that one doesn't bring up topics like Israel or Jews in Chuckie's presence.

In fact, a number of observers think he may even have secretly converted to Islam.

Regardless of how you parse the reasons behind it, it appears obvious than Queen Elizabeth has been making plans for some time to sideline Chuckie in favor of her grandson.

In an earlier official statement, the Queen made it clear she has no intention of abdicating just yet, saying that at her Coronation vow, she promised to serve her country for life whether her life was long or short.

She comes from long lived stock; the Queen's mother was 101 when she died in 2002 and her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria lived to age 81. At this point, she's 83 and just a bit more than five years off from breaking Victoria's record as Britain's longest-serving monarch.

The current transition plans will allow her to stick around as a serving monarch while easing William in.