I admire and hugely like the singer Billy Bragg, that proud working-class hero. The last time we met, the Queen's Jubilee came up and also my fierce republicanism. Don't fret, said Billy, understand. Royalty is an integral part of British culture. Respect it, as you ask for your culture to be respected. I have never believed any tradition should be above criticism, just because it goes back a long way. But still, Billy, this time I tried, really tried. And then this week the excessive indulgence of spoilt royals, the oleaginousness and uninhibited ostentation got to me. Objections broke out, like hives. And quite honestly it is a relief after the suffocating restraint of the past months.

Holders Wigan will play St Helens in the quarter-finals of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

Last season's beaten finalists Leeds were given a fright by Salford before booking a place in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup. The world champions were held 6-6 at the break but scraped through 16-10 thanks to tries from Ben Jones-Bishop and Shaun Lunt in the second half.

A man who posted an offensive doctored image of a teenage shooting victim on Facebook has been given 300 hours' community service.

A man who posted an offensive image of a teenage shooting victim online has been given community service, the Crown Office has said.

Allied Irish Banks has confirmed it is laying off 2,500 workers - 500 more than it originally signalled.

Shamim Ahmed Khan was one of the most eloquent sitar players of his generation and scion of a family of hereditary Hindustani classical musicians which upheld and advanced a gharana, meaning a school or style of music-making, historically generally associated with a specific geographical seat, in this case the Agra Gharana. Agra would figure largely in his musical destiny, and bring him to the attention of his life-long guru, Ravi Shankar.

Eight undercover soldiers were at the scene of a high-profile killing carried out by loyalist paramilitaries, a report has revealed.

Keanu Reeves goes behind the camera for the newdocumentary Side by Side. He tells James Mottram about this passion project and how Bill and Ted could soon be returning

I have the great good fortune of being able to walk to work through one of London's most beautiful parks. And at this time of the year, when the stirrings of spring are visible and tangible, it is a commute that can lift one's spirits, even if you're irritated that your iPhone has run out of battery again and you've just been ripped off by your builder/dentist/dry cleaner and your bank has mysteriously put a stop on your credit card and you can't get through to a human being to explain.

A terminally ill man has been sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in jail for the murder of two soldiers in Northern Ireland.

It would be easy to portray the recent spat between Professor Geoffrey Hill and Carol Ann Duffy as one of those literary catfights in which the world of poetry seems to specialise. Hill, Oxford Professor of Poetry, belongs uncompromisingly to a cerebral and academic tradition, while Duffy, a superb Poet Laureate, is a communicator and a populist.

Colin Duffy denies any involvement in shooting of two soldiers