Royal unmentionables must stay a State Secret

Legend has it that the Tower of London and, indeed, the monarchy itself will fall if its ravens desert en masse. Something almost as shocking has just happened, rocking a great many of us to our very foundation garments.

Rigby & Peller, corsetière to the Queen since 1960, has had its Royal warrant removed. And thus an era has well and truly ended. For the past 57 years, the upmarket emporium, where expert fitters famously assess customers’ dimensions by eye alone, has supplied Her Majesty and assorted other members of The Firm with their lingerie.

No longer; the warrant withdrawal is due to a tell-all book published by its former owner, June Kenton. Entitled Storm in a D-cup, it included indiscreet if innocuous stories about the Queen and the late Princesses Margaret and Diana. Big mistake.

Exactly what underpins our monarchy ought to be the very definition of a state secret. Break that trust… and of corset will have dire consequences.