The world financial crisis affected even the aristocracy of the Old World. The cost of the Dominions of the British Monarchy has reduced by one billion pounds.

The state pays the Queen and her family a fixed rent, a part of which is spent on transportation charges. With a view to economize, the government recently decided to reduce the Royal Flight.

Queen Elizabeth can not afford buying a new jet plane, therefore the decision was to purchase a smaller plane.

The prices for gasoline are high in Europe, that is why the British Queen had to change a Rolls-Royce for an economic Toyota Prius.

Most European aristocrats endeavour to find pastimes at home instead of visiting fashionable seaside resorts.

The Crown Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited an airfield in Suffolk to honour Army helicopter crews who fought in Afghanistan. Prince Charles addressed to the soldiers from the cockpit of an Apache helicopter, and thanked the soldiers for their support when his son, Prince Harry, was serving in the war zone.

Many British aristocrats and celebrities visited Cartier Polo 25th Year Anniversary at Windsor Great Park last week. Among the celebrities attending the pageant were Neve Campell, Anna Friel and ex Spice Girl Gerri Halliwell, accompanied by her boyfriend from the family of great antiquity, Henry Beckwith.

The Belgian Crown Prince Philip, his bride Princess Mathilda and their children are enjoying their summertime in Spain. They were deeply impressed walking the whole day about the national Park Paradiso and watching various domestic animals.

Albert II, Prince of Monaco, makes use of his Dominion. He has no need to go somewhere for summertime. The Prince promenaded with his girlfriend Charleen Wittstock about the beach in Saint-Tropez.

Some persons of distinction have such personal concerns that the crisis seems a fairytale in comparison to them.

A Saudi princess gave birth to illegitimate child of her British lover. She had to apply for asylum claiming she would be stoned to death if she returned home to the ultra conservative Muslim country.

Haakon, the Crown Prince of Norway and his family lead an unpretentious way of life. They spend each summer in a nice house in a village.

Contrary to many other European aristocrats, Frederik, the Crown Prince of Denmark and his wife Mary, enjoy the summertime on a fashionable seaside resort Porto-Cervo in Sardinia.

Queen Elizabeth Switches To Biofuel

Queen Elizabeth II has become the latest royal to join the green revolution. The Queen has asked that her two gas-guzzling V8 Bentley State Limousines be converted to run on biofuel.

The Bentleys are based on the Arnage, but were custom-built in-house by the company's Mulliner coachbuilding division.

The limos are currently powered by the company's perennial 373kW/1000Nm 6.7-litre eight-cylinder.

In the Arnage this engine delivers a combined fuel economy figure of 19.5l/100km, but this car is almost 1.5 tonnes lighter than the royal cars.

Bentley says the royal family are big supporters of Crewe's initiative to switch to bio-fuels.

It is fully supportive of the move, which means changing over the V8 engines in the cars for a modest fee.

The Queen's decision follows the lead of the Prince of Wales, who runs his Aston Martin sportscar on old wine while he has converted his Range Rover, Jaguar and Audi to run on discarded cooking oil.

Each of the Queen's bullet-proof cars is believed to have cost about $14 million each.

One was presented as a gift to her during her Golden Jubilee in 2002.

The second was commissioned by the Crown as a back-up car.

The four-tonne armoured cars are fully maintained by Bentley.

They will not only repel fire from a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle, but protect the occupants from high-powered hand grenades detonated above the roof even if two go off simultaneously underneath the cars.

Like all carmakers, the ultra-luxury VW-owned Bentley brand is aiming to reduce emissions and improve economy of its cars.

It has announced that from 2012 it will have flex-fuel engines available across its range.

The company is aiming for a 15 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by then on all its eight and 12 cylinder engines.

It will also introduce a new powertrain from 2012 that will deliver a 40 per cent fuel economy improvement, while maintaining current levels of performance.

The new engine is tipped to be a hybrid.

When Bentley launched its three-stage environmental strategy early last year, its chief executive, Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen, said bio-fuels were part of the company's ``corporate social responsibility''.

Source: Pravda & WheelFever