Is Kate's Baby Due Five Days Earlier Than Thought?

The Royalist has already nailed his colours to the mast on this one and plumped for May 4 as the day the second child of Kate Middleton will be born, but now new whispers and rumors suggest the baby may be coming sooner than we all thought.

For foreign media covering the royal birth have been told they can set up their cabling and other technical bits and bobs outside the Lindo private maternity wing of St Mary's hospital from midnight on April 15.

A source says this is a full five days earlier than the date of 20 April they were orignally given, but the palace is adamant that no date change has in fact occurred.

"The date has not moved," says a spokesperson, adding that there will be no cameras or reporters permitted outside the hospital until Kate is admitted.

Exact details of how the palace are hoping to handle the media around the birth are expected to be more widely available from the palace after a briefing on April 9.

One thing is clear however - 2013's chaotic bunfight won't be repeated.

"It's all going to be much more organized than last time around," says one veteran of the previous royal baby media circus, "We have been told we will be assigned positions rather than just grabbing them and marking them out with gaffer tape ourselves which is what happened last time."

Reporters and TV cameras have been firmly told that they will be moved on by the police if they turn up at the hospital before Kate has been admitted. And the palace are at pains to emphasise that all the press pens are fully accredited so there is no use in eager reporters getting down to stake the hospital out as they did last time round, for weeks on end.

But the April 15 date for cabling set-up has caught everyone on the hop.

"Everyone is thinking, 'Why have they changed the date? She must be due sooner than they thought',' says one broadcaster.

The betting markets still favour a royal birth day between April 23 and and April 27.