People: The Cambridges ‘must navigate a changing world’ during disastrous tour

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Well well well. People Magazine put this cover story together pretty fast. It makes me wonder if People was already set to put the Keen Caribbean Tour on their cover, but just do it as a positive story about how Will & Kate are perfect future monarchs because they danced and ate chocolate and said “wow.” But as we’ve seen, the tour went sideways in a hurry, and this mess will go down as one of the most deliciously chaotic royal tours in history. “Facing protests, the couple must navigate a changing world.” They’re 39 and 40 years old. They CHOOSE to live like Victorian monarchs, they choose to not live in the real world, they choose to be this sheltered and insular. In fact, they bullied Meghan and Harry out of the country, the two people who could have done a lot to help the Firm “navigate a changing world.” Oh well. Some highlights from this delicious People cover story:

The Disaster tour: They’re typically greeted with deference and excitement wherever they go — until now. For the first time, the royal couple, who are in Jamaica for the fifth day of their eight-day tour of the Caribbean, are facing significant backlash on an official tour. Although they have received warm welcomes from many locals, they are also encountering mounting tensions in the Caribbean nations where William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, remains head of state.

The protests in Jamaica: “It is important as we turn 60 years old as an independent nation that we stand as ‘adults’ on solid ethical, moral and human justice grounds,” Norah Blake, the co-organizer of a protest in Jamaica, told The Independent, “to say to Britain, who was once our ‘parent,’ that you have done wrong in enriching yourselves off of chattel slavery and colonialism.” Blake said both an apology for such atrocities and reparations are essential to moving forward: “Today we are setting the conversation of our future generations, for them to have something to build a brighter future.”

Why it’s all on Baldy & Buttons: It is Charles, 73, who will reign next alongside his wife, future Queen Consort Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, 74, but “because of the ages of all the participants, there must be a feeling that long-term, the future of the British monarchy is more about William and Kate — spiritually, not in terms of actual succession,” says historian Sarah Gristwood, author of Elizabeth: Queen and Crown.

Charles’s slimmed down monarchy blew up in his face: With the departure of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, from the working family, and the discrediting of Prince Andrew, “senior royals are a bit thin on the ground at the moment,” says Gristwood. “Britain is never going to drop all its pomp and ceremony, and it was eventually going to be slimmer and economical. But it’s doubtful even Prince Charles wanted it to lose weight so rapidly.”

Robert Lacey speaks: Royal historian Robert Lacey suggests that for the institution’s long-term health, Charles should not reign as King outside of the U.K. “Why not jettison the hereditary foreign realm concept, securing Elizabeth II’s place in history as the last ‘Queen of the World’?” he asks. He points to the success of the Commonwealth realm, which comprises 54 countries that were once mostly part of the British Empire and today remain voluntarily linked to the U.K. The royals, Lacey offers, should “concentrate on developing the Commonwealth family as a more cohesive, diverse, international, open and forward-looking concept.”

[From People]

I don’t even understand why so many countries still have QEII as their head of state, including Australia and Canada. It’s bonkers. Lacey is right – transition all of those countries to simple “Commonwealth” countries, with an acknowledgement of historic ties and absolutely zero formal participation of the British monarch. It’s not even like the royals have much of a say in it anymore – it will happen with them or without them. But yeah, it’s hilarious that William and Kate blundered into this catastrophe. Everyone should have known this was going to be a total sh-tshow the second they decided to “formally announce” the tour on the same day Russia invaded Ukraine! They are fundamentally tone-deaf, and putting more pressure on them will not help.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instar, cover courtesy of People.

Kate Middleton, Prince William, royals
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