This Fab Four really have a Scooby-Doo
AND here they are – the Fab Four.
William, Kate, Meghan and Harry – the little band which will take our monarchy racing towards the 22nd century.
A bit like Scooby-Doo (minus the dog) and with a Gold State Coach as their Mystery Machine.
William is sensible yet dull Fred, Meghan’s the rather risque Daphne and Harry has to be loveable Shaggy. Which leaves Kate with the admittedly less glamorous role of Velma but who actually has the brains and backbone to get them out of trouble.
So what adventures will the gang find themselves embroiled in over the coming years?
Inevitably there are always peaks and troughs in the popularity of the monarchy.
But the future looks to have more troughs than peaks.
The Queen is now 91 and Prince Philip 96. How much public affection and respect can be retained for the monarchy when they are gone?
There may be some affection for Prince Charles and his wife Camilla among ardent royalists, but in the public at large, far less so. And certainly much less respect. The foolishness of his marriage to Diana and his behaviour during its collapse remains writ large in the public mind. And while he may have been unfairly pilloried for ‘talking to plants’ and caring about architecture and the environment, these vague perceptions of a slightly doolally royal, out of touch with the public, remains.
And so it will be down to this Fab Four to battle public cynicism and anti-establishment fervour in a digital world. They need to show they are sufficiently like the rest of us to be liked, but sufficiently different to be respected.
So how to achieve it? More of the hard work (I know it’s not hard work in the usual definition of the phrase) but turning up at events, shaking hands and looking interested amid the tedium that we’ve seen from William, Kate and Harry. We need more of the passion we have seen on issues such as mental illness in the young
Being a baby machine with shiny hair isn’t going to be enough
and Prince Harry’s Invictus Games. But we need less of Meghan prancing around like a model in a perfume ad wearing a £56,000 dress for official snaps. Or William and Kate shelling out £9,000 a year for Princess Charlotte to do half days at nursery.
William and Harry also need to carve out proper jobs in addition to their royal duties to fill the long decades that lie ahead. And so in the 21st century do Kate and Meghan. Being a baby machine with shiny hair isn’t going to be enough in future.
Privileges and perks of royalty must never outstrip the responsibilities and rules which come with it.
Because there are plenty of people in this country who believe it impossible to justify the expense of an institution which only serves to underline the divisions which run through our nation.
There are already rumblings that when the Queen passes away it will be time for radical change.
Such anti-royalists could get away with it... if it wasn’t for these pesky kids.