Wessexes take lessons from Cambridges’ tour missteps

THE Earl and Countess of Wessex might be forgiven for feeling slight trepidation over their forthcoming Caribbean tour.

Of all the Commonwealth realms, these island nations have, in recent months, made clear their intention to sever ties with the British monarchy.

As a result, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s jaunt in Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas was challenging.

Not only were the couple met with protests about slavery, demands for reparations and a personal apology, they were also forced to stand awkwardly as Andrew Holness, the prime minister of Jamaica, told them on camera that his country was “moving away” and intended to become a republic.

In December, Antigua and Barbuda’s tourism minister, Charles “Max” Fernandez, said it was time to follow Barbados and become a republic “as soon as possible.” He added: “We have to get past the final chapter of a tie to a country that had our people in slavery.”

He appeared to be echoing wider sentiments, after an editorial in the Antigua Observer noted that Independence Day 2022 was “as good a time as any” to renounce the Queen as head of state. “We ought not to linger on colonial premises,” it said. “Let us completely cut the umbilical cords.”

This being the case, palace officials keen to avoid further PR pitfalls have been studying the couple’s itinerary ahead of their tour later this month of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Part of the criticism of the Cambridges’ trip was that it tried too hard to recreate the hugely successful tours carried out by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. So, while the Wessexes will want to ensure the focus remains on the Queen’s historic seven-decade reign, any thoughts of echoing their movements in Grenada, such as greeting onlookers from an open-topped car, as Her Majesty and Prince Philip did on their first visit to the country in 1966, will have been quietly discarded.

Grenada might pose another challenge because of an “offensive” symbol in the insignia worn by Dame Cécile La Grenade, the governor-general.

The Grenada 2050 Project, based in New York, has called on Dame Cécile to stop wearing the “racist” insignia of the Order of St Michael and St George, which depicts the white archangel St Michael trampling the neck of Satan, who is represented by a black man.

“This … represents … the white supremacists’ belief that the white man is … superior, and the black or darkskinned man is bad and inferior,” it said.

The Wessexes’ overseas tours have long tended to fly under the radar. But aides will be acutely aware that on this occasion, the eyes of the world will be upon them.