Even amid the storms, Kate and Wills have wind in their sails
AFTER one of the most turbulent periods of their lives, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge went to Scotland for a week-long official visit. On the surface, it was all about the responsibilities concerning the Duke’s role as the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Bubbling underneath, like a burn in spate, was an even more important mission: to do everything and anything in their power to strengthen the bon accord between nations and to deepen alliances. To remind a country that remains precariously split on the issue of independence of the glories of the Union. To show them what they might miss were that Union to be rent asunder.
That is a tall order. A big ask. A veritable minefield. Can you imagine the repercussions if either of them had put a foot wrong north of the Border? Had started, for random example, writing absurd messages on bananas, or talking about how beastly papa was back in 2006 or expounding in depth on their inner pain to hard-working medical staff in an Orkney hospital who had momentarily downed tools to meet them?
However, that did not happen, because William and Kate never do put a foot wrong. As the Californian carpet-bombing of the House of Windsor’s reputation continues, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex raining down their toxic blitz of emotional squits, the serene Cambridges carry on behaving faultlessly. Duty first, no matter what. In Scotland it was all about visiting charitable organisations, targeting issues such as homelessness, addiction and sustainability. Plaque-unveiling, treeplanting, hand-shaking. Visiting a hydrogen production plant and managing to look fascinated. Having a tennis knockabout with Edinburgh schoolchildren. The dull but essential, the meat and drink of royal life.
This is the stuff the Sussexes felt was beneath them, back when they complained to royal aides they were not being used to their strengths. Clearly, they wanted a world stage. Not the next stage in a campaign for marine energy in downtown Kirkwall.
How I winced for the Cambridges during their trip to St Andrews, the university town where they met 20 years ago. The Scottish weather closed in to give them a traditional welcome; an onslaught of cold rain sweeping in from the North Sea, a grey embrace that soaked into every moment.
YET Kate looked utterly delighted to be there. She always does, wherever she happens to be. On the cold streets of the old Scottish burgh, she played another strong coat game in sharply tailored tartan, later floating through it all in an elegant camel button-through: composed and queenly, always.
And I thought: if the pair of them can shine on in these circumstances; if they can survive the dreich of a day like this, in the middle of a terrible week, in the aftermath of Bashir, Oprah and following the death and funeral of Prince Philip, then they can survive anything.
Over the past year, the pressures on Prince William have increased exponentially. Prince Harry’s royal criticisms are heartfelt, but he never stops to think how his words might affect his older brother, swelling his burden of duty. But in public at least, William just quietly accepts it, and soldiers on.
In the past it has seemed wrong to egregiously compare the two couples, to sound the trumpet for the great Cambridge v Sussex universal challenge. This is your starter for ten. Who has behaved worst over the past 12 months?
Each couple has their strengths and weaknesses, their folly and forethought. Yet now the comparisons are inevitable, because their fates and how they are perceived around the world are irrevocably intertwined.
This is all down to the Sussexes, who have turned the fortunes of the Royal Family into a terrible game of thrones: a battle of insult and endurance in which one couple can survive only if they annihilate the other.
It is a duel, metaphorically speaking. And I know which Duke and Duchess my money is on.
For there are only so many confessional, hear-my-pain television specials that the Sussexes can inflict upon the world before the world tires of them and their self-absorption.
If I hear another word about Harry’s inner struggle, I may well have a psychotic break of my own. What about Prince William’s mental health? They never seem to consider that, or perhaps he is just collateral damage.
In contrast, the dogged, quiet, rainy-day good works of the Cambridges seem destined to cement a mutually appreciative relationship with the public.
William has behaved impeccably under duress, no doubt appreciative of his weatherproof wife’s steadfast support.
I used to think Kate and William were a bit boring. Now I am grateful for their unfailing sense of duty and acceptance of the arduous destiny that awaits them.
The future king and queen are coming into their own.