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The Telegraph\u2019s royal editor Hannah Furness\u2019s original headline was \u201cWhy this is the most important picture of the royal family since Queen Elizabeth died,\u201d<\/em> referencing the photo of King Charles, Camilla, William and Kate standing together at Tuesday evening\u2019s Diplomatic Reception. That headline was changed to: \u201cIs the Royal family\u2019s message of unity enough to save the monarchy?\u201d<\/em> Which is better? I actually like the second version – it\u2019s more open-ended, less of a bold statement \u201cthis photo is important\u201d<\/em> versus \u201cis this photo that important?\u201d<\/em> Anyway, the point of this piece is: where do the left-behind Windsors go from here? The answer is \u201c???\u201d <\/p>\n The photo from the Diplomatic Reception:<\/strong> It could be, observers noted, the most important image since the death of Elizabeth II more than a year ago. Or, said a palace insider present at its taking: \u201cIt\u2019s [just] a nice up-to-date picture of the four of them.\u201d In other words, there were no frantic phone calls to assemble the 2023 royal \u201cFab Four\u201d especially for the occasion. \u201cThis was them getting on with the job,\u201d another shrugged. \u201cThere was no change to the schedules in reaction to anything. This was when the diplomatic reception was happening \u2013 it\u2019s a key event in the royal calendar. What it shows is an unwavering commitment to duty and service and that is the plan today, next week and long into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n The influential Sussexes:<\/strong> The influence of the Sussexes\u2019 version of life in the Royal family persists, despite their pointed silence over the latest allegations which began in their own Oprah Winfrey interview and have never quite gone away. Endgame, with its portrayal of Prince William as an angry, jealous, power-hungry heir and the palace staff as omnipotent master manipulators of the media, tallies remarkably with Prince Harry\u2019s autobiography, Spare, and the Sussexes interviews to date. The storylines on The Crown, broadcast on Netflix \u2013 which signed the Sussexes up for a multi-year, multimillion-dollar deal \u2013 have been influenced by Harry\u2019s version of events.<\/p>\n The Crown also predicts the monarchy\u2019s endgame:<\/strong> Perhaps most uncomfortable of all is the theory, pressed home in multiple scenes during the final episode, that without the late Queen, the monarchy cannot survive. The rest of them are \u201cnot remotely ready\u201d, says Philip. The ghost of the young Queen, rather improbably, tells the elderly version of herself that the rest of her family always \u201cmake such a mess of it\u201d. That doom-laden thesis has not yet come to pass.<\/p>\n The whole operation hinges on Charles & William\u2019s ability to work together:<\/strong> The King has been warmly received by a public who have largely embraced him as his mother\u2019s son. The Prince of Wales, still the more popular in the polls, is planning for a future reign that he knows will have to look different to the monarchs who have come before him. Their success rests on their ability to work together. \u201cThe King and Prince have massive areas of life in which they overlap and support each other,\u201d said a palace source of their current working relationship. \u201cThey also have their distinctive interests. On their support for the monarchy and the institution, they are totally in agreement.\u201d Another noted: \u201cThey are talking regularly about issues around their work and the institution.\u201d On the challenges outside the royal households, aides are \u2013 or at least try to be \u2013 sanguine.<\/p>\n Palace aides bitching about The Crown & Omid Scobie:<\/strong> \u201cEveryone stopped caring about The Crown long ago,\u201d said one palace source. \u201cIt\u2019s lost whatever qualities it once had. I think everyone has got the message it\u2019s make believe. And Endgame is about as credible as The Crown. It is a vanishingly small minority of people that believe it, they\u2019re not going to change their minds, but to everyone else it\u2019s wholly unreliable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [From The Telegraph]<\/p>\n I never get tired of palace seething with a thin veneer of performative apathy. \u201cScobie isn\u2019t credible, neither is The Crown,\u201d meanwhile Charles was in emergency-mode for YEARS over a Netflix show and the monarchy had to hold emergency crisis talks over yet another racism outbreak documented by Omid Scobie. The real point of this, for me, was the acknowledgement that in the immediate future, the whole thing hinges on William not stabbing his father in the back. Hilarious. Of course, that\u2019s well-documented in Endgame as well – the fact that Charles and William aren\u2019t actually close at all and they\u2019d both sell each other out for one sliver of temporary power, or even just one good 24-hour newscycle. <\/p>\n Also, with all of the talk about the importance of Tuesday night\u2019s photo, I think people are forgetting the other \u201cNu Fab Four\u201d photo where they were smiling like horses\u2019 asses just days after QEII died.<\/p>\n Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Buckingham Palace and Instar.<\/small><\/p>\n\n
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