Charles will be a good king… if he can resist the urge to talk like a politician
THE Coronation was a triumph – but that was the easy bit.
History will judge King Charles III on his reign.
Like his mother, Charles will have to deal with embarrassing relatives.
The young Queen had her Hitler-loving uncle, the abdicated King Edward VIII.
Charles has his disgraced younger brother, Andrew, plus Harry and Meghan.
And like his mother, our new King must negotiate this country’s relationship with its past.
The late Queen turned this into one of the triumphs of her reign, as the British Empire was dismantled and her beloved Commonwealth was built.
But King Charles is already drifting into dangerous waters where millions of his subjects will bitterly disagree with him.
Charles has signalled his support for research into the monarchy’s historic links with slavery.
Fair enough.
Education and enlightenment can only be a good thing.
But if this research led to the country paying reparations, it would be catastrophically divisive.
Nobody ever asks the descendants of African slave traders to put their hand in their pocket.
Only the wicked British.
Charles is a man of strong views that guide his moral compass.
But if the monarchy is to survive, he cannot be a divisive figure.
Everyone wants to share their opinion on everything these days.
Worse still, they imagine everyone else wants to hear it.
Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, opines that sending illegal immigrants to Rwanda is “morally unacceptable”.
And by curious coincidence, or perhaps not, Welby made his views known in the same week it was reported that Charles had clashed with Boris Johnson over the Government’s Rwanda plan calling it “appalling”.
Personally I am no advocate of the Rwanda ruse.
When someone suggests “Rwanda” I always think, why not send them back to, er, France?
But an elected Government is desperately attempting to find a solution to an issue that matters to millions.
For the King to take sides would be catastrophic to the institution of the monarchy.
No doubt the late Queen, the most experienced public figure of the last hundred years, had strong views of her own.
She always kept them to herself.
This King can be our greatest ambassador.
When post-Brexit wounds are still raw in Europe, his tour of Germany was a triumph, and a reminder to the Europeans, and the British, that there is more that unites us than divides us.
But to see the religious leader who crowned Charles wading into the Rwanda debate, before they have even taken down the Coronation bunting, shows the perils facing the King.
The monarchy, and this King, is wildly popular.
Almost all of our country was touched, moved and delighted by the Coronation.
Republicanism in the UK is still a minority interest.
But we live in an age where every voice demands to be heard, where every cause is amplified, and where our national broadcaster is sympathetic to any anti-establishment crusty with a “Not My King” placard.
Queen Elizabeth II did not have to make the case for the very existence of the monarchy.
King Charles III does.
Our country wants our new King to succeed.
Charles is, rather bizarrely, more popular as King than when he was the plain old Prince of Wales.
He is also more popular than any politician in the land.
The irony is that Charles will only retain that popularity if he can resist the urge to talk like a politician.
Royal rumble
THE anti-monarchy group Republic has every right to protest in a free country.
What they don’t have is the right to spoil the first Coronation of a British monarch for 70 years.
What they don’t have is the right to shove their minority views down our throats.
Most people are happy that the law detained a few of them for a few hours on Coronation day.
Personally, I think it is the best thing the Met has done in ages.
Now how about banging up some slow-moving eco cranks when folk are trying to get to work or do the school run?
Adjoa is tone deaf
ADJOA Andoh’s observation that the Royal Family looked “terribly white” on the balcony of Buckingham Palace has provoked record numbers of complaints – more than 4,000 and counting.
“We have gone from the rich diversity of the (Westminster) Abbey to a terribly white balcony,” she said.
The actress, 60, is no rent-a-mouth activist.
She seems like a thoughtful woman.
But it was totally tone deaf to point out that a family – any family – is lacking ethnic diversity.
Are we obliged to see hotbeds of racism where none exist?
And the irony is that if the mixed-race Duchess of Sussex had wanted to be a working member of this Royal Family then the Windsors, and this entire country, would have gladly embraced Meghan with open arms.
But that ship has sailed, and that private jet has flown.
Are we meant to see absolutely everything in the world through the prism of race?
Sorry, Adjoa, we don’t!
Banana drama
BREXIT did not die with Government’s decision to retain the lunatic EU law – among thousands of others – forbidding bendy bananas.
That’s not Brexit dying.
That’s Brexit’s corpse twitching.
Blanka banker
GRIZZLED Eurovision veterans enjoyed – or is that suffered? – a Bucks Fizz flashback when Polish singer Blanka had her skirt yanked off last night.
Although the odds are that young Blanka has never heard Making Your Mind Up in her life.
Tough choice
WHAT is wrong with America?
Donald Trump has been found guilty of sexually abusing the journalist E Jean Carroll in the changing room of a Manhattan department store almost 30 years ago.
Yet, incredibly, Trump remains the frontrunner to be the Republican candidate in next year’s presidential election.
That should guarantee a Democrat victory.
But in the USA, things are not so simple – because Joe Biden wants to run for a second term.
And who would vote for an increasingly incoherent candidate for whom the nickname Sleepy no longer quite covers it?
We despair about our politics in this country.
But God help a United States where the choice is between the senile and the sleazy.
Wily Rod’s still got a trick to get his kicks
I FELL in love with live music watching Rod Stewart and the Faces.
The group, including the young Ronnie Wood on lead guitar, were great musicians.
But best of all, the band had a great time.
They swigged Mateus Rosé.
They looned about.
They laughed until they wept.
And they kicked footballs around on the stage.
The good times were contagious.
Watching them live was the most fun you could have with your flared, pre-washed denim jeans on.
A lifetime went by.
Faces broke up.
Rod Stewart became one of the biggest superstars in the world.
Rod, who is just about to start a residency in Las Vegas, became the consummate professional.
But he retained something from those drunken, anarchic nights on the stage with Faces.
For years – decades – Rod kept kicking footballs around on stage.
At the Finsbury Park Rainbow in 1971, if Faces kicked a football into the crowd, we kicked it back.
And tried to put it on Rod’s spiky head.
But in the modern world, Rod’s footballs became collector items.
“People went mad,” he says.
“They would walk out with a football and get mugged outside, as they’re worth a lot of money.”
Another reason Rod’s football-kicking has now been dialled down is because there were injuries.
“I had one or two lawsuits,” the singer sighs.
His cunning plan is to keep the footballs as part of his show but to have female members of his band gently lob them into the crowd.
“They’re not going to hurt anybody,” insists Rod, 78.
Rod, mate, you can’t make that assumption any more.
Or people will be asking you to sing: “Do Ya Think I’m Sexist?”
Steve’s proper justice
STEPHEN Tompkinson has been found not guilty of attacking a man outside his home.
What happened to the DCI Banks actor could happen to any one of us.
Tompkinson woke in the middle of the night to discover two drunks on his driveway.
When they objected to being politely asked to move on, Tompkinson pushed one of them, Karl Poole, in self-defence.
“I didn’t want to hurt him,” Tompkinson told the court. “I wanted to stop him.”
Poole suffered a skull fracture. An ugly, unpleasant and terrifying experience.
But hardly the fault of a family man who finds two half-dressed, incapable drunks on his doorstep in the middle of the night.
Stephen’s life has been put on hold.
His career has been devastated.
The stress he has endured is unimaginable.
But now the star has been acquitted.
And I look forward to seeing this fine actor – and lovely man – back on our screens soon.