Events of last week suggest now more than ever the generational shifts that are taking pale within the royal family, it was announced just last week that Her Majesty the Queen will not be attending this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to be held in Colombo, the Capital of Sri Lanka but will be represented by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, this announcement is historic indeed as this is the first time ever that the Queen not be at the CHOGM summit which she usually attends every two years.
There are varying speculations as to why this move is being undertaken now, one such reason is that the Queen seems to be scaling back particularly on her trips overseas one could not help but notice that she has not left British soil in over a year not even to tour the Commonwealth for her Diamond Jubilee instead that tasks was left to younger members of the royal family whereas The Queen and her consort the Duke of Edinburgh preferred local jubilee tours to overseas ones, seeing other members of the royal family take up more responsibilities is a sure sign of changes happening within the House of Windsor.
A second suggestion that the Prince is being poised to succeed his mother as Head of the Commonwealth, while it is quite clear that when the current reign ends, Prince Charles will automatically become King of the Commonwealth Realms, there is no certainty that the he will also become the next Head of the Commonwealth, this position is being put forward by some liberals and so called “anti-colonialist” who claim that the Headship of the Commonwealth should be rotated between heads of State, that of course is a ridiculous and redundant suggestion as the Chairmanship of the Commonwealth is already rotatory, the Prime Minister or President of the Host Country is normally chosen as Chairman whenever the Heads of Government meet, there is no need for another rotatory office.
The Commonwealth was built upon the Monarchy, anyone who denies that fact needs to go check upon the history of how it was formed in the first place, The Monarchy is the oldest supporter of the idea of the Commonwealth of Nations and as such is an integral part of it, take out the monarchy and the Commonwealth itself might not survive and besides like his mother and his late grandfather King George VI, the Prince has spent years serving and supporting the Commonwealth certainly more so than many of these political leaders who at times even go as far as the question the relevance of the Commonwealth in the first place why should he not get a chance to be an integral part of the Commonwealth and make a difference, why give the post to someone who might not even believe in the values that the Commonwealth stand for and may not even care for its survival all in the name of political correctness.
Apart from CHOGM, Prince Charles also accompanied his parents to the State Opening of Parliament last week , an event he had not attended since the last Princess of Wales died tragically in a car crash and even more telling was the presence of his current wife the Duchess of Cornwall who was attending for the very first time her attendance at an event like this a few years ago would be unthinkable due to the public outrage that would erupt. Seeing the Prince at the state opening all decked out in his Fleet Admiral’s uniform to match the one worn by his father Prince Philip while the Duchess wore a simple white gown that did not look unlike the one the Queen was wearing one could easily tell that’s a sign of changes on the horizon.
What might this all mean, no one really knows, is there regency on the horizon? maybe or maybe not time will tell, one thing I’m certain of is that abdication is certainly not an option for the Queen (I already spoke about that in an earlier post see: http://jamaicatory.blogspot.com/2013/02/on-matter-of-abdication.html , there is much speculation but a great deal of pundits , but I guess we’ll all just have to sit back and watch patiently, one thing I can surely say though is that I have very little doubt that this thousand year old monarchy will last well into the future as it will be passed from one generation to the next, from the Queen into the Capable hands of Prince Charles to his son the Duke of Cambridge and eventually to his unborn son(yes I’m predicting a boy) whose expected birthdate is in July and continue that grand old tradition of reigning over their subjects with wisdom and justice- God Save the Queen.
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