Royal Rush II

As well as Charles and Camilla on location for the Commonwealth Games and an oddly restricted ramble through North Queensland and the Northern Territory plus a side trip to Vanuatu that featured a very large number of Indigenous people in both countries inexplicably enthused by the royal presence, suddenly Prince Edward has appeared justifying a sojourn as an Empire Games spectator (beach volleyball?) with an astonishingly low key visit to four States. This included a large number of games of real (royal) tennis and some obvious make-work visits in Tasmania including the one at the Botanic Gardens to open a boardwalk. One tennis game took place in Ballarat!  These appearances will be quickly followed by another royal heir baby and then the glamorous wedding, even if it also will be low key but heavily televised, in mid May. The Harry-Meghan link-up will be on a far lesser scale than that for the second heir to the throne in 2011, orders of precedence and place in the pecking order being rigorously observed by the Windsors with just enough excellent PR to cover the gaps. We couldn’t help noticing that both Clarence House and the Palace are having trouble with Meghan’s honorific. When it’s used, it’s always Ms. – with a full stop – and this only draws attention to it, the rest of the western world having adopted Ms unadorned years ago.  Kate, of course, was a Miss Catherine Middleton so not much feminism to see there but Meghan isn’t a Miss at all, rather a divorced American actress and a woman who works, so Ms full-stop will have to do.