20 November

Can a monarchy be modern? Recent utterances by Prince Charles, who will be Australia’s next head of state under the current arrangements, bring a new round of questioning about the relevance of monarchy to contemporary government. Joan Smith writing in The Independent (UK) newspaper summed it up this way: “With his spectacularly undistinguished career, disasterous marital history and grandiose self-delusions, Prince Charles is a prime candidate for therapy. What he most decidedly does not look like is a modern head of state.”