Snap judgment

As the axiom has it, if you're in a hole, stop digging.

What you don't do, if you occupy a senior position in the constitutional arrangement of your country and have disappeared from public view after a serious operation, is to fuel already feverish speculation about the state of your health by sending out an obviously doctored photograph to the press and media and expect them a) not to notice or, b) not care when they do.

But that's just what Catherine, Princess of Wales, did - presumably with the connivance of her husband, the heir to the throne of the UK, who apparently took the photograph/s - and in so doing made a bad situation immeasurably worse when outlets which had published the image in good faith issued a 'kill notice' to withdraw it after digital manipulation was spotted.

Kate issued an immediate apology for her photoshopping inadequacies but the damage was done, only to be promptly compounded by the royal household's refusal to issue the original undoctored image, or give any further update on her medical condition. This inevitably led to conjecture that all was not well and even to far-fetched suggestions that Kate's face might have been superimposed on another woman surrounded by her three children.

If the intention was to allay and calm public fears, it was clearly a PR fiasco. But why does any of this matter, surely it's all a storm in a teacup? Well, no, not given that, like it or not, we live in a monarchy and the monarch, our head of state, is currently being treated for cancer and has withdrawn from public duties. For his daughter-in-law, the future queen, to be hors-de-combat at the same time raises constitutional issues. If William, the Prince of Wales, has to deputise for his father, act as regent or even, in the worse-case scenario, succeed him as king, then his consort's health obviously becomes an entirely legitimate matter of public interest.

While this particular story may seem superficially trivial, about a photo of a mum and her kids taken by their dad to mark Mothering Sunday, it has much wider ramifications in our society. Because this isn't Mumsnet we're talking about, this is the family that sits at the apex of our political system, providing our head of state and his/her heirs and successors. That this should be an hereditary succession, and restricted to a single family (the Windsors) is disturbing enough in a supposedly modern liberal democracy. But what most shocks me about this case (and I declare an interest as a supporter of Republic) is the naive and breezy amateurism it reveals at the heart of the British Establishment, as exemplified by the House of Windsor. 

The picture was clearly meant to reassure the British public that all was well, that Kate was making a good recovery from her abdominal operation and would be fit to resume her public duties after Easter, as previously announced. Instead, the revelation of its clumsy manipulation, and its subsequent hasty withdrawal, has created a febrile atmosphere of speculation and fuelled conspiracy theories which distract from the multiplicity of very serious issues currently besetting the British people. 

Should Downing Street be tempted to breath a sigh of relief that the media spotlight has moved away from them after Rishi Sunak's equally inept public address about terrorism last week, they should probably think again. The whole constitutional framework of the UK depends (literally, as in hangs from) the monarchical structure. If that fails, the whole house of cards collapses. This latest debacle, entirely self-inflicted, must focus minds at both the Palace and Number 10.

Governance is not a game for amateurs, however well-meaning.



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