King Charles v pen and ink

Any monarchy, particularly one as high-profile as the UK’s one, relies on projection. It has to earn the word “majesty” through mystique and pageantry. The long reign of Elizabeth II helped, giving a sense of permanence, but it must be invested as much in the role as the person, allowing the seamless passing of that magic from one generation to another.

Which could be a problem when the new king spruiks homeopathy, looks like a Pixar rendering of a depressed bat, and is apparently capable of losing a fight with a pen:

Yep, that’s our new head of state, signing a condolence book for his mother with the wrong date and then coating his hands in pen ink (“every stinking time!” he huffs as he leaves the room, because of course this isn’t the first time he’s been bested by stationery).

We noted elsewhere today that the republican movement in Australia has decided to sit out the debate during the royal period of mourning. You can debate whether that’s a politically savvy move, but if we were in charge of its social media accounts we would simply retweet the above video without comment, along with the footage of him berating some off-screen staffer for failing to clear the table quickly enough at his ascension ceremony, the fact that he won’t pay tax on his inheritance, the coming redundancies his staff were told about during the service for the queen at St Giles’ Cathedral …