It was, by general consent, a significant moment: when the Queen came out on to the balcony after the carriage procession to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, there were only five other royals with her: No Prince Andrew, no Princess Royal; no Prince Edward (he was visiting his father in hospital). This was the inner core of the royal family: Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge; Prince Harry; Prince Charles and—yes—PRINCESS Camilla, the Princess of Wales: for that is what she is by law, and it is time now that that is how she should become officially designated. All this “Duchess of Cornwall” stuff was to cope with the still remaining post-Diana hostility to her. She was treated as a marginal royal, on the very edge of “the firm”, barely tolerated as such. It is a sign of how very well she has done, how hard and successfully she has worked to reverse this perception, that the Queen could make the implicit declaration she did by coming on to the balcony, without Prince Philip, but with those very five carefully chosen members of her family: heirs to the throne with their wives and Prince Harry because he and his brother are so close. It wasn’t principally about Camilla, of course: but it was at least partly so. The Press has already cottoned on to all this, both Camilla’s personal achievement, and the Queen’s total change of mind (she once described Camilla as “that wicked woman” and refused to meet her). The Daily Mail, once one of the leaders of the anti-Camilla pack, spotted it straight away:
4:06 PM
The jubilee was a huge success: for the Queen, of course, but also for Camilla. It’s now time to accept her as the palace already does: as our future Queen
It’s time for us to move on: the Queen has, so should we.
William Oddie

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