Delhi
It’s a sappingly humid Sunday evening, but I decide a suit and tie are in order for Sir Michael Arthur, the British High Commissioner. Bad move. He is in shirtsleeves as he takes me out on to the terrace of his Lutyens villa in Delhi. His bearer pours me a gin and tonic and I inquire after another man known for his aversion to mufti: the Prince of Wales. Sir Michael explains that he couldn’t spend as much time as he would have liked at his side when he visited India with the Duchess of Cornwall last month. Jack Straw had summoned him home for the launch of the White Paper ‘Active Diplomacy for a Changing World: The UK’s International Priorities’. It is hard to imagine any previous High Commissioner to India bailing out — even briefly — of a visit by the heir to the throne. A further manifestation, for Charles, of the end of empire, and maybe, on the part of Her Majesty’s Government, a recognition that a new empire is emerging.
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