Harry and Andrew are out in the cold

King Charles has announced, to mark his 74^th birthday, that he will be asking Parliament to amend the Regency Act to increase the number of counsellors of state who can conduct official public business while the monarch is overseas or otherwise indisposed. He has asked that it now include his sister, Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and his younger brother, Prince Edward, the splendidly named Earl of Wessex and Forfar. It represents a generous spirited recognition of the services that Anne and Edward have undertaken for decades, often with little gratitude or reward: springtime for the Princess and Prince.

It is, however, very much winter for two existing counsellors of state, namely Prince Harry and Prince Andrew. Although they have not been formally stripped of their responsibilities, neither man has any official role within the Royal Family anymore. The appointment of the Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex as their replacements is a simple, if brutal, reminder that under the reign of King Charles anyone who is thought to be surplus to requirements for ‘the Firm’ can now be discarded.