For a tour that should have been an unmitigated success, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s visit to the Caribbean has ended up being surprisingly controversial, described as nothing less than ‘a PR disaster’. Even if some of the negative coverage feels confected, especially in light of the exploits of Prince Andrew and Prince Harry, it seems extraordinary that the supposed outrage could not have been anticipated.
It has been an inauspicious curtain-raiser to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June: from the unfortunate images of the Duke and Duchess shaking hands with Jamaican children through a chain-link fence to the protests that have greeted their progress from local republicans.
There is a sense that the second-in-line to the throne is frustrated and wants to cast himself as a moderniser
Yet it has produced two notable news stories. The first is Prince William’s admission that he is unlikely to become head of the Commonwealth, given that he feels intrinsically uncomfortable with ‘telling people what to do’.
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