Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Thanks to Diana, the royals are done for

It was New Labour’s idea to democratise the monarchy, but you can’t do that without chopping their heads off

issue 02 September 2017

We are approaching an important royal anniversary, which I trust will be marked with a display of the appropriate reverence for the woman involved. It is almost exactly 20 years since Princess Anne was gratuitously rude to Cherie Blair, during a reception at Balmoral. The Princess Royal can sniff out stinking fish from a distance of several miles, I think. Anyway, having been introduced to HRH for the first time, the ghastly Blair insisted that she should call her ‘Cherie’. Anne replied, icily: ‘Actually, let’s not go that way. Let’s stick to Mrs Blair, shall we?’ That put the vaulting Scouse besom in her place. Why did Anne take an instant dislike to the Prime Minister’s wife? To save time, one supposes.

We do not hear very much about Princess Anne these days, just the occasional report of her snapping a little testily at photographers or commoners. She has not explained to the world, via a television interview or through the press, her profound mental anguish and depression at having a retinue of emotionally incontinent half-wits ahead of her in the queue for the throne, although that is something she must surely feel.

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