The Windsor PR problem — how low can they go?

Having had years of everybody telling them how clever they are for ‘re-inventing’ monarchy in the 21st century, the royal family has now reached something of a PR impasse. Sebastian Shakespeare today reveals that the Windsors have had to draft in headhunters to find a new chief spinner for Princes William and Harry, amid whispers of disputes between Kensington Palace and Clarence House as to how the younger royals ought to project themselves in the media.

This was always going to happen. Positive PR is a monster that eventually eats itself, and, as I said in the Spectator two years ago, the royal press operation has in recent years become rather too smooth, so much so that the House of Windsor now is more slick comms outfit than monarchy. After decades of being too aloof and distant from the vulgar media, the royals’ relationship with the fourth estate has now become perhaps too close and cosy. The tricky question for the younger generation of royals is how downmarket and democratic can they go without, to use the PR term, devaluing their brand.