In the past year, King Charles and the Prince of Wales have made it perfectly clear that they do not care about the British Commonwealth, nor do they care about the “kingdom” beyond the British isles. Sure, they want to hold on to Scotland and Northern Ireland, but Australia? New Zealand? Canada? They could not care less. The new king couldn’t even be bothered to visit any of his Commonwealth realms in his first year on the throne. Soon after QEII passed away, Charles’s people floated a plan for him to go barnstorming around the Commonwealth, only everyone simply forgot about it immediately and that plan went nowhere. Well, now on the eve of QEII’s death-anniversary, Charles wants Prince William and Kate to join him at a Balmoral summit to discuss the future of the monarchy, and how they’ll need to go back on some Commonwealth Flop Tours.

King Charles III is set to invite the Prince and Princess of Wales to a historic royal summit to decide on the future of the monarchy, it was claimed last night. The King plans to tell Prince William and Kate of his aims to carve out clear roles for each of them, as well as for himself and wife Queen Camilla. He hopes to use the couple’s ‘star quality’ to help unite the Commonwealth and secure the monarchy’s existence for future generations, sources told The Mirror.

Charles is to arrive at the late Queen’s much-loved home Balmoral on Monday, where the meeting will take place. The Prince and Princess of Wales will join him there, but head of the FA William will not be travelling to Australia to watch the Lionesses take on Spain in the first England World Cup Final since 1966 the day before.

A source close to the royals said: ‘His Majesty is very clear. The Commonwealth must be at the very heart of his reign. He sees it as his utmost duty to fulfil the sincere wish of his late mother, that one of his central roles must be to ensure not only the survival but the robustness (of the organisation).’

He is said to place great emphasis on the younger couple’s role in securing its survival, with plans to ensure they are ‘cementing their own future and that of the monarchy at large’, with the King to take advantage of Kate’s ‘undoubted star quality’.

The top royals will also discuss plans for at least the next year, including travel abroad, major events and key aims. It is set to be a busy year for the monarch, who will travel to Kenya with his wife in autumn. Next year the royals are travelling to Canada and Australia, according to the paper.

It is thought the royal family intend to try and shore up the Commonwealth, after a royal tour by William and Kate in the Caribbean last year drew a wealth of criticism, including for a photocall in which the pair took photographs with young people trapped behind a metal fence. Now sources have described the trip as a ‘massive wake-up call’, although denied it had been a ‘complete catastrophe’.

[From The Daily Mail]

“Now sources have described the trip as a ‘massive wake-up call’, although denied it had been a ‘complete catastrophe’.” The Caribbean Flop Tour was such a big wakeup call that they sent Sophie and Edward out to the Caribbean just one month later and they flopped too. The Windsors didn’t learn the right lesson from that flop tour – they still don’t see themselves or their colonialist, racist and rude behavior as the problem. The “lesson” they learned from the flop tour is “don’t try, don’t make an effort, if these people don’t like our colonialist cosplay, then we’ll just go home in a huff and never visit you again!” That’s pretty much what Kensington Palace’s briefings said at the time.

Meanwhile, I keep thinking back to that curious piece in the Telegraph just days after the coronation – it was about Buckingham Palace attempting to apply pressure on Kate and William to do more. From that Telegraph piece in May: “William and Kate have not carried out a major foreign tour since March 2022 and are not expected to do the next one until next spring – a gap of two years… Last year the Prince of Wales carried out 126 official engagements in total, compared with the Princess Royal’s 214 and the King’s 181, meaning there is plenty of scope for increasing his workload.” It sounds like this Balmoral Summit will be Charles telling William and Kate that they’re lazy and they need to do more. And then William will throw a tantrum and say he can’t do more because of the environment! Literally, William just avoided a visit to Australia AND avoided doing his job as Football Association president. What makes anyone think that the Lazy Duo will step up now?

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Photos courtesy of Instar, Avalon Red.