Bad Heir Day?

Several sections of the Press have been maliciously obsessed with Prince Charles for many years. Where the Daily Mail is concerned, I suspect that that is because Paul Dacre is his exact twin.

Jeremy Corbyn is highly unusual in that we know his opinion on the monarchy. Hardy any politician has ever been asked the question, and almost none has ever volunteered a view.

Any and everyone has always had the Privy Council Oath administered (which is all that happens, like the administration of an injection), so that it is impossible to draw any inference from that.

The logic of Thatcherism was and is ferociously anti-monarchist, and at the top of the Conservative Party that now blends with the 200-year-old aristocratic disdain for the present Royal Family.

The most prominent politician whom we know for certain to be a monarchist is Alex Salmond. When people who believe that Northern Ireland ought to be part of the Irish Republic say that they are indifferent as to whether or not Great Britain has a monarch, then they are probably telling the truth.

In fact, Prince Charles, who has more than once been seen visibly enjoying the company of his contemporaries Gerry Adams (they differ in age by only a matter of weeks) and Martin McGuinness, probably talks to them about the passion for fishing that all three of them share.

It would be interesting to know if he had anything like such familiarity with any Unionist politician from Northern Ireland, or indeed from Scotland.

We are one London bomb away from simply cutting and running from Northern Ireland, as we have simply cut and run from so many other places on every continent, leaving behind any number of orphans without a second thought. But no such bomb is going to go off. Who would feel any need to set it?

There is no reason to assume that Charles is the Crunchy Con that is sometimes suggested; indeed, I ought to ask Rod Dreher what he thought of Charles's views, which give the strong impression that he would vote Green if he had the opportunity.

During the present reign, Britain has had broadly the history of a country that abolished its monarchy and then brought it back again. But we could have 10 more years of the campaign against Charles, who, it must be said, does not always help himself.

By then, Hillsborough, Orgreave and who knows what else, will have seen justice. But the death of the monarchy with the present Queen would truly be Maggie's Revenge.