PRINCE SHOULD RENOUNCE THRONE NOW TO SAFEGUARD FUTURE OF MONARCHY
SHORTLY after one o'clock today, Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales will walk back through the grand doors of Windsor Castle.
Camilla, Princess of Wales, that is.
Say it out loud to yourself, for that is what she will become. Or even whisper it, as the shameful truth that it is.
THRONE OR WEDDING: Paul Burrel says Charles must choose between the two
This is like a nightmare but one from which there is now no waking. It is an obscenity which no amount of apologising, bewailing or repenting can make palatable. Camilla Parker Bowles' mission in life is complete.
She has the man and the titles of the late princess. I cannot help but feel she is a bride in the clothes of a dead woman. The system, and Charles, have rewarded Camilla with the HRH stripped from Diana because, as a divorcee, she was deemed not worthy of the title.
Clarence House and His Royal Selfishness, and the sycophants who want the princess's memory exorcised, all hope we'll get over it, get used to it and accept it, as the groundwork is prepared for the prospect of Queen Camilla.
Her supporters actually believe Camilla can and will become acceptable as the second most important lady in the Royal Family. There is more chance of the Queen turning up at the register office, embracing her son and asking Camilla if she could be a bridesmaid.
DEATH may well have removed the obstacle to Charles' re-marriage. But the power of a dead icon such as the princess is just as potent as that of a divorced one. Even seven years on.
Polls show there is no objection to Charles and Camilla marrying. It is the right conclusion to an enduring, if complicated, love story. But half the country rightly believes it to be a different matter for that same couple to ascend the throne.
Perhaps that is why, conscious of this public feeling, Charles' own parents, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh - embarrassed by the situation and worried for the long term consequences for the monarchy - are staying away from the ceremony.
Then there are those who are simply apathetic.
As an indication of this nonchalant indifference, and mere obligation to go through the motions, the Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury put the Pope's funeral ahead of the wedding, forcing the heir to the throne's nuptials back from yesterday to today.
It would have been constitutionally unthinkable 20 years ago but Charles, once the strong and respected heir to the throne, has become its weakest link.
He now seeks forgiveness - not because he thinks he should, but because the Church demands it of him. As the princess discovered, his vows before God count for very little.
I REMEMBER those times at Highgrove in the late 80s when the minute the prince arrived home, his private phone would ring in the library. It was always Camilla.
Or the times when, with the princess and the boys away, Camilla would arrive, accompanied by her Jack Russell, after I had been primed with the lie that she "wants to have a look at the garden". I would like to think Diana is the ghost behind the cursed wedding plans.
I would like to think Camilla is watching out for her in the wings - in the same way the princess looked out for her spectre at St Paul's Cathedral on the day she married Charles.
The Queen will attend the reception - with no seating plan, no sit-down meal, no reception line. Which means Her Majesty can slip into the room at one end, work her way through the crowd and, when she feels the time is right, slip out at the other.
That way, she has hosted, attended but not fully participated in the day's proceedings. What she HAS been orchestrating, is the grooming of Prince William as someone fit for the throne; as someone she knows, with a truth dawning ever stronger on her each day, is the future of a healthy House of Windsor.
WILLIAM used to pop to granny's for tea when he was at Eton, inspired by what the Queen would say, being instilled with the knowledge that can only come from the monarch. It is a process which has continued to this day.
I suspect the Queen knows what the country really wants: William as King. It would unite the country and, at a stroke, safeguard our greatest institution. It is the ONLY option if the Queen's magnificent work is to be maintained.
It is why Charles must take stock after making his choice. His loyalty to Camilla has come before his loyalty to the monarchy.
I wish him congratulations and much happiness today. But, for the love of his new wife, in the interests of the British people, and for the sake and future of the monarchy, he must now renounce his right to the throne.
As Tony Blair reminded a pondering electorate this week, the people are "The Boss"
It would be well if Prince Charles remembered that too, before his love for Camilla proves to be the undoing of much more than his vanity and popularity.
Mirror
