The monarchy embodies what s wrong with the UK â it s time to let it decay
COMMENT
William and Kate s whistle-stop tour of Britain has marked the end of an uneasy year for the royal family The Royal Family have been in the news of late with Kate and William’s three-day, whistle-stop ‘Royal Train Tour’ making just nine stops in Scotland, Wales and England. This marks an end to a very uneasy year for the Royals, defined by personal difficulty, crisis and continued scandal. In terms of supporting their subjects, the Royals have effectively been invisible this past pandemic year. There was the Queen’s TV address in early April; she commented in May on the 75th anniversary of VE Day; and appeared at a ceremony before Remembrance Day masked-up for the first time in public. The Queen is 94 years old and her appearances are limited because of her age as well as risk of infection, so allowances can be made, while 99-year-old Prince Philip has retired from public engag
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Spine-tingling jazz, yes. Thrilling tales of gunfights and adventure under vast skies, of course. Big hats. Soap operas dripping with diamonds and greed. The Deep South of America is the natural home of all these.
But not cuisine. Heading to the former Confederate states in search of delicious food, as Bake Off s Nadiya Hussain did in her American Adventure (BBC1), is like taking a rocket ship to Mars to sample its party atmosphere. She was there for the wrong reason.
The locals were proud of their specialities, naturally, and it took a nine-year-old named Lola to warn us how bad it really was.