One of the most depressing things on this thread are the jibes about Camillas looks.
For a woman in her 70s she looks fantastic and she acts with dignity and grace. I actually think we do her a massive disservice and I hope she shows everyone up. She's the Queen the Royal family of today need. Not some fantasy based on a fairy story that never existed. She is the woman for the moment and the job. She has spent 17 years preparing for it and even then I think there is a feeling of still not being fully ready for it but understanding that her husband needs her. Few relationships would survive what they've been through. And it's not a short marriage. If youswant your fairytale you can easily write the one where she was the one who was always meant to be Queen.
She has taken everything the media and public have thrown at her for being some evil witch who should be burned at the stake for her treatment of the sainted Diana. It's awful how she's been treated.
No one is perfect. However she has demonstrated loyalty and devotion. A dedication to the Royal family. An understanding of what is needed and expected and has worked hard with little positive feedback until more recent years and even now she often doesn't get it. Instead she gets the classic witch trial that women in their late 30s, 40s and beyond in the public eye tend to get from the media and in turn much of the public. Its almost as if they must not show intelligence, determination and fortitude because that's somehow a threat to the concept of women doing as they are told, being pretty and being two dimensional props for the husband to use as a crutch. A phenomena that Diana was facing and would have faced even more had she lived.
If Diana had lived Royalists absolutely would not want her as Queen and this thread would have been about how we dodged a bullet. She'd have had 25 years of the press criticising her every action. And I think its fair to say she was liable to make some ill advised life choices which wouldn't have helped her. I think she'd have continued to try to fashion herself as a martyr and frame the Royal family as evil. 25 years of tension between her and the Royals would have resulted in a situation where maybe we'd have much more Republican feeling. And maybe in such circumstances we'd have been looking at King William with Charles having to stand down.
But all of this is speculation and its far better to look at what we do have and what they offer to the role. Camilla is a good fit. Charles seems committed.
Im pretty on the fence when it comes to whether we should have a monarchy. But I figure that if we are going to have one, let it be someone dedicated and with a sense of duty to do a good job. I think we've got that so let's she how they get on rather the continued comparison about how Camilla was never as beautiful in her youth. Instead focus on how she's pretty photogenic and in good shape for a woman in her 70s. How about some positive role models of pensionable age rather than pandering to the media obsessed with youth and best before dates.