[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Redsunflower

Great idea to take the course Dapper, not sure I will as I'm being bombarded on a daily basis with all this stuff, but if you start a thread I will most certainly join in the discussion.

There has long been speculation about whether or not Charles should ever become King. He is so unpopular, he treated Princess Diana so badly and everyone loved her so much. And of course all that drama was hyped up when she then died. The Queen has managed to dodge dealing with this difficulty by refusing to retire. She's in her 80s and a frail old thing but she keeps going anyway. Even once the dust settled and Charles was able to marry Camilla he's never regained the respect and credibility that being King would require and no way in a million years would Camilla ever be accepted as Princess of Wales. (Her title now is something else, can't remember off the top of my head.)

Then William married Kate and those two are pretty much the new face of the royal family. They're like posh and becks. He was so handsome, everyone fancied him when he was young (looks a bit too much like his dad now) and Kate is beautiful and stylish and ordinary women can relate to her, being a commoner. And when she gave birth to their son it was the icing on the cake.

All of this pretty much set the stage for William to take the title of King. Only that would require a change to constitutional law so the issue continues to be dodged expertly by the Queen who is still not retired aged 82. She is currently job sharing a little with Charles, giving him some head of state responsibilities, not much, enough maybe to shut him up after he's waited so long, and promising he can take the job when she's 87. By which time Charles will be 70 years old and the oldest person to ever take the throne, by a mile. It's been a lifetime of damage limitation for her, I think.

So there you have it. A 21st century royal carry on. If the royal family are to be used as leverage in the independence debate, Charles would hinder and William and Kate would help. And the royal family are all about watching their popularity.

I understand why no one wants Charles. I was wondering about what needs to put in place in order to skip a heir. Can the Queen just decide to skip him? If so, when is the last time this has happened? I suppose I could google the above and not bother you with this.