Not too long to go to Coronation Day

How different it will all be this time round when King Charles is crowned with `the grandest aristocrats in the land along with almost all their fellow hereditary peers’ being excluded from the event. This is the United Kingdom. We do things differently because we can and because of our history which reveres the Royal family.

But, I ask, why is this? After all no other country in the world I suspect could put on a show which is steeped in Royal history but leaves out its current key figures.

The Duke of Rutland, for example, has declared he doesn’t understand why. Such Dukes and their families, it is said, have supported our Royalty for centuries. When past wars erupted the King or Queen of the day would have ordered them out to defend the nation and they did without question.

Who will carry the vital ornaments of the Coronation such as coronets and the canopy? We are told that a `good representation of non-royal Dukes will be in attendance’. But they’re not the real thing.

One newspaper claimed that the Duke of Somerset had been `sprucing up the family State coach’ for the big day. What a big disappointment for an elderly Duke who most likely knows he’ll never get another chance of importance to use it.

And as for the `Ladies’ and I mean the real ones. No doubt they won’t be invited either so there will be nothing to brag about at those coffee mornings they hold for numerous charities. Those who will be invited will be the do-gooders (and rightly so) who have given service to the Crown in some way.

In fact do we really want a Coronation that has only a handful of `real Royals’? What if war broke out sometime in the future? Is it likely the various real Dukes and Duchesses won’t bother to sign up for duty as they have done in the past? Maybe the head of the Armed Forces should have had a quiet word in King Charles’ ear.

And so in the run-up to this unique event I will put all my worries aside about who should be doing what. I missed out on that Coronation 70 years ago and maybe a `light touch’ event is all we are going to get this time. We have a whole family of new Royals – but Megan isn’t going to be there to stir things up and we don’t know exactly where that leaves Prince Harry. I doubt he will let his dad down but I hope they don’t relegate him to the back seats. He doesn’t deserve that.

And as for Queen Camilla. She’s an ordinary English woman, thrust into this historical day who probably dreads tripping over a stray corgi which will wonder what all the excitement about and escape to find out.

The Prince of Wales will probably look his usual dour self, scared stiff the children will become restless because they are missing their favourite TV programme and their American cousins who may be watching back home with Mama. The Royals know they must get this right. I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.