Her majesty’s press are skirting nervously around the issue of Prince Philip’s health, the Mirror observing that he missed a hare shoot at Sandringham and the Mail musing about his “two black eyes” and the surprise decision to cancel a state visit to Dubai and Jordan because the Royal couple “have too much on.”
Prince Philip will be 88 next birthday, a good age for a man who has crammed some pretty hard living into a life he once defined as walking a few steps behind the Queen.
The media usually get themselves into a terrible tangle with such matters, a few years ago the BBC’s Peter Sissons was accused of lese majeste and worse when he read out news of the Queen Mother’s death wearing a burgundy tie.
It’s as though 1930s style deference, when the press decided not to report the Abdication crisis before Eward V111 actually stepped down, has returned.
Even the House of Windsor can’t turn back the clock, even though its spirited attempts to act as though the 1950s never ended deserve some admiration.
Will we hear some real news next week?