“The British royal tour of the Caribbean was a big mistake...” | Rudolph Brown

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The Caribbean tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be remembered for the small scale protests which have met them and the move by some of the island nations towards being republics. Whoever thought that this tour was a good idea was sadly mistaken. Surely, the Foreign Office had informed Buckingham Palace that there was growing support for replacing Queen Elizabeth with a President in some of the island nations they have been visiting?

The Duke and Duchess have been put in a difficult position over the British Empire's legacy and signs of waning influence of the monarchical system. It does appear that the British monarchy is in decline especially in some Commonwealth nations. The Bahamas, Jamaica and Belize are moving towards being republics and the tour by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has done little or nothing to change this state of affairs. There is said to be concern at Buckingham Palace that Australia and even Canada could follow the same passage in the not too distant future.

What is evidently clear is that the royal family needs to modernise in a new world. The Commonwealth of nations still has a vital role to play especially now that Britain has left the European Union but there doesn't appear to be much effort by the British government to revive it. The Royal Family has a difficult path to follow in the coming years and their relevance will come into the spotlight.