THE notion that Britain’s royal family represents the superglue that keeps the kingdom united is a gross exaggeration, but the House of Windsor can be relied upon to provide a useful distraction every now and then.

Amid a wide range of alarming political and economic trends, a substantial proportion of the media’s feeding frenzy has been focused on a photoshopped image of the Princess of Wales with her three children. For what it’s worth, the officially released photograph was in the first place a response to weeks of speculation about Princess Kate’s well-being, alongside the thousands of words devoted to the king’s health concerns.

Prostate exams — let alone allegations of paedophilia, such as those unconvincingly denied by Prince Andrew — is probably not what Walter Bagehot imagined when, more than 150 years ago, he identified the monarchy as the ‘dignified’ part of Britain’s political structure. But then, Bagehot also referred to cabinet government as the ‘efficient’ part of the political establishment.

Efficiency has hardly been a hallmark of British governance for most of this century. And while the Thatcher regime could indeed be efficient, it is rightly remembered for its ruthless brutality, best exemplified by........

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