Is a slimmed-down monarchy really such a ‘foolish idea’? We subjects seem to be surviving just fine | Catherine Bennett

After Princess Anne's accident, concerns over a too small royal family may be over-inflated

Even before Princess Anne's head injury, with a king and princess both on long-term sick leave, royal family experts were arguing that its professional component, having previously been too big, is now dangerously small. If there ever was an intervening just right, nobody spotted it at the time.

Mercifully, given the family's impressive birth rate, there is no suggestion it will have to resort, as in the past, to importing foreign workers who may not even speak the language. But if the labour shortfall is not yet acute or even noticeable, royal authorities allude to struggles that have perhaps been under-reported: vacant patronages, event planners who can't lay their hands on a duke. The royal biographer, Hugo Vickers, wrote months ago that the King's cancer diagnosis is a reminder of what a foolish idea a slimmed-down monarchy is".

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