As Others See It

Archaic bond IN THE wealth of words that have been written about them both in the past three years, neither Charles nor Diana emerges with their virtue intact.

Diana is portrayed as deeply disturbed and self-absorbed; Charles is criticised for being self-righteous and self- pitying.

But the Prince and Princess do emerge as deserving of pity for being trapped in the unhealthy and archaic bonds imposed on them by the Royal Family.

Charles, in particular, is a pathetic figure, a sensitive child doomed to an austere family life which dictated that human emotions be smothered by a sense of duty and protocol.

The Queen is portrayed in Dimbleby's book as a cold and distant mother; the Duke as a domineering bully who preferred his daughter Princess Anne and treated Charles as a wimp from an early age.

There is hardly a relationship within the Windsor household that is not dysfunctional. And, if anything drives home the uneasy place the Royal Family has in Australia's modern democracy, it is the tortured mess of their lives.

Just as Charles and Diana are victims of the stifling and outdated conventions of the monarchy, so too is Australia. The revelations in Charles's biography can only hasten this country's march towards becoming a republic.

Editorial in Rupert Murdoch's Sydney-based 'Daily Telegraph Mirror'.