The New Zealand Herald has a puff-piece that mainly deals in banal Royal gossip. Usually, these articles aren’t worth the time to read, but this one makes some stunning admissions about what the Commonwealth realms (Commonwealth members where the British monarch is still head of state) mean to the Royal family. Essentially, the realms are a Royal plaything, that apparently exists only to bolster the Royals’ image in Britain.

The article states that because of Barbados’ announcement that they will become a republic by 2021, Prince William and his wife Kate will have to take on more “international” travel now that Prince Harry has exited the family. This, they say, is a case of “family vs country”.

What a stunning admission. By country, they clearly mean Great Britain. Of course, it would be much better for William and Kate to spend their time with their young family and not have to worry about touring increasingly disinterested Commonwealth realms. As Barbados has shown us, there’s a simple answer to that.