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Charles III faces challenges at home, abroad – and even in defining what it means to be king

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By Tobias Harper

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The British Empire coloured three quarters of the map of the world in bright red. Renaming the British Empire as the Commonwealth is apt. India's priceless Kor In Nor diamond still belongs to Britain.

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GBR48....

Empire was just the 'old normal'. It delivered railways, the English language, trade, and legal and political models.

You forgot the cricket!

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Can you imagine any other country managing to maintain a Commonwealth post-empire?

That's a worthy achievement of goodwill,understanding ,and letting go.

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This is presumably an Americentric view. Countries have been seeking independence from the UK throughout the last century. A few more will. Don't expect improvements from independence. Local corruption usually spikes and third parties - Russia, China and the US - will move in.

Empire was just the 'old normal'. It delivered railways, the English language, trade, and legal and political models. It was far from perfect and it's time has passed. But you would be hard put to find a country that has discovered utopia in independence. There is just someone else in charge, making citizens' lives miserable and stealing their money.

The Royal succession will have a few bumps along the way, but once it is bedded in, things are likely to settle down. In a few days the blanket media coverage will ease and we will all go back to hating the government. They are so unpopular that the Labour opposition leads in polls, despite having had an invisibly low profile for years. People may well vote for them without being able to name a single member of the shadow cabinet or a single Labour policy. They are simply voting against the government. That's how politics usually works here.

The Harry and Meghan thing has happened before with Edward and Mrs. Simpson. The press antagonism was generally in tune with public sentiment in both cases.

The Scottish independence movement will be interesting, as will its effect on Westminster. Governments now seem happy to spend their way out of trouble with money they haven't got. Squaring the circle regarding the Irish border issue will also be interesting. None of that will alter the basic dynamics of the monarchy, the public, the government and the press.

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