While palace staffers are still playing it by ear for scheduling this fall and winter, it’s widely believed that Queen Elizabeth probably won’t have any public events for the rest of the year (beyond this weekend’s Trooping mess). She’ll still be in lockdown in Windsor Castle, posing for odd Photoshopped pics and riding her horses. I don’t begrudge her or any senior citizen their cautious approach to their own health and safety – I really do think it’s better for the Queen to stay in some state of lockdown until Christmas and beyond, because no one knows when all of this is going to “end.” But even though it’s the right thing to do, it’s also leaving a PR vacuum. Much like Donald Trump hiding in his baby bunker, the Queen f–king off to her castle for the foreseeable future is bad optics for the monarchy. Which leads me to these comments by Andrew Morton:

The Queen’s reign is ‘effectively over’ due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the virus ‘practically putting Charles on the throne’, a royal biographer has claimed. Andrew Morton, author of Diana, Her True Story, which exposed the failed marriage of Charles and the Princess of Wales in 1992, said coronavirus has ‘done more damage to the monarchy than Oliver Cromwell’.

It comes after it was reported Her Majesty, 94, may remain in self-isolation ‘for months’ and never return to regular frontline royal duties as the government continues to ease the coronavirus lockdown over the coming weeks. The Queen has put all her public engagements on hold while she resides with her husband Prince Philip at Windsor Castle.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Morton claimed: ‘It’s terribly sad but I can’t see how the Queen can resume her job. The COVID-19 virus isn’t going away soon and will be with us for months if not years.’ He added that it would be ‘far too risky for the Queen to start meeting people on a regular basis. She has always loved getting out and meeting people but she can’t take the risk. The brutal truth is that her reign is effectively over. COVID-19 has done more damage to the monarchy than Oliver Cromwell. Corona has practically put Charles on the throne.’

Royal biographer Morton, 66, previously told The Sun he fears the Queen, whose schedule is not expected to resume until the autumn, may never be able to return to her regular duties and will most likely be seen on TV or video links rather than in public. Last month a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said the monarch continues to be ‘busy’, conducting a weekly audience with the Prime Minister by phone and receiving her daily red boxes of Government papers.

[From The Daily Mail]

I mean, what is the bigger danger for the Queen or the Crown? The idea that Liz wouldn’t be able to do any public events for a full year, or the idea that people might start to wonder why they have a f–king monarchy in the first place? That’s the thing, and that’s where Liz’s best interests don’t align with the Crown’s best interests. She needs to do what she needs to do to stay safe and healthy. But the Crown needs a monarch to lead them through some difficult moments or else the Crown will face even further irrelevancy. I’m not saying the de facto Charles Regency is the thing which would save the Crown, but Morton isn’t wrong here.