March 2022 Newsletter

What Went Wrong In The Caribbean?

This is the March 2022 newsletter, and we are going to be looking at the Cambridges’ recently concluded Platinum Jubilee tour of the Caribbean and some of the controversy that popped up. As you know, in March the British royal family’s most senior members began deploying to various parts of the world to undertake their Platinum Jubilee tours.

William and Kate jetted to the Caribbean to visit Belize, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, while Charles and Camilla headed to Ireland. In April, the Earl and Countess of Wessex will visit Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines from the 22nd to the 28th of April, and Princess Anne will visit Papua New Guinea from April 11th to April 13th.  

As a preliminary matter, I don’t think the Cambridges did anything radically different on this tour from past (and highly successful) tours. I don’t think there was anything all that extraordinary or negative on this tour, rather it was the reaction of the press and the judgment of the observing public that really determined how the tour went. Nevertheless, I do think something has shifted, and I believe we just witnessed an inflection point—in what direction, though, I do not know.