Harry and Meghan.

Harry and Meghan-  a right royal summit.

It should be pointed out that as an ardent royalist some of us have nothing but unqualified admiration for everything that the Royal Family do, say or are alleged to have said without any plausible case for the defence. They continue to act as symbolic figureheads who in turn supplement the British tourist industry with a valuable and commercial income that has to be good for the country.

In recent years the lives of the late Princess Diana's sons have been dramatically turned upside down by damagingly sleazy and salacious gossip, private speculation that has simply fallen on stony ground and the chatty magazines who thrive on the latest developments of both Harry and Meghan's admirable charity work and what both have for breakfast in the morning.

Now into the second year of the marriage Harry and Meghan are now facing the first mini crisis of their matrimonial life. It all seemed to be going ever so smoothly until somebody discovered that there were several murmurs of disenchantment. But surely this was all just tittle tattle, hurtful innuendo and just a pack of lies. Meghan was just fed up with all of the unnecessary intrusion into her private life, the persistent sniping, the endless criticism and incessant whispering when silence would have been the more preferable option.

Of course we've all been here before because those who just resent the Royal Family can't leave them in a state of permanent privacy. They snigger and cackle with laughter when anything goes wrong and that fragile veneer of regal respectability is suddenly blown out of the water. Suddenly, one of the children do something out of the ordinary that doesn't conform to the norm. Still, there are  some of us who feel deeply sorry for the Royals for quite clearly they are indeed the victims of unfortunate circumstances.

There remains a section of society who insist that the Royal Family are just pampered, inordinately wealthy, enormously privileged and totally oblivious to the everyday realities of the public who can only look on with a whole mix of disparate emotions. The elements of jealousy and envy are obvious reactions when mention is made of the Royal Family, an archaic institution that no longer has any relevance to a society that feels it has to either move on or would rather ignore the royals. Or so the cynics and anti royals would say.

And yet for almost 65 years now Her Majesty has quite literally lived up to her title. The Queen is a majestic, unifying, calming, re-assuring, reliable and utterly composed woman who continues to radiate serenity, an aura of stability and continuity that has never wavered while holding the country together with a firm anchor in the face of stormy seas. The Queen has met umpteen Prime Ministers throughout the decades, hosted innumerable summer garden parties and shaken the hands of kings, queens, presidents and those who raise substantial amounts of charity without any publicity.

But here we are almost half way through the first year of a new decade and there is a tremor of panic and major differences of opinion. Do Harry and Meghan relinquish their public duties by flying off to Canada or do they just remain exactly where they are and face the music? It's an interesting dilemma if only because both have expressed their desire to do what they want to do rather than being held back in dark, wintry Britain where spring seems so far away that we may be in need of binoculars to see when it might arrive again.

The fact is though that Meghan has had enough of all the small talk, the people who are determined to undermine her, question her, humiliate her and generally reduce her to a figure of fun and ridicule. With young baby son Archie to think of, your sympathies are reinforced by the knowledge that both Harry and Meghan can do nothing right at the moment however hard they try. Meghan has made it abundantly clear that she can no longer abide the sarcastic jibes and those petty comments that should be kept within the twitching curtains of those gossip mongers who can barely hold themselves back.

So it is then that Her Majesty brought together her concerned family with the express purpose of sorting things out. This morning at Sandringham there was a royal summit meeting which sounds rather more vitally important than it should be. Within a couple of days we were told that a resolution would be announced sooner rather than later and the family will find an amicable solution.

It is hard to believe that right at the beginning of the year and after those brief and horrifically harrowing images of fire torn Australia, thoughts should turn to the Royal Family. You feel sure that Harry and Meghan will reach a happy agreement with those who just have their best interests at heart. There are the deeply significant issues relating to Brexit and Britain's withdrawal from the European Union which has now been scheduled for the last day of this month. Hold on folks it could get very exciting. You feel sure though that Harry and Meghan would rather have nothing to do with such political shenanigans.