Column: Why Harry is right to step away from a life of dull duty

The prince and his new wife want to step away from their royal duties and forge a new life in Canada.

Now, every hinger-on and anyone who has ever written a gushing, frothy book about the royals – and there are hundreds of them – is wheeled out as an expert on the monarchy.

We are, it seems, in the grip of a constitutional crisis, only it’s one no-one really cares about.

Society which, in 1936 was shaken to its core when Edward VIII abdicated to marry his American divorcee Wallis Simpson, has moved on.

If Harry wants to hand in his HRH and pursue a different role, then let him.Canada’s a pretty cool place to stay, and Victoria Island is awesome.

Go do something more enjoyable and fulfilling than opening community centres and being presented to yet another line of people who’ve spent a week learning how to curtsy and still manage to do it with all the grace of an elephant dancing Swan Lake.

It may be highly unprecedented to resign from your own family. It may cause the palace flunkeys and business teams some difficulties working out what happens next. Good – the whole structure needed to be modernised anayway.

How many princesses does a country actually need?

I get the charity work and patronage they bestow, but it’s 2020 – the days of fawning and bowing need to end.

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I’ve only once met royalty, thereby ending 35 years of avoiding covering any royal visits which basically involve the media asking folk what the duke said and was he nice?

At a reception at Holyrood, Camilla Parker Bowles worked the room. We were all joking we weren’t going to bow. Suddenly she appeared and spoke so quietly, I found myself moving forward, with my head tilted, to try to catch the jist of the conversation. Camilla 1, Crow 0.

What did she say? Haven’t got a clue. Pretty sure she started the one conversation at the head of the queue and kept it running until she’d shaken the last hand.

I‘ve nothing against Camilla or Harry and Meghan. I’m sure they’re lovely folk, but they live in a world which means nothing to me.

Living the life they want, rather than were born into, is a huge step, but Harry’s decision to walk away from all royal duties, might be the catalyst for change that is long overdue.

If we need a Royal family , then we need one fit for purpose for a new decade; one that is shorn of its hingers on. They need to be ‘managed out the business’ to use an HR phrase.

I’ve never got this fascination for the Duke of This or Duchess of That – folk who pop up once a year doing the ‘“and what do you do?” routine before then re-appearing with a wad of medals given to them for services for unveiling plaques and handing things over.

Harry and Meghan are better off out of this strange dysfunctional family.

They seem decent folk – not perfect because no-one is – trying to live their lives on their own terms.

Identity is a huge thing these days. They’re just looking for theirs.