I’m back in the creative cafe and I have lots of things on my mind. Today could be the day I beat my blogging record! So let’s return to Prince Phillip, the Prince Consort.

In a modern car, you can’t drive a yard without a seat belt. The warning noises are deafening. To be honest, that’s what I expect. My car beeps when the seat belt isn’t fastened, and it gives the same beep when I forget to release the hand break. Modern cars beep. It’s using Nudge methods to help us help ourselves and not fly through windscreens. This is a good thing, and so cars beep. Some cars nudge you back in to your lane if your concentration wanders, but not my car.

Our favourite Prince Consort (PC) could have caused a car crash a couple of days ago. The facts aren’t available to me so I’ll let the police and insurance companies work that one out. And one thing the insurance company did was to get him a new brand spanking replacement Range Rover with his personal number plates withing two days. This isn’t a problem to me. It’s the kind of thing he would expect, and the rest of us wouldn’t be surprised about. I’m not even surprised that his driving is described as fast, but safe whatever that means. This isn’t what struck me.

The police had a word with him yesterday when it was noticed that he was driving without his seat belt on and a few things have come to mind:

1. As I pointed out at the start – modern cars beep, and beep a lot. And it’s very hard to ignore
2. If you drive very slowly, the car will not beep. But slow isn’t his thing
3. Perhaps his car has some safety switched off – bloody beeps!
4. The picture I saw was showing in the grounds of Sandringham and it wasn’t a public road and so he wasn’t breaking the Highway Code, because he wasn’t on a highway. Incidentally, public roads are called the Queen’s Highway and she is the one who doesn’t have to wear a seat belt. But he does.
5. He’s 97 years of age and everyone is scared of the old bastard.
6. Perhaps he is deaf, or else he things the beats are bangin’ beats coming out of the Range Rover’s Hi-Fi

All of this makes me think about how much power the Royals actually have in life. Technically, they still rule the country, but outsource it to Parliament. But they do have power, and can do what they want, if they want to. Given the current political climate we might find out.