Prince William of Oz

All this international talk of Prince William's apparent desire to be Governor-General of Australia is unfortunately premature. While it is wonderful that a Royal would harbour such ambition and willingness to bring a living presence of the future Crown to the shores of another realm, obviously it plays into the hands of mischief and misbehaved republicans who have nothing better to do with themselves than to feign national outrage. Besides, they have a point: it is not unreasonable to expect that a young prince should live in the country he wants to represent for some reasonable period of time first. Unlike the Queen of Australia, Prince William has no real ties to that nation, and with only a couple of visits under his wings, he has not yet forged a special bond with Australians at large.

That would not be hard to do: As a Prince he has all the social advantages to make such a connection happen in relatively short order. He could, for example, apply and take up permanent residence; he could purchase property and buy a home; he could spend his formative naval training serving in the R.A.N.; he could apply for a passport; he could marry an Australian. He could do any number of things, any one of which would terrify republicans Down Under to their core - it would not be long - not long at all - before William would be considered a Mate. "A Mate for Head of State" the anti-monarchists chime - they should be careful what they wish for!