I wonder if Denis is familar with the truth-telling book Britain's Empire by Richard Gott?

Daffy Duck, the article doesn't suggest that we look to Kate, nor William, as role models. I'm really not quite sure where you got that idea from. The article is clear, at least it appears to have been to other commentators, that is that they are symbols of a tradition that has ingrained values. Let me put it another way, when we say that Australia had a baptism by fire that was built through the valour of the ANZACs, then we raise above the rest special individuals who represent this collective more, people such as John Simpson. That it was decided John Simpson would not receive a Victoria Cross does not undermine his role as a symbol of ANZAC values. William and Kate are similarly representatives of a particular tradition, not necessarily role models in of themselves. That they appear to be positive role models is boon.

The point was that whatever value the tradition had in the past, it is now a joke. Or put in another way the emperor really has no clothes. Although many people still like to pretend that the emperor is still fully clothed.

Queen Elizabeth has of course been an exemplary example of how a Queen or King should be. But of course we know nothing about what her real life was and is like behind the castle walls. Like all of us ordinary people she would have suffered and dramatized all of the usual petty human dramas in her personal life.

Princess Anne appears to have lived a life of service to the people altogether.

In my opinion the people who are supposed to represent the tradition should also embody the very best virtues of the tradition, especially as part of the mystique of the royals is that they are somehow supposed to be in one way or another representatives of The Divine. Remember the now discredited idea of the "divine right of kings". Louis the XIV of France was called the Sun King - actually he was more like Louie the Fly.

Of course very few of the British royals have ever done anything like that, either in the now-time of the 20th and 21st centuries, or at any time in history.
Edward VII was probably a Nazi sympathizer.
Look at the present royal family, whose real lineage is German (Saxe-Coburg). Prince Philip is of greek origin.
It is just as dysfunctional as any other family. Prince Philip is a curmudgeon. Prince Charles, the possible future king was an adulterer. Then there is the circus associated with Fergie, her failed marriage, and her children.