AMANDA PLATELL: Time to stop this absurd bowing and curtseying to the royals

Last week, the casually dressed Prince William took his eldest son George and daughter Charlotte to Taylor Swift’s sold-out concert in London.

They then posed with the superstar and her boyfriend Travis Kelce for selfies that went viral. Even without Kate or little Louis, it was a cheerful display of a modern royal family. William had even been a bad dad, dancing to Taylor’s hit Shake It Off.

Travis later revealed on his podcast that William’s aides informed the singer and her boyfriend that there was “no need to bow down” to our future king.

Hallelujah, I thought. I am a staunch monarchist, but would humbly suggest that this should become the rule in the future – and not just for stars, but for every ‘ordinary citizen’ who meets a member of the Royal Family.

The secretive tradition of royal groveling is at odds with the current monarchy that King Charles tells us he wants to establish, a monarchy that reflects a diverse society and treats everyone equally. I have had this opinion for a long time.

I even told the late Queen about it in the 1990s, when I was one of ten lucky Australians to have an audience with her in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace.

With the thoughtless naivety of a thirty-something, I said, “Your Majesty, I am honored to bow to you, having never bowed to anyone before. But I will never do that again, unless it concerns you.’

She looked bewildered, thanked me for my support of the Commonwealth, and then politely walked on. Yet I meant it then and I mean it now. In a world where we are supposedly blind to the privileges of class, no woman should bow to another, nor should any man kneel.

If King Charles really wants to modernise the royal family, he could stop this forelock-pulling nonsense and, as Taylor would sing, ‘shake off’ the era of deference.

Astonishingly, the Australian government spent $520,000 to fly WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange back to Oz, where he was given a hero’s welcome. But then again, this is a country that still romanticizes renegade outlaw and murderer Ned Kelly.

Reason why I miss the eighties

Gen Z, now in their 20s, say the 1980s is the decade they most wish they had lived through, citing leg warmers as part of its charm.

As someone who lived through that decade, he forgets the most important things: women having great careers for the first time, huge shoulder pads and — most importantly — huge, bold hair, like our idol Farrah Fawcett.

Crikey, all that hairspray must have burned a hole in the ozone layer forever.

England footballer Phil Foden has been hailed as a hero for rushing home after the European Championship to attend the birth of their third child with his partner Rebecca Cooke.

It is a change from when he was disgraced at the Nations League in Iceland four years ago, and dropped from the England team for breaking Covid rules by sneaking a model into his hotel while Rebecca was looking after their first child.

Westminster Warning

Five days before the general election and the only decision we desperate, lifelong Conservatives have to make is what we can do to stop a terrifying Labor supermajority.

As yesterday’s Mail poll showed, one in ten voters, four million of us, are still undecided. I will put my bitter disappointment with Sunak’s government behind me and vote Tory.

I want a future in which the party I worked for and believe in – because I share its values ​​of decency, hard work and low taxes – is not destroyed.

I urge you to do the same. Hold your nose and vote Conservative.

Aidan Turner, 41, who is stripping off again for the Disney+ TV series of Jilly Cooper’s best-selling bonk-buster Rivals, says he doesn’t think his shirtless scenes will have the same impact as his topless scythe in Poldark almost a decade ago.

On the contrary! Every woman with a beating heart is already swooning with anticipation.

Donate for Debs

Two years after her death from bowel cancer, Deborah James’ family have revealed details of what she spent a staggering £16million on.

£4 million has already helped develop blood tests for early detection and £5 million has been spent on global research into the causes of cancer.

Deborah’s mother Heather says ‘Bowelbabe’. Debs is said to be ‘delighted to know so much money has been raised’ – adding in her next breath: ‘let’s make it £20 million before Christmas’.

A tenner from all of us to her charity could make that wish come true.

Sean Penn, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of gay rights activist Harvey Milk, says that as a heterosexual actor today he should not be allowed to play a gay character. That’s a shame, because without Penn, most of us would never have heard of Harvey Milk.

Sheen’s praise goes to a Burton

There are two Richard Burton films in production, and a TV series, to mark the centenary of his birth next year. One of them stars Michael Sheen as the fiery, muscular Welshman.

Oh dear, a sexless shrimp who looks like he’s been sitting on the barbie too long and pretends to be the muscular Mark Antony. Cleopatra wouldn’t have given up a kingdom for that little shrimp.

Two hopes for Wimbledon, which starts on Monday: that Andy Murray recovers from surgery to play, giving us a grand exit. And that the Princess of Wales feels well enough to hand out trophies on Centre Court.

Great British Bake Off co-presenter Sandi Toksvig spoke for many women when she said she quit the show out of sheer boredom.

She wished no disrespect to those who enjoy baking, she said, and watching a meringue dry bored her so much that she thought she was going crazy. After only getting through half of one show, I felt the same way.

Status Quo’s Francis Rossi, 75, says their performance over the August Bank Holiday weekend is likely to be their last. Maybe it’s because, unlike their contemporaries The Rolling Stones, who are on the American leg of a world tour, they are no longer rocking out around the world.

The August date is in Taunton, following a sold-out show in Wolverhampton.

Experts want ultra-processed foods like white sliced ​​supermarket bread to have the same horrible images as cigarette packets to deter people from eating unhealthy foods. I don’t know how that would work. There wouldn’t be enough space to fit the pictures of the fatties on the packets.

Batter the Slovakian dumplings, guys

I’m as gutted as any England fan at our boys’ performance at the European Championship so far, and yet we have to support our team against Slovakia tomorrow.

With our population of almost 56 million, surely we can beat a country of 5.4 million that is famous for little other than mountains and potato and sheep’s cheese dumplings soaked in dripping bacon?