Why Australia is falling in love with the Tindalls: No airs, no graces. He’s just a guy who can pull off a pair of budgie smugglers and regularly splits his trousers. Paired with a kind-hearted Olympian

Parakeet smugglers, banana hammocks, snails – whatever you want to call them – they are the great equalizer here in Australia.

Athletes wear them, our former Prime Minister Tony Abbott was rarely out of the closet and Prince Harry put a pair over his chinos in 2018, when he still had a sense of humor.

But it’s Mike Tindall, who made the swimsuit his own in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and convinced his wife, Zara, to wear the female version – the ‘smugglers’ – which, in a week when Australia officially put plans for a republic on the back burner, single-handedly ensured it might never happen.

If the royals want to keep Australia as the most loyal arm of Royal Inc, they will do the right thing by sending the Tindalls as ambassadors.

These two are PLUs (People Like Us). Mike may have only given us a glimpse of his parakeet smugglers under his shorts on Wednesday as he swam and cuddled up to his wife in Byron Bay, and the pair are only here because Zara has a paid gig as an ambassador for the Magic Millions- races. event.

But their down-to-earth attitude, their willingness to get stuck in, and their genuine love of the nation have endeared them to a nation of post-Elizabethan sovereignty skeptics.

Zara even said she would move the family here if she had even a chance.

The 21st in line for the throne and her stunner of a guy are the kind of royalty we want.

No airs and graces. No crazy stories about traveling with toilet seats and having your shoelaces washed by a minion. No arguing about who borrowed his lip gloss.

Down here, we love a guy who confesses to splitting his pants dancing with his mother-in-law, and a woman who’s not only committed to becoming an Olympian but is so relaxed about motherhood that she dropped out in high school. gave birth to her third child. bathroom floor.

Here in the land of sunshine and camaraderie, it’s about relatability, friendliness and the ability to say something great rather than looking fancy in a dress that will earn one a loyal following.

For a long time we thought Prince Harry was our man.

But with our Assistant Minister for the Republic, Matt Thistlethwaite, announcing this week that our pursuit of a republic is ‘not a priority’ following the defeat of our Voice to Parliament referendum, there is clearly time for another PR move from Team Windsor.

The Tindalls, who met in a bar on Manly beach in 2003, are well placed to be the mascots.

Author Tom Keneally, who initiated the Australian Republic Movement in 1991, admitted in The Australian on Thursday that dreams of breaking away from the monarchy were now in the never-never.

“And so the republic, like Shakespeare’s Juliet Capulet, has fallen into a deep coma after consuming a death-mimicking drug supplied by our government,” he wrote.

Intriguingly, Keneally, who won the Booker Prize in 1982, went on to say that he was won over by Queen Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, when he was whisked away to meet her by fellow Australian writer Kathy Lette.

Keneally noted that she spoke about recent books “knowledgeably and in a pleasant manner” and said that afterwards everyone just wanted to know if he was charmed by her.

The answer was ‘yes’.

While he goes on to argue that Australia should not be represented by a charming Englishwoman – ‘of whom there are legions’ – Keneally’s experience shows that even the most ardent republican can be won over by reason, humour, approachability and common sense.

The Tindalls have those qualities in spades.

We loved how ‘Uncle Mike’ casually put his arm around Prince George outside church on Christmas Day, because every child, future king or not, needs a fun family member.

We also loved how the Tindalls’ daughter, Mia, was clearly spared a lesson on hierarchy, which was evident when she took Prince Louis’ hand and marched to church with the Wales family.

For George, Charlotte and Louis, cousins ​​bring a familiar and much-needed sense of normalcy when your classmates are all desperately trying to be your friend at the instruction of their mothers who want to be buddies with Kate.

The truth is that Australia is currently in favor of the monarchy and is proud that our Princess Mary, a hard-working woman who had distinguished herself so far by being elected to the school council of her high school in Tasmania, Queen of Denmark will be. .

Critics may point out that Denmark should get an Australian head of state before Australia gets an Australian head of state, but the rest of us applaud the work it has done to secure the continued support of a progressive welfare state for the monarchy.

With an approval rating of over 85 percent, Mary has what the Tindalls have shown all week: the communal touch.