OK, so maybe this is a bit frivolous, but I don’t have to write about war and taxes all of the time.
The first season of “The Crown” was slow, but compelling, TV. Mostly set in the 1950’s, the implicit message of the program was that the lives of members of the royal family were subject to government control in a way that virtually all of the rest of us would find completely intolerable. Choices on where to live, whom to marry, what kind of job is suitable, and so on were completely limited by the system, which turned royal rebels like Edward VIII (who nonetheless comes across as a grifter in the show) into pariahs. Accepting those limits was a form of duty and patriotism.
I say “was” because it is clear that Princess Diana changed everything. Diana insisted that she had rights to live what the rest of us would call a normal life, and so did her children. The result is a matter of public record.
Today, the British public, and even the royal family, seems accepting of the notion that Prince Harry can marry a biracial divorced American woman just because he loves her. What does that mean? Well, mostly nothing; I’ve never taken the activities of the royals very seriously as history. However, it does seem to confirm my opinion that the UK has become more free and open, and far less class- and tradition-driven, than it was when I was there in 1979. And that, on balance, is a good thing.