The sign that King Charles power in the royal family is slowly slipping

Every week for most of this year, a car, often the State Bentley, has borne King Charles out the gates of Clarence House to do something that no British monarch has ever done before – be treated for cancer with the full knowledge of the public.Only now, after eight months of this scene playing out, it has been revealed that Charles has made a shocking decision – to stop receiving treatment.Temporarily, that is, with he and Queen Camilla set to fly to our neck of the southerly woods this week for an 11-day tour.But the very fact that the King is willing to take such a step with his treatment (and that his doctors have given him permission) reflects the lengths he is willing to go to, and just how hard he is fighting to keep the monarchy afloat.And that is a fight that, new details show, he is struggling to win.Consider the three-minute, softly lit, pastoral Instagram idyll released by Kate, the Princess of Wales last month to announce that she had come to the end of her chemotherapy and what it might tell us about whether the King’s grip is slipping.Starring in the offering – the longest video ever released by her and husband Prince William – were not only their three young children, but notably and highly unusually, her parents Mike and Carole Middleton.The chummy tableau – the big smiles, the easy rapport – made the absolute spit of the most cliche-oblivious, warm and tight-knit family.Just as obvious as the Middletons’ inclusion was the exclusion of a single visual reference or nod to William’s father, or the royal family at all.It has now been revealed by The Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes that the Waleses’ video “wasn’t signed off by the king.”As this year has progressed, “executive power and influence is already flowing William’s way.”He writes: “To get away with such cheek showed William and Kate have an instinctive understanding … of how the power dynamic has shifted since the king’s diagnosis.”Meanwhile, with the Wal...