"Of course Mummy is dead" said the spokesman, who refused to be identified. "If she were still alive she would be ... er, I don't know, one supposes proably about 103 by now, and certainly wouldn't be hopping around smiling and waving all the time."
"When she died the government of the day wanted it kept quiet in case anyone blamed them or it distracted attention from their election campaign, so we hired a team of lookalikes, and one has just sort of kept it going since then. It worked a treat with Granny for decades and no-one rumbled us. That was great PR and a wonderful money-spinner for ages, though we got bored eventually."
"After all, if one's subjects ever found out that one's Mummy had died, one would have to become King and that would be a real pain. One would have to stop talking to trees, selling organic biscuits and winding up crap architects."
"It's a bit different from Diana, when we agreed to pay for her permanent care in rehab provided she let us stage a tragic "fatal accident" and bribe the Daily Express to keep wittering on about it. One thought that a drunken car chase in the small hours in Paris (for goodness sake - of all places!) was, at best, a bit naff and actually probably completely over-the-top, but apparently one's subjects absolutely lapped it up."
"What young Harry wants to do when I croak is up to him - he's a big boy now and seems quite good at this jolly old PR thingy."
