Britain’s Prince Charles steps up as Queen steps back

LONDON: On Remembrance Sunday, Prince Charles will lay Queen Elizabeth II’s wreath honoring Britain’s war dead as she watches on — a rare public symbol of the 91-year-old gradually scaling back her duties.

It will be a milestone moment in the otherwise imperceptibly slow-motion process, as her eldest son, now 69, increasingly steps up on her behalf.

Experts said Britain’s oldest-ever monarch would never consider abdication or even a regency by her son, having sworn to serve her people for



life.

But Charles, the heir to the throne, will steadily take on more duties outside the core constitutional obligations of her job.

“A very great deal can be done to scale back her public roles progressively and informally,” Bob Morris of the Constitution Unit at University College London told AFP.

“There are ways of handling a lot of the public functions which don’t necessarily require the queen personally to undertake them,” he said.

“Remembrance Sunday is a very good example.”