What a couple of weeks. No sooner do we have a new prime minister than our monarch of 70 years dies. At least we specialise in marking such events with faultless ceremony and Queen Elizabeth’s funeral was an extraordinary exemplar. Britishness at its most leveraged.

What lies beyond, however? My wife and I were in Greece when the queen passed. Our return, all 14 hours of it, encountered the unholy trinity of a delayed flight, understaffed baggage handling at Gatwick, and a cancelled train plus heavy rain (no taxis) and exuberant (very drunk) young men to greet us. Home at 2.30am, thanks for asking. Holiday, what holiday?!

I am reminded of this experience when I consider the imminent return to normal life. Autumn is in the air, the cost-of-living crisis hasn’t gone anywhere, there is an escalating war in Ukraine, and the climate change warning light continues to flash.

The chancellor will reveal plans on Friday to ease domestic bills and tease economic growth, but he will be tinkering with complex, tenacious international crises. And here’s the rub. While most of the challenges facing the world are long-term, most of the policy makers tasked to address them are short-termists.

Not their fault really. Ministers cannot execute if not in power and staying in power is more of a sprint than a marathon. Weave in the pressures of 24-hour rolling news and politics becomes absurdly short-term.

Enter Charles III.

I have tended to be ‘queenist’ rather than royalist in recent times, certainly since our most famous family began to unravel so publicly. But reflection over the period of mourning has only confirmed my belief that, in theory, a non-political head of state, separate from the head of government, represents a source of strength for the UK.

A well-behaved constitutional monarch, advised non-parochially, in a stripped back administration, free from conspicuous drains (humans included) on the Sovereign Grant, can provide ethical and spiritual support to our lives. Also, who is better placed to look over the political fence than the leader of a dynasty that counts in generations?

Charles, we know, is a deep thinker, a visionary, and a reformer-in-waiting. Boy, has he waited. The signs so far are good, leaky fountain pen apart, that he is also a decent, purposeful man of a certain age in a hurry.

To quote writer George Monbiot in The Guardian last Saturday, from an article expressing his concerns about Trussonomics: “We need…positive visions of a better world…We need hope.”

Your Majesty?