SO, it is all over bar the mopping up, which of course will be left to the army of invisible labourers which no-one will interview, film, clap or queue to see.

As the ranks of medal-festooned royals slink back to their secretive, shadowy, exclusive lairs where they’ll throw off their fake smiles and public-persona masks and slump into a pampered oblivion, the rest of the British populace will start to emerge from the weird 12 day through-the-looking-glass stupor; and face a reality hangover from hell.

Some may wonder as they groggily surface: “What the hell just happened?”

But the Establishment-controlled reality will offer the masses no respite time for quiet reflection. That would be far too dangerous.

The warm, fuzzy niceness which the ruling classes lavished over their queueing subjects for the last 12 days will be instantly unplugged and replaced with whip-cracking, snarling commands to get back to work — and don’t even consider striking.

Because during those fuzzy pink days of heady fantasy, draconian laws were readied for use, given trial runs and tested on lone, brave, peaceful protesters who stood up amidst the sleepwalkers and basically shouted “wake up.”

Those laws are now ready for wider implementation, with more in the pipeline, particularly anti-strike laws. Reality is back with an enhanced harshness.

However, despite the powerful, centuries-long control that the British monarchy and ruling elite have wielded over the citizens of this sceptred isle, I reckon it’s a pretty safe bet that when the pompous coronation of the new monarch eventually occurs, the public mood will be much darker — and not nearly so easily lulled into a stupor of serfdom again.

Elizabeth II may have had a natural, easy charm and an impressive, carefully cultivated public image, which she applied with formidable skill in preserving and enhancing the royal brand, the firm — despite the glaring dysfunction of her immediate family and wider hangers on. But Charles is no Lizzy.

He has never developed the art of self-control and his self-entitled attitude, combined with his immature and thin-skinned ego, are all too visible despite the best efforts of his harassed aids and fawning mainstream media lackeys.

An awakening British public recovering from a hellish hangover of 12 days of semi-conscious sycophancy, will open their eyes to find that in place of Titania the fairytale queen, there now sits the sneering ass Bottom, draped in garish robes that somehow just seem to accentuate his discordance. He ain’t got what it takes to carry on the fantasy. Bring it on.