Late last month, the monarchy here in this small but significant Gulf kingdom, led by Hamad bin Khalifa, showed for the first time its willingness to budge, albeit slightly. It launched reconciliation talks with members of the opposition – both Sunni, like the royal family, and Shia, representing the majority of the non-royal population. To bring you up to speed, earlier this year, swarms of the latter took to the streets of the capital, Manama, to protest what they said was corruption, nepotism, cronyism and just flat-out theft from the public purse. They were met with violent resistance from security…