Fleet Street needs to watch itself. As the press spews vitriol at the royal couple, they should have been paying attention to the carefully balanced Question Time audience last night when not one single person thought Harry and Meghan were making a mistake. Dan Wootton in the Sun is probably the worst offender. He, and his despicable ilk, are the cause of Harry and Meghan leaving public life, and the UK, behind. The constant sniping, made-up stories, gossip. How much bile do people have to take.
Harry and Meghan are people with a right to live their lives their own way, so long that is, that they are not still dipping into the public purse. They are not possessions of the Queen and Buckingham Palace establishment. They are not possessions of the tittle tattle press. They are not the possessions of the British people, although we might be deemed employers to some extent and have some little entitlement in exchange for the money. Nevertheless, as human beings in a free society they are fully entitled to say no thanks, we resign, we’re off to live in Canada. See you at Christmas. They don’t have to ask Dad’s permission or Grandma’s either, let alone older brother’s.
I’m a republican, I am against the monarchy. But actually this pair have been a breath of fresh air, diverse, modern, able to express feelings, emotions, and admit to weaknesses such as mental health issues. If they stayed inside the firm then eventually their will and spirit would be broken by the sad old bastards that run the sad old Establishment. It might break them up but as a bare minimum it would put incredible strain on their marriage and family life. They would remain fodder for the trolls that inhabit editorial seats
I hope that this move allows the Queen and Prince Charles, Chair and CEO respectively of the Firm, to think clearly, get rid of the sad old bastards who cling to patronage like dog shit to the sole of your shoe, and build a new relationship with the press where respect for the right to a personal life is at the forefront (or no access). Some “sources” are suggesting William is incandescent with rage – probably true as his wingman has buggered off and left him to deal with all the crazies on his own.
Mark Steel in the Independent is so much more eloquent than I. Please, please, please read his article. Sample: “Certain newspapers seem extremely angry about the couple’s decision. Because they’ve spent the last two years publishing huge headlines saying, “Meghan should piss off, just piss right off, go on – PISS OFF”. So it’s understandable their front page now says, “How DARE Meghan piss off, when it’s her royal duty to stay here so we can tell her to piss off?” “
Despite my anti-Royalist tendencies I do hope that Harry and Meghan will find a peace and happiness in Canada that the British press want to deny them, that they will continue their charitable works, and maybe one day will re-enter public life once the festering low-lifes that inhabit the corridors of Buckingham Palace have been pensioned off and replaced by people aware we are decades into the 21st Century. Assuming that is that Her Majesty and Son have the backbones to carry out a spring clean.
While we’re at it, there was an interesting article in the Express a few days ago. The Express, the “newspaper” that is never afraid to make up a story in substitution for actual journalism. On 3rd January they published “Queen ‘to bypass Prince Charles to naturally pass on Crown to Duke of Cambridge‘”. And their source for this bombshell information… was it a member of the close family, a constitutional expert, a royal correspondent? No it was Sherrie Hewson, Maureen Webster of Coronation Street, Carol in Carry on Behind, the hapless hotel manager in Benidorm and a panelist for Loose Women. So a credible source for such a momentous revelation then. This is, sadly, what the Express has become.
If we were actually a democracy, and elected our own head of state, and our choices were Liz, Charles, Anne, Andrew, Edward, even Wills, and Harry, who do you think would win hands down on the first ballot? Harry of course, because more than any of them he relates to the man and woman in the street – he understands them, they understand him. He’s normal (as normal as you can get in that family of disfunctional dingbats). Good luck to you son.
I’ll end with another Mark Steel quote, only because I love his writing: “Tomorrow there will be a debate on Newsnight between the royal correspondent of The Times, who insists the couple are a “rancid, stinking, steaming pile of fox mess”, and David Starkey, who will retort “No! It is imperative we stick with tradition and call them ‘mouldy piss-stained moth-eaten corgi-droppings who, in the 13th century would have been covered with marmalade and dangled upside-down for a year in a wasps’ nest’, but apparently we can’t do that now because of ghastly political correctness.”