Friday, October 04, 2019

Meanwhile, Prince Harry...

...is behaving rather badly. He is a Prince married a popular and beautiful actress, whose fame rested on TV work and much media interest. They live in enormous luxury and media coverage of their various meetings with the public has been hugely supportive and favourable. Of course much of what they do has a faint absurdity about it: flying at enormous expense with substantial staff to various places to tell people not to fly, and taking their own opinions very seriously indeed and so on. And we should be allowed to say so from time to time.  But that doesn't matter very much because the wider significance of royalty matters much more: it has been a stable and even sacred core of our country and our heritage over the centuries  and today unites us as nothing else could ever do.

The Prince's call for curbs on what newspapers are allowed to say is bad behaviour. He needs to think again. He and the Duchess should read this  and perhaps also this...and reflect on the reality of what our monarchy is all about. 

2 comments:

Stitcher said...

I'm an American, Mrs. Bogle so unsure about this but can't the Queen (whom i admire tremendously) not step in? Can she forbid them from further royal duties? If they want to be left alone, let's do it. They can get jobs like the rest of us.

Joanna Bogle said...

This is 2019 and the Queen has no power to do anything except give a gentle hint. She is in her 90s and cannot step into anything: she is revered but not in charge of the future. The power lies with the powerful - a young strong-willed TV celebrity, a popular Prince, current fashionable ideas, good public relations. A powerful mix.

"Get jobs?" Let us pray not. Of course there are potential job offers galore for this immensely powerful couple: any fashion house, TV show, PR firm or whatever would relish buying their names and influence and offer lashings of money to employ them...we must be grateful that their own immense wealth presumably precludes them from feeling any need to acquire more.

We must hope that the voice of public opinion may be heard: the Queen's magnificent example of duty and public service is honoured by us all, precisely because it is so different from fashion and popularity and the notion and lifestyle of being a celebrity. The new generation of Royals must somehow be helped to understand that.

Joanna