I feel sorry for Prince Harry
At the risk of compromising any reputation for judgment, I have a confession to make. I feel some sympathy for Prince Harry. Beneath the recent moral detritus, there is someone who used to be a decent fellow. He wore his Grandmother’s uniform and was well-regarded. A popular young officer, he was liked and respected by his men. He displayed leadership qualities and no-one doubted that he would have acquitted himself well if he had come under fire.
This was not possible, once the press had revealed his presence in Afghanistan. That would have undermined the mission, as the adversaries flung all their energies into trying to kill him. Like the Duke of Kent before him – who has unable to go to Northern Ireland – Prince Harry was not prepared to be a partial soldier, stationed safely back in London while waiting to hear news as to how his comrades were getting on in action.
So he found other roles, especially with the Invictus Games, designed to bring aid and comfort to severely wounded soldiers. He found himself able to strike up a rapport with them. It cannot be easy to cheer up youngsters who have left limbs and hopes on Afghanistan’s plains and who are faced with the task of preparing for a very different life from the one they had expected to enjoy. Prince Harry did well and there will, alas, be an endurIng need for a similar service. In time, and in other circumstances, he could have expanded his activities, perhaps to a NATO-wide remit.
Instead, he fell under the spell of Meghan le Fay.
It is important to avoid libelling the great state of California. After all, it produced Ronald Reagan. Apart from mighty land and seascapes, excellent vineyards and magnificent art galleries, it is full of normal people – many of them highly able – who lead sensible lives. But it is also infested by every new age cult, every form of pseudo-intellectual self-indulgence, every wokeish daftness. A few years ago, some aspect of Californian political pollution threatened to spread northwards to Oregon. Locals resisted. A bumper-sticker appeared: “We won’t be Californicated.” One sees their point. If Manhattan is the capital of a country which does not exist, Hollywood is the headquarters of a species which does not exist.
Poor Prince Harry has been trapped in all the worst aspects of Californian life. He may have been foolish – alright, he has been foolish – but he deserves better than to be caught up in this weird wokery. One would like to believe that there are moments, possibly during sleepless small-hours, when he wonders how the expletive he can get out of this mess. He might even have a conscience about the effect he is having on the Royal family. But the handcuffs are strong: children, pride and all at the mercy of a domestic hell-cat. An indefinite sentence seems to lie in front of him while the Royal family has already suffered collateral damage – and felt obliged to perpetrate a grave injustice.
A few days ago, no-one outside a small circle had heard of Lady Susan Hussey. Yet she had been a superb public servant. The term “courtier” can sound derogatory: an inhabitant of palaces, ranking one up from a flunkey. This is so unfair. Courtiers have a vital task; to assist the Sovereign and other senior members of the Royal family to perform their duties. This requires a range of qualities including an endless, inexhaustible competence. Sound judgment would be taken for granted as would absolute discretion. We can be certain that Sue Hussey displayed all those attributes, for 60 years. She has been rewarded in Honours lists – no less than she deserved – but one of the most important satisfactions is a private one. Throughout Her great reign, the late Queen had to project an air of regal composure while steering the throne through many difficult years. Susan Hussey helped. Public service can offer few greater satisfactions than that.
Yet her official role came to an abrupt end, as if she had been a junior housemaid who had been caught swigging the gin bottle. With every passing hour, the allegations which led to all this seem less and less plausible, which is also true of the person who made them. The suggestion that Sue Hussey was guilty of racism is absurd. It is clear what happened. The Palace panicked. I am told that Lady Susan Hussey rushed to fall on her sword. Horrified at the idea of causing the Royal family any embarrassment, she did what she always would have done: put her own interests last.
The result was injustice all round. If the Royal authorities had not been so stressed by the Sussexes’ behaviour, this might not have happened. Even so, lessons should be learned. If something like this happens again – which probably means “when something like this happens again” – calmer counsels should prevail. As the lawyers would say, decisions need further and better particulars. The outcome is not quite Charles I permitting the execution of Strafford, but it is to be hoped that Charles III will find an early opportunity to make it up to Sue Hussey.
As for the Sussexes, it is time to take advice from the late Lord George-Brown and from an earlier outstanding public servant, the Iron Duke of Wellington. George Brown declared that some nonsense should be treated with “a complete ignoral.” Wellington’s response to an inconvenient allegation was “Publish, and be damned.”
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