Transatlantic wokesters Harry and Meghan had better watch it in US election year

The Firm has finally got its act together. The settlement accorded to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was the most satisfactory that could have been devised to meet the requirements of both the royal family and the country. The contrast with the bungled initiative that allowed the Duke of York to confront Emily Maitlis like a rabbit in the headlights could not be more striking.

The credit for this must go to Her Majesty the Queen. It is clear that she drove this process from first to last, recognising the need for prompt action to extinguish a crisis that threatened to grow out of control. Sugared by expressions of family affection, the terms are realistic and totally different from the let’s-have-it-both-ways, self-indulgent fantasy canvassed by the Sussexes on their pretentious website. They may commit themselves henceforth to a life as “progressives”, but they will not be radicalising the Monarchy.

Taxpayers’ interests have been respected by the Duke’s agreement to repay the £2.4m spent on refurbishing Frogmore Cottage. The loss of Prince Harry’s honorary military ranks was inevitable: it would have been insulting to the Royal Marines to impose upon them a part-time Captain General based overseas. The armed services cannot be treated as a minor hobby by an absentee prince.

The style His/Her Royal Highness has been suspended rather than totally withdrawn, but it is unlikely ever to be resumed. Here, too, is an echo of the Duke of Windsor, who remained obsessed throughout his years in exile with the supposed insult of the HRH style being denied to Wallis Simpson. The Sussexes, however, do not appear concerned about the issue, though they must be dismayed by the businesslike way in which the royal household has disposed of their unrealistic ambition to become semi-detached members of the royal family, as they originally proposed.

Overall, the settlement reached is the best that could have been crafted to meet the situation. It represents the optimum damage limitation the royal family could have put in place to prevent these two loose cannons creating havoc. It does not, however, guarantee that havoc will not be created on the far side of the Atlantic.

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex is clearly exploiting her situation to promote herself among the Hollywood establishment where her position previously was negligible. Her ambition is unmistakably to graduate to the inner circle of American billionaire liberalism, to the red carpet at film premieres and Oscars, to the Clinton-dominated world of charitable foundations conferring celebrity status and tax relief. Her problem is that, even adding her husband’s more substantial income to her own, she will find it difficult to amass the necessary funds.

If she is to have any hope of doing so she will have to rely on cultivating the utmost good will among those who control that world. But the quid pro quo for admission to the magic circle of Hollywood-Hillary-Oprah is to pay the necessary dues in the form of total adherence to the uber-liberal social and political prejudices of the woke establishment. Here be dragons.

The timing could not be worse. This is a US presidential election year and the litmus test of loyalty to the liberal consensus will be vocal abuse of Donald Trump. Meghan is still an American citizen and will be expected to add her pebble to the cairn of anti-Trump vituperation. It seems likely her own instincts would, in any case, prompt her to do so. That would create embarrassment for the royal family and even the government.

The nightmare scenario, however, would be if she were ever to allege, for example, having heard derogatory comments about Donald Trump within the royal family. That would provoke a diplomatic crisis that would threaten the transatlantic special relationship just when Brexit makes it particularly important. Of course, such a situation might never arise; but even the remote possibility of some diplomatically injurious remark needs to be addressed.

Beyond the formal settlement officially reached, it should be discreetly conveyed to the two self-exiles that any embarrassment caused to the royal family would incur automatic sanctions such as the quashing of the ducal title, the withdrawal of any remaining financial or security support, and the removal of the Sussex line from the succession to the throne.

This affair has been a tawdry event, but the Queen’s prompt and decisive action has greatly defused the situation. There will always remain, though, a nervous awareness of a ticking time-bomb on the far side of the Atlantic where the pathetically “woke” Duke and Duchess of Winfrey will always present the hazard of creating some embarrassment for the Monarchy and nation they are abandoning.