ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

Andrew Dickens: Prince Harry's behaviour tarnishing royal family's image

Author
Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date
Tue, 14 Jan 2020, 10:35AM
Photo / Getty Images

Andrew Dickens: Prince Harry's behaviour tarnishing royal family's image

Author
Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date
Tue, 14 Jan 2020, 10:35AM

I found the current royal crisis briefly interesting when it first broke. Mistakenly I took it as a sign that Charles was starting to flex his muscles. Downsizing the monarchy and so it maintained a focus on service and efficiency and not frippery. A bloated monarchy full of dilettantes is not the future. I thought it might be part of a cunning plan carefully thought out.

Well I was wrong. It’s an omnishambles and as the story has progressed and following this morning’s royal summit I find myself less interested and more irritated by the carrying on and shenanigans of this collection of related people.

The only point of The Crown is to maintain the person who wears it and protect the person who will inherit it.  The first job of any king or queen is to provide an heir.  And for the sake of security it’s best to provide an heir and a spare.

The Queen took to that business with gusto producing 4 children with Charles the heir.

Charles has also done his part producing William and Harry. William has also put his shoulder to the wheel producing 3. George, Charlotte and Louis.

And that’s where the problem starts. With every heir the spare becomes less and less relevant.

Since William started breeding Harry has slipped from 3rd in line to 6th. He will not take the throne whereas before William’s children he might have. In essence he’s been made redundant.

When William first had Prince George 6 and a half years ago I remember the conversation swirling even then about what to do with Harry even then. There was talk of diplomatic postings or gover generalship's in the Commonwealth. But nothing happened.

He no longer had his brother to tool around with. Harry was rudderless until he met a North American girl and fell in love. His new purpose to have his own family and Archie has arrived but the question still remained, “ what will Harry actually do?.”

It appears to me that the Royal Family gaily ignored the issue until Harry brought it to a head publicly.

You know it’s not like this family haven’t dealt with this before.

The search for meaningful employment amongst the Queen’s children was fraught. Sure, Anne loves to open factories and is the hardest working Royal. But Edward in the early days made a fool of himself with ill judged forays into television and he has now slunk into backroom roles. And then there’s Andrew who has sold his privilege so many times to so many dodgy individuals for favour and cash and now infamy.

Harry has all the potential to be another Andrew tarnishing the Crown.

Harry also gains no favour for being a hothead and impatient and willing to use the media as a weapon to force the issue, while all the time claiming victim hood. For a man who doesn’t like media he certainly likes to make a show out of his own private life and business.

This all should have been sorted a decade ago. The fact that it hasn’t shows that this family, despite their long experience and the resources of their court, are lazy, unorganised and lacking in empathy.

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you