Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019 Page 7
QQQIS TEAM SUSSEX’S NEW RECRUIT
O
h dear. It had to happen.
Just as the world winces at
harry and Meghan taking
four private jets in 11 days
while preaching eco-sense
to the rest of us, William and Kate
are spotted on a budget Flybe
flight to Aberdeen.
Dad stumping across the tarmac carry-
ing random bags with straps dangling and
two kids in tow. Mum in sensible pony-
tail, bringing up the rear, carrying the tod-
dler. All making a dutiful visit to Granny.
You couldn’t make it up: Ibiza-sleaze and
popstar preening for one pair; for the other,
a bleary early morning at Norwich airport.
Some cynically think William and Kate
deliberately slummed it to make a point
about harry and Meghan’s showy excess.
After all, the Cambridges have put up with
enough sanctimony from the Sussexes of
late. harry’s revelation last month that he
and Meghan would only have two children
for the sake of the planet must have raised
an eyebrow with these parents of three.
As, surely, did Meghan’s pious refusal to be
on the cover of Vogue – the September edi-
tion of which she has edited – after the oblig-
ing Kate was.
Frankly, I don’t think it’s a feud, because I
don’t believe Prince William is small-minded
enough to risk all those years of fraternal
solidarity after the loss of their mother. It is
perfectly possible that the Cambridges just
took a budget flight – as Diana often did –
because Norwich airport is small and
unfussy, and it is exactly the kind of thing
their friends do as they migrate from Nor-
folk beaches to the posh Scottish season of
bracing walks and midge-bites.
If the long royal legs are a bit cramped,
never mind: why act self-important when
you’re heading for the throne eventually?
The awful thing is that harry and Meghan
are getting it so disastrously wrong only a
year after public delight at their wedding.
Their attitude screams hollywood entitle-
ment: the public must pay for an opulent
home refurbishment, but not see the chris-
tening or know the godparents’ names.
There’s Meghan’s carefully-curated list of
good-looking charity ‘trailblazers’, not to
mention the gimmicky Instagrams.
No sooner were the public praising the
Cambridges’ budget flight yesterday than
the Sussex account was updated with a tray
of self-help cupcakes – ‘Stay Strong’, the
mottos on the miniature sponges cried. And,
that’s before we get to the private jets.
To preach global environmentalism and
then accept a holiday courtesy of Elton
John, with private jet flights thrown in, is
misguided to say the least. Add to that
Elton’s huffy protestations that their pollut-
ing travel is vital for ‘a high level of much-
needed protection’ – and his dig that anyone
who raises an eyebrow is being ‘malicious’ –
and the overblown self-importance grows.But wait! Actress Jameela Jamil then
trumps even that by crying racism, and
ridiculously tweeting ‘ALSO, it’s not safe for
us to be on the same planes as royals or
presidents you absolute muppets’. She
believes that her royal pals are ‘prime tar-
gets for kidnap and sometimes assassina-
tion... It’s in the interest of us civilians to
not be endangered by proximity to people in
such powerful positions’.
What better way to collapse this whole
inflated bag of piffle than for William and
Kate to hop on an early morning budget
flight – two future kings in economy,
Jameela! – dragging his children’s irritating
backpacks with his sacred royal hands, as
the nation smiles in recognition.
Just as we do every Christmas when the
Queen catches the ordinary old train to
King’s Lynn. But the smile fades, because
although the contrast with the Sussexes’
lordly behaviour is quite funny, some of us
are getting worried. We loved harry: our
decent, brave soldier prince, playing strip-
billiards and handsomely apologising for
‘too much army and not enough prince’.W
E watched him opening up about
his childhood grief, falling in love
with Africa, then at last finding the
right girlfriend. Rarely has any sen-
ior royal had such a bank of amused, admir-
ing affection to draw on. Yet within a year, a
lot has been squandered.
It’s not racism, as idiots like Jamil say: the
wedding was popular and so was the preg-
nancy until the lavish baby shower made us
wince. What grates is the sense that the
couple seem to want an A-list life of extrava-
gance without A-list talents. They combine
defensive privacy with neurotic image-man-
agement, lining up with every ‘woke’ cause
with minimal inconvenience to themselves.
They have before them the example of a
careful, tactful, wartime-frugal Queen.
They also have the Awful Warning of har-
ry’s Uncle Andrew and Auntie Fergie: a pair
who demonstrate with effortless ease what
happens to your reputation and the prestige
of the monarchy when you hang out with
billionaires and sycophantic star-seekers,
and take expensive favours off them.
The impression that harry and Meghan
genuinely don’t ‘get it’ is disturbing. They
must be offered input from Palace advisers
(in the age of Andrew and harry, is there any
ghastlier career path than royal-adviser?).
To discount every criticism as racist or mali-
cious is more unfair to us than we’ve ever
been to them. A largely royalist nation wants
to like them. They’re not making it easy.TWO HEIRS IN
ECONOMY —
WHAT A FIRST
CLASS LESSON
FOR HARRY
AND MEGHAN
By Libby
Purves
Heir on a
shoestring:
William and
Kate with
George,
Charlotte and
Louis yesterdayHigh-powered: Businesswoman Karen Blackettdiversify the Civil Service. The
media guru has told how she
runs on little more than five
hours of sleep a night, and has
turned the garage of her Chis-
wick home into a gym for her
5.45am workouts.
Miss Blackett, who was awarded
an OBE for services to the media
industry, is a particularly high-
powered appointment for Harry
and Meghan, who want to carve
out a role as players on the global
stage, focusing on the Common-
wealth and the US.
Miss Blackett declined to com-
ment yesterday but a palace aide
said Harry and Meghan were
delighted with the appointment
as they believe the business-
woman ‘shares their values’.By Royal Correspondent