Enough already! Our two pseudo-royal freeloaders Harry and Meghan are now clearly damaging Britain with their latest shameless tawdry antics.
Their “aren’t we bloody wonderful” tour of Australia has seen them cynically monetising their increasingly tenuous connection to the British monarchy they both clearly despise.
This tour only exists because of Harry’s long-rejected birthright. It is a full-on pseudo royal visit, complete with hospital visits, children hugging and helping out at a women’s refuge. Which is the kind of thing lots of other good people do too … but with slightly fewer invited TV cameras and slightly less emphasis on attendant brand promotion.
What do they think they are doing?
They must know they’ve become some Victorian circus freak show? Like the bearded lady you know you shouldn’t look but somehow you cant stop yourself.
I’ll be honest my first thought was what kind of parents leave the kids at home while they go on holiday? Closely followed by surely if two people who aren’t medics, patients or relatives started walking around your hospital ward you’d call security wouldn’t you and have the weirdos thrown out.
Seriously, what were they doing there?
They were bringing in business weren’t they?
And if that juxtaposition of sick kids and brand promotion doesn’t incense you quite enough try this.
They are now damaging Britain by damaging the crown.
The British monarchy in Australia while not quite hanging by a thread has a lot of PR work to do. The last significant survey showed only 43% of Australians wanted to retain a constitutional monarchy – though even fewer 41% backed a republic.
The image of the royals – which is intimately linked with the image of Britain and the British – is in a very delicate balance.
And two ‘American’ freeloaders have just demolished that balance in a horrible, calculated mission to use Australia, as the Sydney Morning Herald pointed out yesterday, as a cash machine.
A robust editorial saw right through the pseudo royals and wrote: “Australia was good to Harry and Meghan. Now they want to use us as an ATM”.
And that’s not the half of it.
Critics down under are furious Australian taxpayers are due to foot the bill for some of the couple’s police security. And tens of thousands of people have signed a petition demanding the Sussexes cover all the costs themselves.
One Oz MP David Limbrick, entirely understandably, thundered: ‘If people want to spend thousands of dollars on former royals, that’s fine. But Victorian taxpayers should not be on the hook to provide the security of millionaires.’
But then of course we get to the meat of the visit: Meghan’s ‘Her Best Life’ retreat at Coogee Beach where tickets for the weekend cost up to a jaw dropping £1,400 and include a chance to have a photo with the Duchess and ask her questions at a gala dinner in a 5-star hotel. Meghan’s fee is reportedly in the region of $250,000.
Meanwhile Harry is the keynote speaker at the InterEdge Summit in Melbourne, which seems to be focused on workplace bullying. You’d have thought Meghan would have got that gig wouldn’t you? Anyway, tickets range from £525 to £1,250, so you can probably do the maths.
It’s the shamelessness of it really isn’t it? The utter selfishness. This couple have over and over again bad-mouthed and attacked the institution of the British monarchy, and walked away from doing a bit of work for that institution which has served them so well.
But it is solely that institution which underscores their paycheque so they hijack it again and again.
And if their tawdry antics hurt Britain and her institutions, who the hell cares?
Certainly not these two.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
