Harry & Meghan: ‘How racism broke the spell of the British fairytale’
SHOCKING REVELATIONS: Harry and Meghan in their interview with Oprah Winfrey
Compelling and disturbing in equal measure, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey has plunged the Royal Family into crisis, with allegations of racism against an unidentified member of the household. Our columnist Russ Litten was among the 11 million people who watched the UK broadcast last night
The English are a peculiar race.
For all their aggressive flag waving they are, in fact, never happier than when down on their knees, prostrate and servile, their eyes lifted in adoration towards a glittering palace on a hill. A nation of belligerent serfs.
This is reflected in one of the Unspoken Laws of England: you are not allowed to criticise royalty. I first realised this when The Sex Pistols got to number one in the charts with God Save The Queen and the BBC pretended it never happened.
I have always thought the Royal Family and everything they represent to be a deeply embarrassing mistake, a historical aberration that we’ve never mustered the nerve or imagination to shake off. An organisation founded on the invasion, theft and cruelty of colonialism.
If we have to have a bloodline elevated above all others, does it have to belong to the biggest set of cattle rustlers? Why have a family that represents the government, but doesn’t govern?
Why do we pay to keep people in positions of power who purportedly don’t have any meaningful power? Is it because, deep down, the English still want to believe in fairy tales?
No matter how badly they behave or blatantly abuse their position of privilege, the Royals never get called to task.
Even the news that the Queen and her eldest son had personally vetted more than 1,000 laws via Queen’s consent didn’t seem to raise any serious questions in the House.
As a non-believer in fairy tales, I tend to ignore any noise surrounding the Royal Family. However, the cacophony surrounding Harry and Meghan’s decision to flee The Firm and head to America reached such deafening levels I found myself professionally obliged to take an interest.
At the behest of my Editor, and at the risk of sending my blood pressure off the scale, I sat down and watched The Interview That Everyone Was Screaming About - Harry, Meg, and Oprah having an al-fresco heart to heart.
‘CONTEMPLATED SUICIDE BUT COULDN’T GET HELP’: Meghan
First up, Meghan, the woman everyone in the country seems legally obliged to have an opinion about.
I must admit, I have moved from a position of bemused indifference to becoming a devoted cheerleader, mainly because I think there is a very good chance she could cause Piers Morgan to have a heart attack live on national television.
One of my few pleasures in a morning is watching his lower lip tremble like a plate of undercooked tripe whenever someone pokes holes in his vanity. Ever since she left him off the wedding guest list he’s been inconsolable.
But the interview. Meghan let herself down in the opening stages. She didn’t Google the Royal Family? Oh, come on. I went for a job interview at a kebab shop recently and Googled everything there was on the menu.
This woman was about to marry into the most famous family on the planet, and she didn’t do a bit of research? No way. Sorry. Although this could explain her shock at the lack of a pastoral care section at Buckingham Palace.
She thought she’d wandered into the Disney Castle and instead found herself surrounded by a chinless version of The Addams Family.
As for the various shock-horror revelations - really, is anyone that surprised? The news that Harry and Meghan’s unborn son’s skin tone was queried was surely news to no-one who’s spent the last 30 years watching The Duke Of Edinburgh insult people around the globe.
The blatant racism aimed at Meghan by large sections of the UK press is predictable and sickening, but it is also largely unchallenged precisely because our core national values are so deeply ingrained with this colonial mindset.
Imagine seeing all that written about you when you were pregnant and in a strange land. And of course, Meghan is not just black - she is American, too. That really blew the tabloids’ minds.
The English are not comfortable talking about mental health or race. Americans, on the other hand, have no such qualms.
I can’t imagine any sort of open-hearted soul baring or talk of emotional needs would go down at all well in a family as tightly buttoned up as the Windsors. Some of them don’t even sweat, for goodness sake.
Enter Harry. As much as I find it difficult to work up any sympathy for the ultra privileged - especially those who pose alongside missiles and freshly killed animals - I did find myself empathising with this man.
Let’s be right about this, the British press literally drove his mother to an early grave.
‘LET DOWN BY MY FATHER’: Harry
After passing through his various youthful incarnations he now bears the uncomfortable demeanour of a man who was not allowed to leave a job he did not apply for.
And so everyone’s favourite roguish Prince became Harry Rotter - the boy who broke the spell.
In reality, Mr Windsor did what anyone would do and got his wife and kid out of the freak show. Only the hardest of hearts, mine included, would not deny him that right.
In the end, the Royal Family could not, or would not, protect this couple from the racism of the tabloid press because the entire organisation surrounding them is built upon racist oppression.
And nobody really seems to care. The most telling quote was the idea that the Royal Family were “… willing to lie to protect other members of the family, but not prepared to tell the truth for us…”
That just about sums up the entire ugly mess surrounding this most outdated of institutions and the vicious click-bait lie machine that feeds off of them.
Eat an avocado “incorrectly” and you’re the Princess of Evil. Hang about with convicted paedophiles, you get a free pass.
A Royal Family as described on the Oprah Winfrey interview last night just about fits the bill in post-Brexit Britain - frightened, paranoid, selfish, cold and unfeeling.
I’m glad those two, Harry and Meghan, got out. California looks lovely.
God Save the Queen, the fascist regime.
Can we stop talking about it now?