Why I’m Not Mad About Harry

Prince Harry is back home. That’s the news that has been dominating the headlines for the last couple of days.

Both the BBC and ITV are planning to show programmes of his life while serving as ‘Captain Wales’ in Afghanistan for the past few months.

Of course, as we all now know, Harry is a trained helicopter co-pilot/gunner and has been flying missions against the ‘enemy’ in a hostile environment. For that he must be given credit. But should he be given more credit than the thousands of other servicemen and women who have been posted to the hostile theatres of our self made, and costly, wars over the past few years.

The justification for his work “you take a life to save a life” sounded pretty lame when counting the many lost lives of those who became unwilling victims of our ‘liberating forces’ in the country. Perhaps it was a custom written quote aimed at grabbing the headlines.

Harry, like many others, is not a fan of our press, and his comments about them make you wonder whether he considers their interest in his life to be as big a threat, as that of the people he has been fighting.

When it’s convenient, he forgets he was born into a life of privilege and that he is regarded by many as being just like any other ‘celebrity’ – a person of interest feeding the curiousity of the nation.

He explained away last year’s highly publicised naked revelling in Las Vegas as: “probably a classic example of me probably being too much Army and not enough prince” Full marks are given for being so honest but none for being naive about his position.

Being a modern day ‘Royal’ is not something you can turn on and off like a tap. It is a position that is open to public scrutiny on a daily basis.

Running naked through a Las Vegas hotel is not something many in this country can afford or get away with, so it is of little surprise the press gave it their full attention.

Prince Harry, in his own words faces a dilemma on a daily basis: “I think I said a while back there’s three ‘me’s, as it were. One in the army, one socially – my own private time – and one sort of with the family and stuff like that.”

Unlike in Afghanistan, and in a 24/7 world of newsgathering, there are, sadly for Harry, no ceasefires on offer when it comes to the press or royalty.

Leave a Reply