General Chat

No you are not a lone weirdo Sharron I am a weirdo as well. (Or so my family like to tell me.) :-D

Diverting the attention is a well-known ploy. I have used it when my children were young. :-D

I think a slimmed-down monarchy is a good idea.

I have never actually heard or read of anybody else holding my view but am heartened to know I am not the lone weirdo.

Makes a change!

Well said Sharron, I have heard a few people say similar and think it is quite possible that this is what is happening.

Just wondered if I could put a bit of a contentious slant on the harry and Meghan issue?

Just thinking that there is a threat being posed to the monarchy at the moment but not by somebody who has never been any closer than third in line to the throne and who was never going to figure largely in their work.

Harry has never been closer than third and is not the son of the monarch, any more than is Zara Phillips who has been at liberty to live her whole life as she pleases. He was never going to have any influence and really should have been allowed to serve on in the armed forces where he was well suited.

As the son of the first in line and brother to the third in line,and son of the late Princess Diana, he has always had a high profile and it is pretty ease to direct the focus of the media on to him.

Pretty much like Prince Edward, who had the sense to see that military service was not going to suit him and went into employment where he lives a pretty low profile life, Prince Harry has opted to drop out of royal duties in a monarchy his father intends to stream-line anyway.

I think he might have been able to slip out under the RADAR without much interest from the media had there not been a very serious threat to the integrity of the monarchy to be out of sight as much as possible.

How convenient to be able to focus the interest of the media on to somebody who, as current fifth in line, has everything they want to see, a wife of colour, who is an actress (Lily Langtry), is American and bears a passing resemblance to Wallis Simpson and who has decided he will take a different path in life. Their is so much for the red tops to chew there.

The interest the media has shown in Harry and Meghan has completely eclipsed the real threat to the monarchy. Have we forgotten that the son of the monarch, who has been second in line to the throne, is embroiled in a moral and legal scandal that involves things the average person would not even want to think about never mind relate to? The tabloids have been to busy to remind them of this. How fortuitous!

Harry and Meghan are willing to talk about their decisions, albeit at a price, and why not? They are not going to be able to pick up a few shifts in McDonalds to make ends meet and they will have expenses simply by being who they are.

If anybody is going to hasten the demise of Prince Phillip or cause the queen agonizing worry it is going to be her favourite son who really is bringing great shame upon the House of Windsor, if only by implication.

To my mind, Harry and Meghan are provided a much needed distraction.