Hal’s belles all jolly good fun, up to a point

SUNDAY STAR TIMES

IT SEEMED Harry was the only man in the room.

VIP meet-and-greets, classroom visits, worthy causes, walkabouts – and time after time, the prince was mobbed by women, young and old, as if he were heart-throb Harry Styles from the boy band One Direction.

I, too, found myself the only man in a room full of women this week, but there the similarities certainly end.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to address a group of accomplished women leaders at ANZ, New Zealand’s biggest bank.

These were global experts in their specialist fields, yet still struggling to find recognition for their achievements. Throughout big public and private institutions and in the media, women are still not accorded the prominence that their hard work and accomplishments might warrant.

So it is an extraordinary anachronism to see New Zealand treating Prince Harry as an eligible bachelor, who might provide some starry-eyed young woman with her lucky break.

Surely, surely, we have moved beyond this revolting spectacle? Surely we can allow women to succeed in their own right, rather than as primped-up accessories to men?

And here’s the thing: this anachronism is deeply entrenched in the institution of monarchy, and our fraught relationship with the royals.

No matter that Britain recently tweaked its laws to allow the women of the Windsor family equal succession rights to their brothers, the monarchy remains anathema to one of our most basic values as New Zealanders: that we are all entitled to be judged on our own merits.

I remember staying up late to watch the wedding of Charles and Diana, as a seven-year old. Wrapped up in crocheted blankets, we watched as Diana walked up the aisle with a white train as long as the Orient Express.

By the time Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones, I was a journo propped up in the corner of the Panther Public House in London’s East End, watching on television while local Irishmen entertained with a scurrilous commentary.

It was as deliciously old- fashioned as cooking Yorkshire pudding in lard for Christmas dinner.

But I think we are changing. The arrival of Princess Charlotte last month seemed to provoke less adulation than previous royal births.

And over the course of the past week, Prince Harry’s walkabouts slid off the front pages of the newspapers, and down the TV bulletins.

This was despite an entirely accomplished display by the prince. He was warm. He was engaging. He was smart. And we valued those attributes.

That, more than anything, shows exactly why he and his family should not be kings and queens of New Zealand.

As New Zealanders, we are slowly learning to value people, not for their pedigree or their religion or their gender, but on their own merits.

If Prince Harry wants to be our head of state, well, he should run for election.