Harry and Meghan will pay the price
IT’S sad to see the ongoing fallout from the Royal family fallout – revealed by Oprah Winfrey in her interview with Meghan and
Harry.
Airing a family’s dirty laundry to an audience of 100 million is never the most sensible way of resolving a disagreement.
That there is bad feeling is not in doubt and it is clear that there are a number of sticking points, but generally disputes start with a relatively minor matter.
In this case it would not surprise me if it was the fact Meghan was required to curtsey before the Queen, unheard of in the USA.
It would not be lost on Meghan that, in time, she may be required to so curtsey before the Duchess of Cambridge. This meant that she could never compete with a sister-in-law with whom there appears to be little common ground.
Yes, she could play the part of a duchess with grace, but always partly from within the shadow of senior royalty.
She and Harry faced a lifetime of deferring to others and it is obvious that this does not appeal.
It shows a lack of understanding of the way that the British Royal family actually works, something that Princess Diana also found out a little too late.
I also disagree with alleged racism from a member of the royal family highlighted by commentators.
Within a family that has mixed marriages, it is not uncommon to discuss such matters.
I have a similar situation in my own family. It is not racism, but a subject for speculative discussion.
The Winfrey interview was a mistake that has only made matters worse. It earned some people a lot of money, so commercially was a success.
Prince Harry and Meghan say that they wish to lead their own lives, making their own way in the world. Nothing wrong with that, but criticising the rest of the royal family openly has made it very difficult for reconciliation in the future.
As the years roll by, I hope they will come to realise that the family is a very special institution. Knocking it will cost!
Russell Luckock is chairman of Birmingham pressings firm
AE Harris
BIRMINGHAM POST
DEAR Editor, The current Government trumpets its ‘levelling up’ agenda as a means of addressing regional economic inequality, yet the figures themselves demonstrate that this amount is simply lip service to this agenda.
The country’s economy is worth approximately £300 billion a year, before Covid 19 struck. The funding for evening up the regional ecomomies outside London and the South East is £4 billion.
A simple mathematical assessment would suggest that ‘levelling up’ is mere window dressing to appease the regions.
Furthermore, this figure becomes even more insignificant when the £2 trillion national debt is considered. The money laid aside for areas outside the South East is even more paultry, when it is considered in the context of entrenched funding bias, which has taken place for many years.
If the Government is serious in its desire to spread economic development across the UK, then it need not only to address a funding formula which favours London and the South East, but also years of bias against the regions.
I suggest there is no real desire to address wealth inequality across the country, and that the figure put forward is an attractive figure in isolation, in an attempt to quell voices of dissent in the regions.
Anthony C Powell, Kenilworth,
Warwickshire