Princes must put aside their egos
SO with all the Government incentives, the bribes, the endless warnings in the media, the food companies being compelled to cut down on sugar and display calorie counts on food, dire warnings about cancer, diabetes, damaged joints and the NHS buckling under the strain of it all, obesity in children has still DOUBLED in the last five years.
Why? Because as a society we’ve normalised it. We’re terrified of offending people, especially kids, by telling them they’re fat and they need to do something. And so the result of all this societal namby-pambying is that our children are now likely to die before their time because people were too scared to tell them to stop eating junk.
NICOLA STURGEON is now a full-time resident of La La Land. In a long list of farcical election giveaways this week she promised voters a four-day week, free dentistry, a freeze on income tax (she promised that in 2016 and raised taxes the following year), £2.5billion for the country’s beleaguered health service and she says she’ll turn on the public spending taps. She also promised a new independence referendum which is not in her gift as it’s up to Boris who’s already said no.
So just a load of old baloney, none of which, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has been costed. Bearing in mind Scotland is skint who does Nicola expect to pay for this? Surely not Westminster who, she never tires of telling us she hates and wants to be free of?
SO, there I was on Wednesday sitting in London’s Richard Ward salon with my lovely colourist Thomas who was explaining that he was about to tackle my grey roots and faded blonde locks with three different colours.“Hurrah,” I screamed. “Put a bucket load in.”
That was followed by a cut and blow dry by Nando. Four hours I was in that salon and every second was a joy. It was my first hair appointment since December and I felt ridiculously happy – just as I did when I was making my way there via the King’s Road which was bustling with people sitting in the spring sunshine having coffees, lunch, wine – you name it, they were digging in.
The shops were open and people were spending furiously. It felt glorious to be alive!
IT’S going to be a tough day today.That said I’m pretty sure I’ll be smiling at some of the eccentricities of the funeral Prince Philip has been meticulously planning for himself these last 18 years – particularly the Land Rover hearse he’s designed. But I also know there’ll be lots of tears too, watching Her Majesty in solitary splendour standing alongside the coffin of the man who has walked through life with her these last 73 years and to whom she must say a final goodbye. A goodbye that will have to be shared with the world. Duty means she doesn’t get the privilege of privacy in grief the way the rest of us do.
Then, because of the cruelty of Covid, she will have to sit alone in St George’s Chapel with no comforting hand, no soothing words from her children and her family.
I feel unutterable sadness for the Queen and for the loneliness she will feel in the years ahead. Because she will be lonely. Yes, she has an adoring family who will be there when they can for her. But nothing and no one can fill the void left by the loss of the husband who has been with her most of her adult life – especially not the life force that was Prince Philip.
Which is why this week’s shenanigans by Princes Andrew and Harry made my blood boil. It’s not enough that in her grief the Queen has had to deal with the details of her husband’s funeral. She’s also had to deal with the bad behaviour – past and current – of her selfish and badly behaved family.
This funeral should just have been about what she and Prince Philip wanted. Nothing else. Instead the whole event has had to be tailored around Wills and Harry’s strained relationship AND Prince Andrew’s demands to wear his Admiral’s uniform.
This despite the fact he’s actually an embarrassment to the uniform and has heaped shame upon his family thanks to his association with paedophile Jeffery Epstein. Andrew is an arrogant man but his self-delusion is what reduces him to a fool. Nothing he wears will change how we see him – except maybe sack cloth and ashes.
Then arrangements had to be altered again to spare Harry’s blushes. His abandonment of the Royal Family meant he had to give up his honorary military titles which means he can’t wear a uniform.
So, just weeks after this selfish young man branded his family racists and tipped a truckload of manure over their global reputation it’s been decreed that to save HIM embarrassment no one gets to wear military uniform – even though I’m pretty sure it’s precisely what Prince Philip would have wanted. Special arrangements have also had to be made so that Princes William and Harry don’t have to walk alongside each other in the funeral cortege. Why – because tempers might fray and they’ll have a punch up outside St George’s Chapel?
Couldn’t they both have just been told in no uncertain terms to behave like grown-ups for the few hours the eyes of the world will be upon them?
And that’s what grates here because the family’s bad behaviour and their strained relationships will detract from the only thing that matters tomorrow which is Prince Philip’s funeral and how the Queen deals with it.
But the fact is people will be looking at Wills and Harry to see their reactions to one another. People will be watching Prince Andrew with loathing.
Which all seems wrong, disrespectful and horrendously unfair to the Queen. Tomorrow is her last chance to say goodbye to her great love, to the father of her children, to the man who has been her guide and support for the last seven decades and who has made her laugh like a drain.
Her pain will be acute. So, on what will be the toughest, saddest day of her life let’s not be distracted by those who have let the family down in a way neither she nor Prince Philip ever have.