Protection racket has gone silent

JWE SKIPPED off to France after the Coronation, anxious for relief from the wettest and coldest spring I can remember.Alas, Provence was even wetter than Blighty, so we shivered in cafés and swapped Coronation gossip with friends.

Interestingly, there was saturation TV coverage over there and the French loved the whole shebang. Even though so many hate their own republican ruling class, they cannot resist a bit of pre-revolution monarchical grandeur. Actually, President Macron is more haughtily regal than King Charles.

They don’t like Prince Harry though, and they’re not alone. His standing in world opinion is now near rock bottom. I really think that the prince’s ludicrous “near catastrophic” car chase around Manhattan was the final nail in his pity-party’s coffin.

Here in the UK a judge has ruled that Harry has no legal right to appeal against the Home

Office decision not to allow him to pay for police protection while he’s in the UK.

The Home Office argued that royal protection officers are highly trained and expected to put their lives on the line in the public interest. If wealthy celebs such as Harry (and yes, that’s all Harry is these days – an empty celebrity) could buy police protection, they would become mere guns for hire. Harry won’t see that of course, because the royal who ran away still doesn’t understand that his escape to a California lifestyle of movies, chat shows and award ceremonies means he’s forfeited all his ancestral privileges. He believes they’re still his birthright. But his and Meghan’s embarrassing attempt to accuse New York paparazzi of putting their lives in danger in a “relentless” car chase (described by witnesses as “exaggerated”) is a turning point. What else is left to feed their paranoia? They’re out of ammo and America is beginning to see through them, and even Harry must surely have an inkling by now that those who shirk their responsibilities are no longer entitled to privilege or respect.