A preachy message to infuriate the Palace: ROBERT HARDMAN on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

We are approaching half-time. Next Wednesday, to be precise, will be the mid-point in the year-long trial which the Queen agreed with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex ahead of their departure for a new ‘independent’ life in North America back in the spring.

The clock runs until March 31, 2021 whereupon both sides will ‘review’ the situation.

The review clause was very much at the Queen’s behest. It was a worried grandmother’s way of giving the couple breathing space – time to think again in case there were any aspects of royal life they might wish to resume. After all, as Harry and Meghan declared at the conclusion of their negotiations: ‘The Sussexes have made clear that everything they do will continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty.’

On the basis of yesterday’s bizarre, preachy intervention in US politics, I don’t think we need to wait until March to see which way things are going. Should anyone still cling to the idea that the Sussexes, particularly Prince Harry, might be torn between the old world and the new, then just look at their joint video address to this year’s nominees for the Time 100 list of the most influential people on the planet.

Next Wednesday, to be precise, will be the mid-point in the year-long trial which the Queen agreed with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex ahead of their departure for a new ‘independent’ life in North America back in the spring

For here is Prince Harry clumsily urging Americans to use their vote while his wife makes it abundantly clear which way they should cast it. If this is ‘upholding the values of Her Majesty’, we should not be too surprised if, come next spring, Her Majesty decides she does not wish to have them upheld any more.

Much of this video – filmed in the couple’s garden in California – is bog standard West Coast awards ceremony celebrity flim-flam; earnest pieties bordering on parody. ‘Tonight reminds us of how important it is to watch out for each other, to care for each other and to inspire each other,’ says the duke. ‘We are incredibly proud to join you at this historic time.’

The California-born duchess is an old hand at this stuff, of course. ‘As we work to reimagine the world around us,’ she pronounces, ‘let’s challenge ourselves to build communities of compassion.’ Can’t argue with that. Likewise, it is hard to object to their earnest warnings about the perils of social media. 

The clock runs until March 31, 2021 whereupon both sides will ‘review’ the situation. The review clause was very much at the Queen’s behest

However, it is when all this becomes a homily on the state of American politics that alarm bells start clanging. Given her unequivocal, pre-royal criticisms of Donald Trump, we know where exactly Meghan is coming from, of course. But it is the duke’s intervention which is truly astonishing: ‘As we approach this November, it’s vital we reject hate speech, misinformation and online negativity.’

Quite apart from the arrogance of a foreign non-voter lecturing US citizens on their own election, the timing beggars belief. We are in a global crisis. American politics have not been this toxic since Prince Harry was born yet, a few weeks short of polling day, Harry decides to wade in.

Perhaps he has forgotten how it went down here when President Obama marched into the Brexit debate in 2016. Obama was a politician. Harry, however, is only who he is because his family remains firmly above politics.

Yes, the Prince of Wales has talked long and hard about contentious issues, not least the future of the planet. Yes, even the Queen (privately) urged people to ‘think’ before the 2014 Scottish referendum. But both have always been scrupulous in shunning party politics and acting on the advice of the elected Government.

Who is advising Harry and Meghan? The answer, it would seem, is no one – or certainly no one this side of the Atlantic. Yesterday, while the couple were dispensing lofty insights from a garden bench in California, the rest of the Royal Family were doing the same old stuff – the Duchess of Cornwall touring community projects on Deeside, the Countess of Wessex doing a shift in a charity shop, the Cambridges chairing online charity meetings, the Queen having her weekly audience with the Prime Minister…

The Sussexes say they want to build ‘communities of compassion’. The rest of the family have been doing that for years. They do so by not taking sides. If the Sussexes can’t or won’t accept that, it may be a pretty short review process next March.