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DON’T JUDGE BOOK BY ITS COVER

22/12/2022 12:40:00 Chris Morgan

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You may be relieved to read that this isn’t about books; it’s about people. But the principle contained in the title applies in a similar manner.

We find in life that what goes on behind the scenes is frequently not at all how it appears on the outside. Two prominent individuals have started to expose this in the British royal family; almost as much media attention being given to it as to the terrible conditions endured by the Ukrainian people; who are now living in sub-zero temperatures with power stations and water facilities being blown up all around them. Despite their incredible courage, it is difficult to visualise them able to survive the winter. The Harry/Meghan saga is about another mission of destruction, fortunately on a social level; but seemingly out to humiliate the British royal family. The central character, on the narcissistic side of normal, is someone who must surely rank in the top five of most attractive women anywhere.

Therein lies a common dysfunctionality – the power of a woman’s physical appeal to men (and no doubt, in this highly permissive age, to some women) and the effect on the ladies of the world by one of their own in the Netflix series about the British royal family. Harry has also engaged JR Moehringer, one of the best writers in the world, to assist with his autobiography; with Harry probably immune to any offers for his own silence, since he and Meghan are making hundreds of millions of Dollars from Netflix. Whatever the truth about the private behaviour of the British royal family, this one-sided account already gives the two protagonists the upper ground; that is unfair, and will damage a much-loved constitutional monarchy. King Charles III makes no national decisions but those who lead government pay him the highest level of respect and loyalty. It was said that the former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, used to bow so low to Queen Elizabeth II that she was in danger of touching Australia (lol). But it was Thatcher’s government that was at the centre of the decision-making; not the Queen.

Destruction

Populations around the world adore their monarchies from centuries of rich history and tradition; the golden layer in the cult of the celebrity. Why, then, this pursuit of destruction? My own view is that Harry would jump off the Eiffel Tower (perhaps only with a parachute (lol) for his Meghan, and that she is playing the race card because she didn’t get the star treatment within the royal family like she does elsewhere. Unless it’s recorded on film, we cannot assess how innocent or offensive were the royal questions about the likely skin colour of the Harry/Meghan offspring. In the absence of any defamatory suggestion, the question could have been a perfectly innocent one.

A similar incident recently was where the former lady-in-waiting of Queen Elizabeth II asked questions about the racial origins of a prominent British charity activist who happened to be black. British royalty often have a rather stilted and formal way of asking questions, and it may have been an innocent, albeit risky, attempt to learn about the lady’s ancestors. A woman who shadowed the Queen for 60 years – with a knighthood too – surely wasn’t going to mess up her own impeccable reputation by being insensitively persistent about another person’s racial origins. She was apparently devastated by the negative publicity, but the two have since shaken hands.

Achieving

The public perception of the private life standards of a monarch is central to achieving a sustained respect and adoration from the people. The emergence of human misbehaviour behind the scenes tends to produce abnormal damage; because a royal family is not expected to experience the normal challenges of daily life; when in fact they are normal people. And they face additional challenges, being heavily influenced by the obsequious devotion and elevation from the society around them, but not expected to succumb to normal human frailties. King Charles III should try to avoid being drawn into a tit-for-tat; he should just let the people judge. But sometimes a reaction can be necessary. In the early 1990s, there was judged to be a need to react publicly, and positively, to the decline in the popularity of the Queen – over a wealthy lifestyle and the breakdown of the marriage of the heir to the throne, Prince Charles.
In 1992, the Queen volunteered to pay income and capital gains tax for the first time. She later agreed to de-commission the royal yacht Britannia, saving millions of Pounds. The family’s popularity has soared since that time; further evidence that you don’t need power to be adored and respected.

Ironically the title of this article worked well in the days when a dull, plain cover contained a brilliant book; there were many of those. Today it’s different. If you have a great title and eye-catching front cover you can make a rubbish book a bestseller. Times change all the time; if you get my meaning.