Boris Johnson has declined to say if coverage of the Duchess of Sussex is racist as he was questioned on the Royal row gripping the United Kingdom but Boris was certain that they’re going to sort this out but declined to discuss it any further.
Home Secretary Priti Patel dismissed there’d been racism in the media towards Megan, although she did say that she hadn’t actually listened to the debates, but she wasn’t in that category at all where she thought there’d been any racism.
Last year, more than 70 female MPs signed a letter denouncing antiquated, colonial undertones in coverage of the Duchess. Yet when asked if race was an issue, Boris Johnson stated that he was going to reiterate his point that he didn’t believe this has helped by continuing criticism from politicians.
The Queen reluctantly gave the couple her blessing to step back following talks with Prince Harry at Sandringham when he and Meghan announced they wanted to split their time between both sides of the Atlantic and took a swipe at incorrect reporting in the UK media.
But Boris Johnson’s views on this were pretty candid and he said that he was a huge fan of the Queen and of the Royal Family as they were an incredible asset for our country and that he was utterly confident that they were going to sort this out and that they were seemingly going to be able to sort it out easier without any critical commentary from him.
And when asked if the taxpayer-funded couple, who say they want financial independence, had a right to a private life, Boris Johnson said that he thought those perplexities were well understood.
The Queen held a summit at Sandringham with Prince Harry about his and Meghan Markle’s choice to step back as senior royals and the Queen said while she wished Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to remain senior royals, she would support their decision to become financially independent and move partly across the Atlantic.
But few details of how that independence from the UK taxpayer will happen and has not been revealed and the UK government has repeatedly declined to rule out continuing to finance the couple’s security.
One thing that should be asked is should Harry and Meghan have the right to privacy which is publicly funded? But Boris Johnson is correct on this, it wouldn’t be helpful if politicians began commenting on what goes on with Harry and Meghan and the Royal Family, it’s their business and the Queen has already given her blessing, so we should just let them live their lives now.
The media needs to drop this petulant narrative about racism because if you put the term “House of Windsor” into Google, the first inquiry would be “Is the Queen of England German?” Well, the Queen is British, although she is part German, and the House of Windsor is really the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but they changed their surname a long time ago.
And when British citizens were being killed by Germans, a royal family with a foreign surname was a problem. So, yes, the Queen is partly German, so what, and she belongs to a family that recognised a century ago that names matter less than behaviour and the same goes for Meghan because it shouldn’t matter that she’s of mixed race, it should matter that she’s a human being like everyone else and therefore, should be treated as such.
But it’s much easier to condemn other people’s biases than their own weaknesses, particularly when we live in a society that overindulges this kind of thing and the word racism has lost all meaning now and it’s the most overused and abused word in the English language.
Now we should just move on with the news because Harry and Meghan are yesterday’s news and let’s hope it stays that way when there’s more urgent and important news to be getting on with.
