Why I feel sorry for Prince Harry on Poppy Day

By Amanda Platell for The Daily Mail

23:11 10 Nov 2023, updated 23:11 10 Nov 2023

How sad that Prince Harry will not be there. Tomorrow, King Charles and Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal will all attend the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph.

But Harry, who unlike any of them has actually served his country in action, will be absent.

I can just picture him four years ago, the last time he laid a wreath here in Britain to commemorate the war dead. Solemn and respectful, his officer’s uniform bedecked with medals, he performed his part at the sacred ceremony with the utmost dignity.

But then, the following year, his request to pay tribute at the remembrance service or even to have someone lay a wreath on his behalf was denied – he was no longer a working royal and the decision was final.

It must have been a body blow to the Prince who had been in the Army for ten years and on two frontline tours of duty in Afghanistan.

The point is that Harry, every year, has shown his respect. This week he was wearing his medals while performing for the annual Stand Up For Heroes benefit event in New York to help raise money for U.S. veterans and their families. 

All very noble but it’s hardly the Cenotaph is it? Harry was proudly wearing his poppy, a symbol unrecognised in America but clearly a link with his past. You can take Harry out of Britain, but you’ll never take the British serviceman out of him.

Whatever our feelings about his appalling traducing of his family in that Oprah Winfrey interview and his book Spare, his evident feelings about remembrance are so poignant. For they remind us of the good in him and of the person we have lost.

This weekend I will be thinking of Harry, the soldier, the vibrant, cheeky chap we so adored, the beloved son of Charles and Diana far, far away from all that he once cherished and honoured and holds so dear. I’ll be thinking of his longing to be part of the remembrance ceremony where we always saw him at his best.

He’s reportedly complained that he never received an invitation to King Charles 75th birthday celebrations next Tuesday. May I suggest that, as an olive branch, the King invites him instead to lay a wreath for the fallen at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday next year?

 

After M&S’s Christmas advert featuring the sensational Hannah Waddingham in its £59 sequin midi bodycon dress, sales of the frock soared. It’s designed to show off a woman’s curves and, as I discovered, it does exactly that. When I tried one on, a friend said I looked like an overstuffed turkey. 

 

A baffling parade 

I cannot be the only one fearing violence after Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley refused to ban this weekend’s pro-­Palestinian march.

Most of the half a million expected to gather are protesting about the terrible deaths in Gaza, but a tiny minority sup-port the terrorist group Hamas that massacred 1,400 Israeli civilians.

What bewilders me most is the absence of common decency, and that the marchers fail to accept that Armistice Day is so precious to the nation’s identity.

 

Tearful Carol Vorderman thanked listeners after being sacked by BBC Radio Wales for her anti-Tory Twitter rants.

But her vow never to ‘change who I am’ rings a bit hollow comparing snaps of her now and on Countdown in 1982.

She says her transformation into Jessica Rabbit is down to diet. Who knew that eating carrots could give you such a fabulous bottom?

 

Holden’s festive frenzy 

Celebrating her role as Christmas ambassador for the handwash brand Baylis & Harding, mum-of-three Amanda Holden says she’s ‘so excited’, gushing: ‘Christmas can never come soon enough for me each year and we’re already playing the festive music in our house.’

Crikey, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You on repeat in the Holden household from early November?

That constitutes child cruelty!

 

Barbra Streisand reveals that despite her success: ‘I haven’t had much fun in my life, to tell you the truth – and I want to have more fun.’

When I was younger I had fun as people often mistook me for Miss Streisand: big nose, frizzy hair, large bottom. Well the residents of the care home I worked in did, demanding I tunelessly belted out The Way We Were every day. My only consolation was those dear elderly folk would have forgotten it in minutes.

 

A jury decreed Robert De Niro’s company must pay his former $300,000-a-year assistant $1.2 million for loss of earnings and sexism after she accused him of asking her to scratch his back twice. Yes, it’s a big payout, but Ms Graham Chase Robinson might soon find Tinseltown reluctant to fork out for her eye-wateringly pricey, and confidential, services. 

 

Westminster Wars 

Former civil service chief Mark Sedwill tells the Covid Inquiry he ‘joked’ about ‘chickenpox parties’ to spread Covid. ‘It must have come across as… both heartless and thoughtless,’ he said, ‘and I genuinely am neither.’ Given he retired with £248,189 compensation, and a gold-plated pension, the families of the more than 225,000 lost loved ones will be the judges of that. 

Dominic Cummings posts a picture of himself with an eyepatch after an op. Proof at last after his Barnard Castle jolly that traitor Cummings has always had problems with his eyesight.

Rishi is under pressure to sack Suella Braverman for saying what a majority believe. If he was as bold as her, calling out hand-wringing, rainbow bracelet-wearing cops, the Tories might stand a chance at the next election.

 

Returning to the scene of the Lockerbie bombing, Lorraine Kelly says covering the disaster as a young reporter has, 35 years later, left her with crippling PTSD triggered by the smell of aviation fuel.

Of course I have sympathy for Lorraine. But just think how bad it is for the grieving families of the 270 innocents who died that terrible night.

 

Replicas of five dresses Diana wore in the final two years of her life, due to be auctioned by her designer friend Jacques Azagury, have been bought by a museum for £100,000. Hope he’s giving the cash to charity rather than cashing in on her fame. 

 

Coleen’s tawdry own goal

Flogging her new book and Disney+ series, Coleen Rooney proudly recalls her angry girlfriends hurling abuse in the street at the ‘hooker’ hubby Wayne had sex with when she was pregnant with their first child. Shame on you Coleen for naming the woman.

The villain in this piece is not her but Wayne – and now you, Coleen, for dragging her back into the spotlight as you continue to milk this tawdry incident.

 

Strictly pro Vito Coppola, dancing with actress Ellie Leach, tweeted: ‘Just finished another day of rehearsal! Well done to my baby.’ Rumours now abound they are more than just dance partners. But given the lengths some contestants go to win – professing eternal friendship when they’re in with a chance but never seeing their partner again if they’re kicked out – it could just be a publicity stunt.

 

Having broken confidentiality rules debanking Nigel Farage from Coutts, ex-NatWest boss Alison Rose has lost £7.6 million in bonuses – but will still be paid £1.7million following her exit. She shouldn’t get a penny. Had a bank teller revealed a customer’s details to the Press, they’d have been collared by the police.