Pictures prove Harry was right all along

With civil unrest flaring across the UK, one of the Duke of Sussex’s main claims about his wife has suddenly been borne out.

There’s an image currently doing the rounds of the UK media showing a young girl lugging armfuls of freshly looted Crocs, and it pretty much sums up the sheer madness that has taken over vast stretches of the UK this week.

The noughties might be back fashion-wise but it’s all about some 30s-style Oswald Mosley fascism on Britain’s streets right now with rioting having broken out across the country, the flames having been vigorously fanned by far-right extremists who still can’t work out how to spell Mussolini.

And so, what better time to stock up on stolen knock-off plastic shoes?

But this is not a politics column and us, you and I, we don’t normally delve into real, hard news of this type.

Except that the current violent scenes playing out in Britain – which have seen more than 50 police injured, 400 arrests, courts forced to work around the clock, shops boarded up in London and attempts to set hotels thought to house immigrant families on fire – have coincidentally achieved something else.

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and man permanently mounted on his very high horse, has just been proven right.

The UK is in crisis. Picture: Getty Images

Violent scenes have erupted across the country. Picture: Peter Powell/AFP

Central to Harry and wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex’s claims about why they left the UK is their reading of the UK as inherently unsafe for her as the only mixed race member of the royal family.

Only last week, the Duke was interviewed for a doco called Tabloids on Trial, and said it was “still dangerous” for the Sussexes in the UK after they lost their government-funded police protection in 2020 when the Megxit axe fell.

“All it takes is one lone actor, one person who reads this stuff, to act on what they have read … And whether it’s a knife or acid, whatever it is. And these are things that are a genuine concern for me. It’s one of the reasons why I won’t bring my wife back to this country,” Prince Harry said.

Even though this was a song sheet he has sung from before, that didn’t stop the predictable reaction to his Tabloids comments.

Many on X, formerly Twitter, were quick to chunter away and point fingers at the supposed illogic of Harry’s “genuine concern” given that the Sussexes relocated themselves to a country with more guns than citizens (truly) and are about to travel to Colombia, a nation which has a murder rate 27 times higher than that of Britain.

The UK, spluttered various voices, the country that gave the world a reality show whose dramatic tension rests on fears of a droopy Victoria sponge, was a positively paradisiacal safe haven, with the greatest possible threat to the duchess’ wellbeing being her choking on a gristly sausage roll.

Prince Harry is terrified about his wife and children’s safety. Picture: Danny Lawson – WPA Pool/Getty Images

And then events took over, and that viewpoint suddenly looked at best particularly naive.

On July 29, Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, were killed during a Taylor Swift dance class, with a 17-year-old arrested over their deaths.

Within hours, a vigil for the girls was overrun by extremists who had swallowed gobfulls of misinformation which claimed that the alleged attacker was an illegal immigrant who had arrived by a small boat, which was being spouted by the likes of piece of human garbage Andrew Tate. (All erudition and creativity eludes me in describing the alleged rapist and human trafficker).

Since then, things have gone from bad to worse on the streets, and the country has been in the grip of what is possibly “the worst wave of far-right violence in the UK” since the end of the Second World War, according to anti-fascism group Hope Not Hate.

The organisation told the Guardian social media videos of the rioting showed “gangs of men set upon people on the basis of their skin colour”.

In a matter of days, the idea that the UK is some perfect exemplar of multiracial, multicultural harmony has crumbled and what the riots have demonstrated is the depth and insidiousness of far-right feeling.

Which brings us to the Duke and his wife’s safety. These events have been unfolding, looted Crocs and all, hot on the heels of the Sussexes’ UK security arrangements – or lack thereof – being back in the news.

Even the late Queen failed to ensure her grandson and his family were still protected after Megxit. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

(The necessary backstory bit: Royal security arrangements are determined by an independent Metropolitan Police committee called RAVEC, which also oversees things like which ministers get bodyguards. It determined, after the Sussexes stepped down as working members of the royal family, that they would no longer get around-the-clock, taxpayer-funded protection).

Last week, People ran a cover story in which a royal insider did a spot of loose-lipped talking about the duke’s hope that his father King Charles might intercede to help him get his security back.

“Harry is frightened and feels the only person who can do anything about it is his father,” the insider said.

A second “source close to the situation” told the celebrity mag: “Harry is determined to protect his own family at all costs”.

There are competing views on whether this is actually doable and if Charles could wave a magic wand (or sceptre) and arrange for the Sussexes to get their police bodyguards back.

The Duke reportedly seems to think so, while “a source close to Harry” has told the Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes: “If the king wanted, he could do this for his son”.

The other perspective is that the King does not control RAVEC and even the late Queen failed to ensure her grandson and his family were still protected after Megxit, despite her private secretary having attempted to intercede on her behalf. RAVEC went ahead and stripped the Sussexes of their bodyguards anyway.

Anti-racism activists take part in a rally ahead of a rumoured anti-immigrant protest on August 7. Picture: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

This mess and the question of the Sussexes’ safety in the UK was already simmering away when parts of the UK went up in flames.

Wherever you might stand on the actions and choices of Harry and Meghan over the last few years, what is irrefutable is that Britain is not one big happy melting pot right now.

The undercurrents of hate and racism have never been made plainer than right now, an evil that doesn’t only bedevil Brits but, sadly, probably much of the world.

At a time when “gangs of men are setting upon people on the basis of their skin colour”, never has the possible danger faced by the Sussexes from extreme elements been plainer.

One revelation that does not get as much attention as it should came in 2022 when the outgoing Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Neil Basu revealed that they had had “teams investigating” genuine threats faced by the duchess from the far-right, and that perpetrators had been prosecuted.

There is something of a nice coda to the UK riots, which seem to have largely been perpetrated by pudding-like lads all but guaranteed to have incorrectly-spelled tattoos somewhere on their person.

On Thursday, after a “target list” for anti-immigrant protests appeared online, thousands of counter demonstrators took to the streets with chants of “No to racism” and “Racists go home”.

Anti fascist protest, Old Market, #Bristol#Refugeeswelcomepic.twitter.com/571FHgnmLy

— KT Kinnear (@ktkinnear) August 7, 2024

If that Crocs girl represents one image of the UK in 2024, then let me leave you with a shot from a protest in Bristol showing two grey-haired women who had sensibly turned up with folding chairs (and I’m guessing a Thermos full of good, strong tea), one of whom proudly bore a sign reading “Grannies against fascism”.

Maybe, just maybe, as Meghan herself said in her wedding toast, “love wins” after all.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.