It’s the time of year when we put aside selfishness and petty squabbles and remember with love and gratitude those who lost their lives in wars past.
Tears were shed during the two-minute silence at the Cenotaph on Sunday morning, a scene repeated across the nation.
The ceremony in London was impeccable, with William in his RAF uniform, the King in a ceremonial frock coat, and Catherine and Camilla looking solemnly on.
On Saturday, the Princess of Wales, accompanied by 12-year-old Prince George, had been at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, standing ramrod straight as the Last Post sounded and the poppies fell.
Some 5,000 miles away in Beverly Hills, Prince Harry – himself a veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan – had an entirely different function to attend. A big, bling-filled, knees-up to celebrate Kris Jenner, the Kardashian matriarch who was marking her 70th birthday.
Even young George would have had the sense to know that this was not perhaps a good idea.
The location for Meghan and Harry’s never-mind-the-optics outing? A $165million mansion owned by the Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.
Intriguingly, the theme was James Bond – Bond, of course, was a loyal servant, willing to sacrifice life and limb for the sake of king and country.
At the Cenotaph on Sunday morning, the Remembrance Day ceremony in London was impeccable, with William in his RAF uniform and his father the King in a ceremonial frock coat
In Beverly Hills, Prince Harry and Meghan went to Kris Jenner’s 70th birthday party
Still, at least Harry wore a stylish poppy on his black velour tux – because nothing says respect like wearing a poppy while partying.
Perhaps he thought the badge of remembrance would buy him a pass, but it’s rather like putting a Band-Aid on someone who’s stepped on a mine: insulting and ineffectual.
Meghan, it must be noted, was not wearing one at all that we could see: she famously loves flowers, maybe just not this one.
This comes only days after Harry lectured the world that Remembrance is ‘not simply a minute’s silence’ but ‘a call to collective responsibility’.
Titled ‘The Bond, The Banter, The Bravery: What It Means To Be British’, his 647-word essay, released last week, was supposed to be a rallying call for poppy-wearers everywhere, but it now can be read as a shallow attempt to head-off the criticism he knew might be coming his way for attending a Kardashian bash on Remembrance eve.
Harry has done so much for Britain’s injured service men and women, not least through his Invictus Games. But they can’t have been impressed to learn that the prince spent the night with the likes of Kim & Co: Oprah, Adele, Snoop Dogg and the rest of Hollywood’s glitterati.
Back in the day, Harry caused outrage when he turned up at a fancy dress party sporting a swastika. At least then, it had been a joke – made in extremely bad taste by a young man, just 20, who was yet to witness the carnage of war first hand.
Last night was altogether different.
The Princess of Wales, her eldest son Prince George, and the King at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance on Saturday night at the Royal Albert Hall, London
Yes, of course, the chance to rubberneck inside the Amazon mansion is irresistible for most of us, but for Harry? Who grew up in real palaces?
He would hardly be impressed by the fake antiquity of Los Angeles (the area should be renamed Bel Airhead): the truly, generationally privileged wear their riches with casual disdain.
Money came easily to Harry, meaning he should need so much more to admire: heroism, sacrifice, authenticity, generosity – and duty
And Meghan, well, she was given a glimpse of what real glamour is like during her brief sojourn as a royal.
The cerulean E-Type Jag Harry drove on their wedding day, Kensington Palace, the streets of London lined with cheering fans, horse-drawn carriages.
She attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, surely the day the Royal Family showed the world that when it comes to pomp, ceremony and respect, nobody does it better.
But you can see from Meghan’s beaming face at the Kardashian fake fest that she thinks she has ‘arrived’, that here is ‘where it’s at’.
Yet give me a grey London street, slicked with tears, over a tacky red-carpet event any day.
Meghan was given a glimpse of what real glamour is like during her brief sojourn as a royal, such as the E-Type Jag Harry drove on their wedding day (pictured)
It begs the question: who is advising the prince these days? Did the glaring insensitivity of his night on the tiles not occur to any of his team?
Besides that, it’s an unfortunate visual marker for how far he’s fallen: having given up a life of regal duty he is reduced to hobnobbing with the Kardashians, surely the most vulgar of Tinsel Town’s meretricious specimens?
One of Harry’s team should have insisted that, as an ex-soldier who has lost comrades in action, this was one event he really should have let Meghan attend alone.
I wondered if his poppy was hiding a microphone but, actually, on second thoughts, perhaps if pressed, water would squirt out. Because, with this latest outing, he really has shown himself to be a clown.
As I write, he and Meghan may yet do their Remembrance duty in LA and show their respect to the Fallen in a meaningful way.
But, Harry, I was rooting for you and now you’ve well and truly blown it!
We shall remember this.
