This week, Page Six had a weird story about Prince Harry’s scheduled visit to the UK next month. P6 pointed out the obvious, which is that the Home Office still has not released any information about the Sussex family’s police protection, if Harry brought Meghan and the children over in July. Of course, that fact (the absence of police-protection news) was buried under a lot of royalist propaganda. Well, the Mail’s Richard Eden is back on the case! His column this week is about Harry’s visit and whether he’ll bring Meghan and the children. Except Eden doesn’t have any insider information on that subject either. He is working extra-hard to convince people that King Charles supports the Invictus Games, and that Harry (alone) will probably get police protection.

When Prince Harry launched the Invictus Games in 2014, it was with the financial support of the Royal Foundation. Emphasising that it was a team effort, the foundation’s two other patrons, Prince William and Catherine, joined Harry at the opening ceremony. Also in attendance at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London was Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, as the King and Queen were then known.

Although Invictus, over time, became solely associated with its patron Harry, his father, brother, sister-in-law and stepmother remained supporters of the charity, which helps wounded or sick former service personnel by encouraging them to take part in a sports competition. Next year, the Invictus Games will be held in Birmingham and Harry is due to fly from California next month for a series of events to publicise them.

…Civil servants who sit on the committee were reported to be opposed to granting the couple taxpayer-funded protection whenever they are in Britain because it carried too much political risk. Hard-pressed British taxpayers would, the officials wisely advised, not be happy to hand over their money so the Sussexes could come and go as they pleased.

Having made such a song and dance about protection, proud Harry risks losing face if he brings Meghan back to Britain with no change in their security status. However, the American former actress happily visited France last October for Paris Fashion Week and the couple have been to places far more dangerous than England such as the Middle East, Colombia and Nigeria.

This week, I have heard two interesting things. The first is that the King is keen to show his support for the Invictus Games. ‘Like the rest of the Royal Family, His Majesty believes that Invictus is a very worthy cause,’ a friend of the monarch told me. ‘He hopes that the Games will be a big success for Birmingham next year and is aware that a lot of taxpayers’ money has been spent on it.’

That’s certainly true. The Government has committed as much as £26million in public funds to support the Invictus Games, via the Office for Veterans’ Affairs.

The second thing I was told this week is that Harry will be given police protection for next month’s visit, but that may be only for the events connected to Invictus.

‘When Harry came last September, he was granted police protection at certain times, such as when he attended the WellChild Awards,’ a source told me. ‘That will be the same this time for his Invictus events.’

A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told me: ‘There is no change in the security situation as far as we are aware. We wouldn’t comment on meetings with the Duke’s family.’

[From The Daily Mail]

As I said earlier this week, the curious absence of information and/or announcements in either direction speaks volumes to me. Harry knows that the best way to get his family’s attention is to speak out publicly, via interview or statement. If they’re screwing him over about security, he would have already said so, or perhaps he will say so sometime soon. These One Year To Go events have been on the schedule for (literally) a year, so Harry obviously fulfilled the police requirement to give them at least four weeks notice or whatever. It sounds more like the Home Office told Harry that he can have protection but only if he goes solo, because if he brings Meghan, the royal tantrums will never end. Which sucks.

A few more things… they’re still desperately trying to give the left-behinds credit for Invictus. It’s pitiful. King Charles “is aware that a lot of taxpayers’ money has been spent on” the games… what are we doing? Harry didn’t force the British government to spend money hosting the games, Birmingham officials and government officials put together a bid for the games, a bid which included a substantial investment in Britain’s Invictus program and veterans support. If they didn’t want to spend that money, they shouldn’t have bid. And lastly, Meghan’s visits to other “dangerous” countries… she had a high level of security during all of those visits.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.