JAN MOIR: Harry may be coming home, but there’s a burnt out bombsite where his family used to be

Royal guards this week saw a cloud of black smoke rise above several palaces and castles, part of a sad new ritual called the Bonfire of the Olive Branches. Because when it comes to the relationships between the Royal Family and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, we’re looking at a burnt-out bomb site that used to be a family home.

Relations are at an all-time low, clemency is in the deep freeze. The outstretched hand is withdrawn and the pipe of peace is showered with a thousand Duchess’s tears. It is done.

In September, Prince Harry will visit the UK to attend an awards ceremony for the WellChild charity, the day before the Queen’s death anniversary. But there are no plans to meet his father or his brother. Apparently he’s not even going to the private family dinner at Windsor to commemorate Elizabeth II.

He then goes to Germany for the Invictus Games, where his wife flies to him.

Meghan’s message couldn’t be clearer. If she can help herself, she’ll never set foot in grey, cake-filled, wretched Britain again.

Perhaps the ban on attending the queen’s deathbed at Balmoral – to shed light, give strength, recommend a turmeric cleanse and some yoga practice to the woman she never knew as Gan-Gan – was the last straw . And if there’s a role for her as a female reconciler to help heal the rift between her husband and his family, she’s chosen to avoid that too. As her is right.

But there is a puzzling chasm between all these bitter frictions.

The Duke and Duchess continue to embrace big themes of reconciliation and family. They talk earnestly about healing, humanity, and hope, but somehow never apply these messages to themselves and their relationships with their families, which are as toxic as a giant hogweed swamp.

Remember, poor Thomas Markle, who lives alone in a dusty Mexican border town just 250 miles south of Montecito, has yet to meet his grandchildren. It also seems unlikely that King Charles will ever get a second chance to meet Lilibet, his granddaughter. And that is terribly sad.

I note that the Duchess accompanied the Duke to the WellChild Awards in 2018 and 2019, but is not attending this year. It’s a shame, because it’s a moving ceremony held to celebrate the achievements and resilience of children with serious illnesses and the families who care for them.

That first year, the Duchess was pregnant with her first child, Archie — it had yet to be announced to the public — and the Duke paid tribute to her on stage.

The following year, he broke down during his speech at the same event, saying, “It touches my heart in a way I could never have understood until I had a child of my own.”

He’s so right. When it works well, family is everything. Family is your home, the wind under your wings. Family is more than naming your grandmother’s nickname for your own child. Family is not a tangible opportunity to build a business on a royal name and heritage that you are happy to denigrate when it suits you.

Family is not an ermine cloak under which to express narcissism disguised as altruism. Family tries their best, apologizes when you’ve gone wrong, and loves each other despite everything. Dare I mention the word respect at all?

It’s been seven years since Harry met Meghan. It’s been five years since they got married, three years since they stepped down as royals, two years since their infamous interview with Oprah, and one year since the Queen’s death.

In this time, Harry has undermined his existence as he knew it and lost the only father and brother he will ever know. By elevating his and Meghan’s joint stature and virtue by ruthlessly tearing down the Windsors’ legacy and reputation, he has reached this bleak point of no return.

Prince Harry is coming home, but he has nowhere to go. His involvement with the Invictus Games and charities like WellChild is the very best of him. But the day will surely come soon when he will regret losing the thing he says he values ​​most: his family.

Want to hear the funniest joke of 2023 at the Edinburgh Festival? It came from stand-up Lorna Rose Treen. “I started dating someone who worked at a zoo,” she says. “But it turned out to be a cheetah.”

Oh my sore sides. What strikes me about this mediocre pun isn’t just that it’s not very funny. It’s more that the joke doesn’t work for those of us with a Scottish accent who pronounce cheetah very differently from cheater. We roll our r’s, baby, and no one can stop us.

You’d think a festival in Scotland’s capital would know better than to praise something racially discriminatory. No wonder I feel totally triggered.

Perhaps the wokist SNP will step in and organize a cultural girlcott against this heinous ethnic slur. Or maybe not.

Not so proud of England’s little pride

Am I the only one who feels rather abandoned by the lionesses? Frankly, it’s hard to join the chorus of approval for this bunch of aggressive, name-calling demi-hooligans who didn’t always show the best sportswoman skills, on or off the court. And in the end they lost.

But when they returned to Britain this week, they disappointed loyal fans by leaving Heathrow via a private exit. That’s another red card from me. There’s no shame in losing, but being a sore loser is unforgivable.

A leading judge at the International Court of Justice has said Britain will no longer be able to ignore growing calls for redress for transatlantic slavery. Judge Patrick Lipton Robinson believes the international tide on slavery restoration is turning and is urging Britain to change its current stance on the issue. In April, Rishi Sunak refused to apologize for Britain’s role in the slave trade or pay anything. I hope he is not convinced to change his mind.

Yes, terrible things have been done by all nations in the terrible past. History is full of brutal and unenlightened people who do the unthinkable and reprehensible. Yet Britain has done more than most other countries to abolish slavery and make the world a better place.

My antipathy to reparations is not only that money cannot change the past, but also the twisted morality that suggests that it can.

More importantly, why should people who have never been slave traders pay reparations to people who have never been slaves?

It is nonsense.

Kudos to the police who brought Letby to justice

When the police make mistakes, the criticism is always brutal. Take a look at the sentences handed out to Lancashire Police by the media for their handling of the Nicola Bulley case.

Questions still need to be answered about the bizarre way they conducted the investigation and the information they made public. But when the police triumph, it is simply taken for granted.

We must certainly be immensely grateful to the Cheshire Police for the impeccable way in which they conducted Operation Hummingbird, the investigation of baby-killing neonatal nurse Lucy Letby. In a sensitive and highly complex case, they managed to be aware of the impact on all families involved and the concerns of innocent hospital staff.

Every baby got its own detective, every murder or attempted murder got its own investigation. Then the pieces of the monstrous puzzle were painstakingly put together and Letby was put behind bars for the rest of her miserable life.

Justice is incredibly important to those poor parents who have been so horribly wronged, so God bless the Cheshire Police.