DAILY MAIL COMMENT: It’s time for Harry to give up his royal titles

It’s time for Harry to give up his royal titles

As this tumultuous year edges towards a close, there can be no doubting the severe challenges Britain faces.

Arrogant union bosses are threatening to wreak Christmas chaos with a series of crippling strikes. Ruthless gangs continue to send thousands of migrants across the channel with impunity. And despite billions in extra funding, our unreformed NHS is still teetering on the brink of collapse.

Meanwhile, soaring inflation and rising fuel costs, prompted by the pandemic and exacerbated by Putin’s evil war in Ukraine, have resulted in poorer living standards for millions of hard-working families already weighed down by the Government’s exorbitantly heavy tax burden.

Small wonder so many are feeling distinctly short on festive cheer – although a win for England’s footballers in tomorrow’s match against Senegal would certainly give us all a much-needed boost.

But whatever turmoil engulfs the country, there is one constant from which the public can always draw strength and succour – the monarchy.

The stability and reassurance it provides was no better embodied than by the late Queen, whose wisdom and quiet dignity remained a steady source of inspiration through the darkest of times.

So how heartening to see Prince William and his wife Kate dazzle crowds in America this week, giving us every confidence that the future of this magnificent institution is in safe hands for generations.

Not only has William inherited his grandmother’s sense of duty, but his wife’s charm, elegance and natural stardust can help cement the UK’s position as a shining beacon of democracy around the world.

Sadly, of course, it was too much to hope that on such a historic visit even a peep of encouragement might emerge from America’s west coast, where William’s brother Harry and wife Meghan continue their prolonged sulk in the California sunshine.

Instead, with tiresome predictability the couple chose to capitalise on the royal trip by releasing a trailer to their lucrative Netflix documentary, a move as spiteful as it was opportunistic.

The six-part series has been billed as an insight into the pair’s life, love and struggles. Judging by the highly charged footage released, it appears more designed to heap as much odium on William and Kate – and the whole royal edifice – as possible.

So what is to be done about this narcissistic and increasingly reckless duo?

One solution would be for Buckingham Palace to simply cut all ties and let rip the cry, ‘Off with their titles!’

Indeed, as our Mail+ poll shows, a staggering 98 per cent of readers are in favour of such a measure.

But there is a problem. Appealing as a solution such as this might sound, constitutional experts point out that Harry and Meghan would then revert to the titles Prince and Princess Henry, lending them an opportunity to exploit their royal connections even further.

Harry is a Prince by birth and there is no modern precedent for doing anything to change that. But there is another way.

If the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are really so eager to convince everyone they can make it outside the royal fold, it would surely be better for all if they volunteered to give up all the titles so generously bestowed upon them by an institution they clearly detest.

After all, in the promotional blurb of his forthcoming tell-all book, Harry talks of writing the memoir ‘not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become’.

In which case he should show us he really can stand on his own two feet, rescind his Dukedom and his Princely title – and stop hiding behind his royal privileges.