Remember the Parable of the Prodigal Son? The King should, anyway, what with him being Head of the Church of England. Anyway, stop me if you’ve heard this before but Christ told us about a man who had two sons, one of whom demanded his inheritance and took off to spend his money on loose women and a life of sin, only to find that when the money ran out, he was in a dismal state.
So, on the basis that his father’s servants had a way better life than he had, he made up his mind to throw himself on his father’s mercy and ask to be taken on as one of the staff. When he was on his way, his father spotted him at a distance and ran to meet him, smothered him in hugs (I paraphrase), kitted him out in the best clothes in the house and killed the proverbial fatted calf for a welcome party. When the virtuous elder brother found out what was happening, he was far from pleased and stayed away in a sulk.
There are a few bits of this that might remind us of Prince Harry and the King, not to mention the Prince of Wales, but the crucial bit of the story is, I’d say, that the father spotted his prodigal at a distance; he had been looking out for him, you see, and ran to meet him, arms held out. There were no preliminary talks, no peace deal hammered out between the two parties, no preconditions about terms… Just unconditional love.
And it’s here that the parable parts company rather drastically with the Royal Family. For over the weekend, we may have been startled to hear about “peace negotiations” taking place in London. Ukraine? we wondered. Or maybe Hamas-Israel? No. Turned out it was a meeting between Prince Harry’s communications person, a glam-looking Meredith Maines, and the King’s, the redoubtable former journalist, Tobyn Andreae.
They had drinks at a private members’ club, the hitherto unremarkable Royal Overseas League, where it would seem they had a chat about this and that. The word was, that Prince Harry and the King might be up for a reconciliation, after years of not really speaking. But there are difficulties… Harry’s court case against the government about his security detail when he’s in the country, plus the King’s anxiety that family matters should stay private rather than being shared with Oprah Winfrey.
What kind of family operates in this fashion other than an unnatural and dysfunctional one?
What kind of family operates in this fashion other than an unnatural and dysfunctional family? What’s wrong with Prince Harry simply pitching up at Buckingham Palace or Windsor or Balmoral and asking to see his dad, maybe sending a text beforehand to say he’s on his way. That’s how normal people function.
Was he afraid that his father might be too busy to see him? That was the word the last time Harry was in London. But what’s stopping both of them simply cutting out the middlemen and woman and just meeting for a warm embrace and a talk. Is it the King being difficult? Or is it Harry? Either way, this standoff is ridiculous and a shockingly bad example to the nation.
If the King would like to talk about peace in any of his public pronouncements in the next year or so, then he could start by making up with his errant son. And if Harry would like to celebrate the wonders of Family – one recalls those nauseous pictures of him with his little uns on Father’s Day – he too could set an example by demanding to see his father, who is, let’s recall, still ill with cancer.
It is perhaps pushing it a bit to expect Prince William to join this love-fest (in Christ’s parable, the elder son was a sourpuss) but it’s not too much to ask father and son to kiss and make up, like a normal family would. That’s all one expects, really, that the Windsors should, for a change, start behaving like a real family, where, when we get things badly wrong, we say sorry, and make up. A close reading of the parable would put both parties on the right track… Unconditional love and forgiveness. Go on. Try it.
Melanie McDonagh is a columnist at The Standard
