There are committees that make decisions and there are committees that pause their own decision-making process without explanation four months after promising to be finished, and Britain’s Royal and VIP Executive Committee has chosen the second path regarding Prince Harry’s security, a choice that a royal commentator this week described as entirely Harry’s fault.
According to GB News, Ravec “paused” its independent Risk Management Board without explanation, a review the duke’s office had been told would be completed in March. It is now the end of June. Harry, Meghan, Archie, and Lilibet are scheduled to arrive in early July. The pause was discovered, not announced, which means the family learned about the delay to their own security assessment the way most people learn about bureaucratic failures: too late to plan around it. News of the situation reached Harry and Meghan late Friday, “reportedly causing considerable distress to the duke,” which is the diplomatic phrasing for finding out four days before a planned international trip with two young children that the body responsible for keeping them safe quietly stopped doing its job in March and never mentioned it.
A Sussex spokesman told GB News on Monday: “The issue has never been accommodation. The issue is whether appropriate and proportionate protective security is being provided throughout the entirety of the visit.” Buckingham Palace’s official position is that this is the Home Office’s responsibility, not the Palace’s, which is the institutional equivalent of two people in the same building pointing at each other while a 77-year-old man with cancer waits to find out if he gets to see his grandchildren.
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told The People’s Channel: “It is very curious indeed that the assessment by Ravec, which was promised last December after he lobbied the Home Secretary, has not taken place.” Lee Cohen, writing for GB News, took a less curious and more punitive tone, arguing Harry and Meghan have “no one but themselves to blame” because “stepping back from royal duties was sold as liberation” and the current security obstacles “flow from the deal he chose” in 2020. This is one interpretation. The other interpretation is that a government committee promised a decision in March, did not deliver it, paused its own review without telling anyone, and a 77-year-old cancer patient is now waiting to find out whether his five-year-old granddaughter, whom he has met once, will be allowed to visit.
The King is currently in Scotland for Royal Week, attending the Ceremony of the Keys and an inspection of the Guard of Honour at Holyroodhouse. He has a full ceremonial schedule this week. He does not, as of Tuesday morning, have an answer about July.
When a government committee misses its own deadline by three months, pauses without explanation, and a commentator blames the family waiting on the decision, who exactly failed to do their job?
Sources
GB News: Prince Harry’s current security obstacles ‘flow from the deal he chose’ when stepping away from Royal Family
GB News: Harry and Meghan ‘desperate to solve chaotic security situation’ after trip cast into doubt
GB News: Harry and Meghan overplayed their hand
