There are men who fight for something and win. Harry fought for police protection during UK visits for four years, lost in the High Court, lost on appeal, negotiated a private arrangement with his cancer-stricken father, filed a 30-day security application that went unanswered for 30 days, arranged a royal residence, and is now described by a source close to him as “distraught” because the government has declined to confirm protection extends beyond royal grounds. He is, in other words, back where he started, but with more legal bills.
According to GB News, which published the story this morning, Harry had planned to bring Meghan, Archie, and Lilibet to Britain in early July for the family’s first joint UK visit in four years. The trip was organized around Invictus Games events in Birmingham. The King, who has cancer, had invited them. A royal residence was offered. Security was apparently arranged, and then apparently wasn’t, at which point the source described Harry as scrambling to find alternatives, which is a description that covers the last four years fairly well and which has not previously produced a different outcome.
Archie is seven. Lilibet is five. The King has met Lilibet once, at the Platinum Jubilee in 2022, when she was fourteen months old and presumably did not form lasting memories of the occasion. He was looking forward, per earlier GB News reporting, to seeing both grandchildren in July. He has cancer. He is 77. The RAVEC committee, which is a five-agency body assembled specifically to make decisions about this situation, has produced an outcome that required four years of litigation, two court defeats, a family negotiation, and a 30-day security application to reach, and the outcome is that Harry is scrambling.
Every process in this saga has been followed by the next process. The High Court produced the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal produced the RAVEC review. The RAVEC review produced the family negotiation. The family negotiation produced the 30-day application. The 30-day application produced this morning’s headline. The children have not seen the King since 2022.
When four years of legal proceedings and family negotiations produce a source describing the outcome as scrambling, what was the litigation actually for?
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