I used to be kind of concerned that Daily Mail columnist Dan Wootton “spoke” for the general British sentiment for the royal family. But over the past month, Wootton has written some downright bonkers columns about JK Rowling (he’s pro) and Novak Djokovic (he’s pro-Djoker and anti-vaxx mandate). So now I just see Wootton for who he really is: a devoted right-wing fringe character who makes up sh-t constantly and has bad takes about everything and everyone. With that in mind, Wootton’s latest column is about Prince Harry and how Harry is seeking a judicial review about wanting to reimburse the taxpayer so he (and his family) can receive much-needed police protection when they’re in the UK. From Wootton’s column:

Weaponising one’s children in any intra-family conflict is unseemly and cruel. To do so when the victim is your 95-year-old grandmother who has spent her entire life devoted to public service is a despicable new low. And, make no mistake, that is exactly what the prissy and petulant Duke of Woke is doing, with his massive strop and ill-advised legal challenge over the UK government’s decision to refuse him police protection when in Britain because he’s no longer a working royal – by choice, remember.

In public, Prince Harry and Meghan are forever banging on about their love for the Queen. But like most virtue signalling, woketopian multi-millionaires, their woolly words are never followed up by good deeds. I believe the couple’s latest legal outburst amounts to nothing short of emotional blackmail. Because Harry is making it clear that if he doesn’t get his way, he will not bring his family to the UK, including seven-month daughter Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, who they named after Her Majesty (another woke gesture, for which they didn’t bother to ask her permission) but has never met the Queen.

In her twilight years, Harry knows all too well his grandmother cannot travel, so there is zero chance of her making a trip to their £11 million Montecito mansion, of which the Sussexes are reportedly already growing tired (of course they are). If Harry doesn’t get the security he wants, he is likely to attend her Platinum Jubilee celebrations alone, leaving Archie and Lilibet (sorry, the name still makes me cringe) back in California with Meghan.

That said, nothing comes close to threatening to withdraw access to his family altogether unless he gets his way. The problem for Harry is that, as ever, he has picked the wrong target. The Queen simply cannot and will not interfere in security decisions made by the British government, no matter how much she might personally want to see Harry. She knows that would not be appropriate or politically palatable.

[From The Daily Mail]

To be clear, at no point in Prince Harry’s statement did he ask for his grandmother (or any royal) to interfere in what seems to be an issue with the Royal Protection unit of Scotland Yard. His application of a Judicial Review is specifically taking it out of the hands of the Windsor clan, although I think we can say for certain that IF the Queen or Prince Charles specifically requested RPOs for the Sussexes, the Yard would protect Harry and his family. The Judicial Review is two-fold: determining that the Sussexes would need police protection and allowing Harry to pay for it (or reimburse the Yard) out of his own pocket.

Wootton seems to be arguing that there’s an implied threat to Harry’s stance, that if Harry doesn’t get “his way” (meaning, police protection), Harry won’t bring his children to meet the Queen. And Wootton thinks that’s terribly woke, to care about Archie and Lili’s safety, apparently. When really, Harry is justified in his concern. He’s simply saying that if it’s not safe for his family they won’t come. Harry is being forthright, everyone else is being manipulative and devious.