Have Harry and Meghan lost their magic touch?

I'll be the first to acknowledge that being a member of the Royal Family in this country is not a guarantee of an easy life. Privileged, yes, but not easy especially when it comes to image and the media. Basically the media in Britain love the Royal Family but also love to tease and criticise and downright attack when they think it's called for. The Queen, bless her, rarely gets criticised for anything for the very good reason that she seldom puts a royal foot wrong and has been around so long that every man, woman and child in this nation love her for what she stands for and respect her for having to deal with the pain-in-the...se prime ministers who have come and gone, and foreign presidents and other dignitaries who queue up to shake her white-gloved hand. The only time she faltered and fell out of favour with her subjects was when she stayed at Balmoral after Princess Diana died instead of returning to Buckingham Palace to witness and share the grief of the nation. She was eventually persuaded by wise counsel to leave Balmoral, much against her husband's advice, and returned to London where she was swiftly forgiven after making a wonderful speech on television. Now we have the Harry and Meghan issue. It seems a great shame that, despite a fantastic wedding, countless images of a happy couple in love and a nationwide belief that even more than Wiliam and Kate, they would be an approachable pair not given to sticking rigidly to royal protocol, there is a general and genuine sense that things have gone a touch sour. Every day there is a story in the papers that tends towards the critical, largely based on the following impression, right or wrong: that Meghan rules the roost, that she is wearing the royal trousers, as it were, and has converted Harry into someone who despises the press and gets angry at intrusions into their privacy - fair enough - and is no longer the happy-go-lucky prince with a smile for everyone. Publicly espousing the virtues of protecting the world's environment and then taking a private jet on four separate occasions to whiz off to some fancy do, hasn't helped. Meghan's continued estrangement from her father for whom one has to have some sympathy even though he and her other relatives - not her mother - pose a nightmare for Buckingham Palace, is another negative. Then there are all the rumours of a rift between William/Kate and Harry/Meghan and the latter's move to a posh converted terrace of cottages in Windsor Park and the huge bills for fancy furniture, bathroom appliances etc etc. There's clearly a degree of envy here on the part of the Queen's humble subjects, but royals splashing out on the finest interior designing when they could have gone to Homebase always stir up the wrong headlines. I'm not saying that Harry and Meghan should never step into a private jet, especially if some wealthy friend has provided it, nor should they eat on Tupperware plates - although the Queen once famously was said to have done just that - but it's all a question of image. If Harry and Meghan want to be loved - perhaps they don't care - then they should be worried about their changing image. Or at least their media advisers should be worried about their changing image. Perhaps, if it's true that Meghan wears the trousers in the marriage, the palace advisers don't dare tell her what to do. Oh dear, if that's the case. This country right now needs to be reassured that not everything is going to pot. While we all contemplate a very uncertain future for this nation, it would be nice if Harry and Meghan behaved like William and Kate who are universally loved. Perhaps that's what it's all about. Meghan can't bear it that Kate is so perfect in most people's eyes, and William, of course, is second in line to the thone. So he has other awesome responsibilities. As I said at the beginning it's not easy being a royal, but before the newspapers like the Daily Mail really get their teeth into the Harry/Meghan fairytale-turned-sour story, the couple need to get some serious PR help.