OH dear, Harry. It might be increasingly cold, lonely and alienating sitting up there, aloft your moral high horse.
As you trot through fields of gold and enlightenment leading you to the promised land of endorsements and brand representation, pausing occasionally to look down on us mere mortals and share with us crumbs of your privileged wisdom.
But you must still feel cock-a-hoop. What a grand life you must have.
But your latest words of advice have fallen well short of someone who hoped to be a man of the people.
Advising people stuck in jobs that don’t bring them joy to quit is not just careless and foolhardy but yet another sign of how utterly disconnected you are from reality.
My disappointment is palpable. Of all the royals, you always showed glimmers of humility and vulnerability. And your acceptance of a fluctuating mental health endeared you to me.
However, hearing from an Eton-educated, elitist and advantaged man, speaking from his £11million mansion in California, that “leaving work should be celebrated”, is unforgivably irresponsible.
Harry, you’re so out of touch. You are so detached and muddled that it would be funny if it wasn’t so worrying.
Of course the theory of giving up your job because it bores you s***less or frustrates the hell out of you and makes you want to suffocate your co-workers is an ideal one.
It might be the answer to many people’s problems and deep unhappiness. After all, we spend one third of our entire lives working.
Yet the lack of foresight and responsibility, the sense of privilege oozing from your very statement, Harry, has enraged me.
Imagine quitting your job with a mortgage hanging over you and with no means — whatsoever — of supporting yourself, unlike the princes among us who might have extricated themselves from their greater family to pursue commercial projects that will bring endless wealth. It would be financial suicide.
As a champion of mental health awareness, your words are, at the very best, careless.
Just imagine what getting into financial difficulty, losing your credit rating and facing a bleak financial future would do to your mind and spirit.
Your observations are the preserve of the wealthy, comfortable, crusty upper/middle classes who don’t need to stress about where the next meal might come from.
I’ve recently come across a few young men who appear to be having existential crises.
They are wondering what to do with their lives, spend their time navel-gazing and pondering their role in the world and what contribution they might be expected to make.
The pursuit of happiness is essential. But so is food on the table and the ability to pay the bills in this rat race in which we find ourselves.
There is a very positive movement towards quality of life and understanding that we should all attempt to work to live — and not live to work.
The Swedes established that decades ago and created better working environments for most, if not all, workers, providing and implementing em- ployment laws and parental rights in most businesses and professions.
I think daily about the people who take our refuse away, about those working night shifts because they have mouths to feed, about those on the bare minimum wage who are forced to clean toilets and wipe blood from the walls of our hospitals, about those who are out in our fields in all weathers, picking crops with their ailing bodies.
Do they have the luxury of wondering what might bring them happiness?
Do they have the extravagance to forego their meagre salary, turn their back on volatile employment for the sake of pursuing happiness and joy? I think not.
I am lucky to be doing a job I largely enjoy but I’ve had complex moments in my career where I’ve wanted to step away and start afresh.
And then I would look over my shoulder and see four mouths that needed feeding and bills that needed paying and I ploughed on.
I think we all agree that if you, Harry, weren’t from the Windsor Estate but were, instead, sitting on a council estate, those audacious words would not have come out of your egocentric, privileged mouth.
Foolish to Bey-lieve ‘elegance’ tips
TALKING of jobs, some random woman, Anna Bey, has labelled herself an “elegance coach” and is dishing out unwanted advice which is falling on very deaf ears in my house.
Apparently, if you follow her instructions, which I seem incapable of doing, they will help you live a feminine lifestyle in the hope of attracting an affluent partner.
Well, that’s me buggered, then. But then I’ve never fancied a bloke with money anyway.
Here are some of her tips to picking up a man by showing off the very best and most elegant you:
1. Classy ladies should avoid oversharing and indulging certain things.
Firstly, I ain’t no lady. I love oversharing. I give of myself and if it’s too much, I would apologise, but I won’t. After all, I am never not enough.
2. Classy ladies should not repeat rumours.
You have got to be kidding? Do you have any idea how dull my life would be without a bit of goss. I want to know it ALL. And while you can trust me, know I’m all ears.
3. Classy ladies should not show off about good deeds.
Fair point. But if I don’t mention the number of toilet rolls I’ve changed and the amount of dirty laundry I’ve picked up off the floor, who is going to pat me on the back?
4. Classy ladies should not discuss their future plans or exchange controversial opinions.
Oh, you haven’t met me yet, have you? I will not always edit what comes out of my mouth. A woman without an opinion is known as a doormat. I ain’t one of them.
5. Classy ladies do not reveal intimate details of their love life.
Oops. It might be a bit late for that. I’m a Swede. We discuss anything and everything. We are absolute filth.
SICK OF ANTIVAX BRIGADE
CHRISTMAS just wouldn’t be Christmas without arguing, would it?
What will dominate much of this year’s disputes will doubtless be about whether to have unvaxed people in our homes. If, God willing, BoJo and his fellow No10 ravers actually let us spend time together.
I surround myself with sensible people. All my close friends and family have done their bit for society and against Covid.
They have duly rolled up their sleeves when required, have tested regularly and have isolated or quarantined when asked to do so.
I’m utterly fed up with the anti-vax squad. Many I’ve come across are the younger generation. They’re conspiracy theorists.
They believe it’s all a myth or a lie and that we’re being controlled. Fine. They’re entitled to their opinions.
But I’m afraid if you’re quite happy for the rest of us to have the vaccine – which, I might add, we don’t just do for the good of ourselves, we do it to protect others – then you shouldn’t be taking advantage of the tentative freedoms we are being afforded. No matter how miserly.
If someone hasn’t been vaxed and wants to come to my house over Christmas when I have others here, you will not be crossing my threshold.
TAX PLAN ON NEEDY
THE Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is renewing threats to introduce a charge of £33 for Home Counties commuters travelling into the capital.
There is already a Congestion Charge, which I don’t object to. An Ultra Low Emission Zone charge – good thinking. Low Emission Zone – fair enough.
But now, potentially, a Greater London Boundary charge, basically a levy on those entering from outer boroughs.
I mainly travel into London for work and it is normally by car. It doesn’t happen often and I could potentially bear the new charge.
But what about all the people with proper, real and very important jobs, like those in the emergency services, the very people who sustain us but who do not earn enough.
How on earth would they be expected to carry the burden of such a tax?
Not everyone has access to reliable public transport. Not everyone can travel when the trains do run.
If public transport in this country was half decent, I could be converted. But I am currently more likely to travel to London by donkey than a train.
