Yesterday, King Charles made a surprise visit to Golders Green, a North London area with a large Jewish population, and an area which has seen a recent uptick in antisemitic violence in recent months. Charles got a great reception in Golders Green, with crowds gathering and clamoring to shake his hand. He made this appearance specifically to show solidarity with Britain’s Jewish community and to personally meet with Jewish community leaders.
Did this visit come at an interesting time, given that just hours beforehand, Prince Harry’s New Statesman essay had been published online? For sure. Harry wrote in the magazine about a Britain divided by antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes, and the need for multifaith tolerance and respect. The embrace of Britain’s vibrant multifaith society has been something King Charles has always promoted – on these issues, Harry is absolutely his father’s son. Even if there wasn’t direct coordination between Charles and Harry on these issues, the timing of everything has caused some royalist conspiracies. Especially given that, just a few weeks ago, Charles’s speech before the US Congress sounded like he had lifted sections from Prince Harry’s recent speeches and statements about Ukraine, NATO and Afghanistan. Some excerpts from The Royalist’s “The Evidence Suggesting King Charles is Secretly Backing Harry is Piling Up.”
Richard Eden of the Daily Mail was much ridiculed when he fist unveiled his “Project Thaw” narrative—the idea that the King is secretly engaged with a cabal of civil servants who are trying to ease Harry back into public life in the United Kingdom. But the co-ordinated messages now coming out of Harry’s office and the King’s office have taken this idea out of the realm of fact-free conspiracy theory.
Yesterday, at the state opening of Parliament, King Charles read out a speech which included a very specific pledge: “My government will take urgent action to tackle anti-semitism and ensure all communities are safe.” This morning, Prince Harry published a lengthy opinion piece in the New Statesman — a famously left-leaning British magazine — warning of the deeply troubling rise in anti-semitism in the United Kingdom. He referenced the Golders Green terrorist attack, and the murders at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester.
I looked at the New Statesman this morning and thought: typical Harry, stealing the thunder from Catherine while she’s off in Italy doing her event. Harry can’t let anyone breathe for 48 hours without getting stuck in. Then, at about half past twelve, something extraordinary happened.
King Charles appeared in Golders Green. He met Shloime Rand and Norman Shine, the two Jewish men who were stabbed in an anti-Semitic terror attack there on April 29th. He met the Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis. He met the Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer patrol who helped detain the attacker. He met the Hatzolah ambulance crew. He told a member of the public: “It’s a dangerous world, isn’t it?” And I’m sitting there thinking: hang on a second.
Two Windsors. Same day. Same issue. Exactly the same carefully calibrated tone. I went directly to the Sussex offices and asked them a simple question: was Harry’s New Statesman piece coordinated with the king’s office?
Don’t forget, we know that diary sharing happens between the king and Harry. That was the whole point of the meeting between Tobyn Andreae and Liam Maguire last summer, which was leaked to the Daily Mail. We all remember those photos of them on the terrace at a London club. We know they know what each other are doing in general terms. Team Sussex denied it. They said they never received an operational note about the king’s visit, that it was “coincidence.” I said: pretty big coincidence. They said the New Statesman went to print several days ago, though of course that wouldn’t rule out coordination.
Today’s coincidence prompted me to look again at Harry’s intervention on Ukraine, you know, the one that came just days before King Charles went to America, in which Harry made some very similar comments to what his father said in his joint address to Congress. I was told by sources after that speech that Harry and Charles were aligned on the issues, and that Harry was very gratified by what his father said in America. There wasn’t a suggestion of a secret alliance at the time. But that is what I now think is happening.
Tom Sykes then rants for like three more pages about how Charles is “weak” to secretly coordinate with “unpopular” Harry, but you get the idea, and that’s certainly the argument which will be made by Prince William’s defenders and supporters. But I have to say… I think there’s coordination between Charles and Harry these days, especially after they met in London last September. I also believe that the Starmer government is openly coordinating with Harry too, and the government seems to be using Harry as a canary in the coal mine, authorizing him to speak out on certain issues, perhaps to soften the field for Keir Starmer and King Charles to speak out as well. It seems like the government – if not the palace – has finally understood that Harry can still be extremely useful to them outside of the institution. Now, do I think that all of this means that Harry is “desperate” to come back to the UK? No. It just shows that he wants to help out and be a useful free agent, especially in areas where he’s aligned with his father and the British government.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
