Poly said:
I'm sorry to sound harsh, but Harry's behaviour is, simply, inexcusable, in my opinion.
He is not the the only young man in the world who's been trained at Sandhurst and who has an onerous military obligation before him. In fact, more than one member of my family went to Sandhurst, so I know a little of what I say.
The prince should consider some alternative strategies in his civilian life, i.e.
1. He should spread his patronage more around the clubs, so that the pappas don't always expect him to be in the one place;
2. He should consider how it looks for any young man, even a very rich one, to spend hundreds of pounds on cocktails and thousands on champagne, when many of his grandmother's subjects are battling to pay their food and utility bills, i.e. he should become more discreet in his pleasures.
3. He should remember than nearly everyone these days has a phone with a camera. In fact, the photos of him in a nazi uniform was taken by a fellow guest at private party with a camera-phone.
I don't care about his being 'wild and woolly': young people often are and grow out of it. However, he is a royal prince. He's had a privileged upbringing and exemplary training and owes duty and honour to his grandmother, particularly, not to mention his grandmother's people. The future of the monarchy rests squarely on the shoulders of William and Harry and Harry should acknowledge this.
I wish Harry well: indeed I do. But he needs to start behaving like a responsible adult who's third in line to the throne, not some yahoo from the 'burbs.
I wish his mother were alive: she'd sort him out, quick smart!
It's your opinion and I respect it. However I don't agree with most of what you said.
1. Harry is an officer. And he has an off-duty time. Naturally he would wnat to hang out with his friends. Clubbing is normal of 20+ young man.
2. I don't remember him spending hundreds and thousands of pounds on champainge (at once). If you meant the totall amount of money spent on coctails, I think you would find that loads of young men (not only rich) spend about the same amount of money on clubbing and having fun with their friends.
3. I agree completely that he should be aware he can be 'spied' everywhere and he should be cautious about the people he trusts, or just hangs out with. If he were caught wearing a similar uniform, I'd call it irresponsible and it would be obvious he isn't learning from mistakes.
But he was pictured coming out of a nightclub, something all of us have done, without having to worry how we will look on the TV and in the newspapers.
It comes to this, as it had been stated in this thread earlier: if we want the Royals to be 'perfect', expect only model behaviour of them, then we should also be pepared for the fact that they will be 'less human', will behave themselves like 'real Royals' and forgive me if I am wrong, wasn't it something Royals were often accused of?
If we want them to be 'just like us', then take everything that comes with that, including awkward and embarassing situations, drunk nights, clubs, stupid decisions and eveything.
We can't get the best of the two. They
are humans after all.
As for Princess Diana, being able to sorting him out, the Princess is dead for nearly 10 years. We don't and can't know what she would or wouldn't do. Having landed herself into quite a few controversies as well and rooting for 'normal' life for her sons, I doubt she would interfere in her sons' leisure time-spending.
And thinking of Prince Charles as a very responsible and caring father, I doubt he wouldn't step in if the things were becomming dangeroous or worrying