AMANDA PLATELL: Helicopters, hot air… and hypocrisy of Prince Harry

The bewildered boy who walked behind the coffin of his mother, Princess Diana, became a man in our eyes when we learned he had been secretly embedded in Helmand Province in 2008.

Prince Harry later did a second tour of duty in Afghanistan as a co-pilot in an Apache helicopter, a role in which he distinguished himself. How ironic, then, that it was a helicopter this week that brought him crashing to earth.

Just two days before Harry made his impassioned speech to 12,000 children, urging them to act on climate change, he took a private helicopter from London to Birmingham for two brief official engagements.

Prince Harry makes his early morning pre-flight checks at Camp Bastion southern Afghanistan, where he served as an Apache Helicopter Pilot/Gunner with 662 Sqd Army Air Corps

True, he saved himself half an hour in travelling time. But the flight cost around £6,000 and a massive carbon footprint, whereas he could have got a first-class train ticket for £34.

And don’t forget that, despite the fact he implored the children to save the planet, his wife Meghan happily flew in a private jet last month to New York for a £300,000 baby shower party — even though she presents herself as a fervent anti-poverty campaigner.

It’s all very well for Harry and Meghan to embark on a preachy crusade, telling people to set high ethical standards and save the world from climate change and poverty, but nothing corrodes the credibility of a Royal faster than a ‘do as I say, don’t do as I do’ mentality. 

It’s the sense of entitlement and privilege that is so ill-judged. Even Harry’s uncle, Air Miles Andy, who’s been vilified for his love of jets and helicopters, has the sense never to tell us how to behave.

Prince Harry, pictured, served with 662 Sqd Army Air Corps from September 2012 for four months until January 2013

Prince Harry, pictured, served with 662 Sqd Army Air Corps from September 2012 for four months until January 2013

By doing so, Harry risks comparison with eco-warriors such as Bono and Leonardo DiCaprio, who cross the world in private jets as they lecture us about climate change.

Harry should not be embracing the New Age nonsense of California. He’d do better to seek inspiration from the people of the Cotswolds, or Coventry, Cumbria, or Cornwall.

Victoria’s Secret model Jasmine Tookes never diets and instead scoffs her favourite foods in moderation. Which probably means one chicken McNugget and two fries — that’s how the gorgeous gorge, dahling. 

Harry should model himself not on the likes of George Clooney, but someone like George VI, his great-grandfather, a reluctant monarch who overcame a crippling speech impediment out of a sense of duty to his people.

Harry has already done wonderful things — championing the HIV Aids charity Sentebale, crusading against landmines, putting together the Invictus Games for injured servicemen and women.

But his decision to lecture us about the world without practising what he preaches is a grave error. We want the old Harry back — we loved him the way he was.

Since Michael Jackson died ten years ago, his estate has coined £1.6 billion.

Dad who’s a hero… to his son 

Lance Corporal Brian Wood's son dressed up as him for World Book Day

Lance Corporal Brian Wood’s son dressed up as him for World Book Day

Iraq war hero Lance Corporal Brian Wood this week talked about his book — serialised in the Mail — and how the now disgraced human rights lawyer Phil Shiner falsely accused him of abusing locals.

Despite being acquitted of all charges and winning the Military Cross, he said the investigation — nine years after his tour — made him worry he’d brought disgrace on his two sons.

On Thursday, World Book Day, his youngest son, Charlie, nine, went into school wearing combats.

When Brian asked him which book hero he was dressed as, Charlie said: ‘You, Dad.’

In the documentary Leaving Neverland, James Safechuck and Wade Robson claim they were sexually abused by the star. 

His brothers and nephew Taj say it’s lies, motivated by money as the two ‘victims’ are suing the family estate.

Detractors claim the Jackson clan is trying to protect the most lucrative posthumous fortune in music. Jacko was whacko — but the other tawdry element in this shocking saga is pure greed.

It’s tragic enough that we now have the fragrant Fiona Bruce presenting what was once the BBC’s most serious political TV forum under David Dimbleby — Question Time. 

Now there’s a race to find the female to replace Jonathan Dimbleby on Any Questions.

Because it’s a dead cert they’ll insist on a woman. After all, to celebrate International Women’s Day, BBC Radio Newcastle banned male presenters and callers. A token gesture — and sexist to boot — but it’s the future for female-obsessed Auntie.

In her usual understated manner, the Duchess of Cornwall’s advice on International Women’s Day was: ‘Women need to say: “I’ve got one life, I should use it for the best possible purpose”, whatever each woman herself defines that to be.’ Sage advice from a woman who, whatever her detractors may think, was always true to herself and her Prince.

Steve Coogan’s TV return as Alan Partridge has been a spectacular flop, losing 40 per cent of its audience in one week. 

The original mock chat show’s title, Knowing Me, Knowing You, was taken from an Abba hit. Perhaps Coogan should have looked at the next line of lyrics for a premonition: ‘We just have to face it, this time we’re through.’

I once dubbed her ‘Fern the Fibber’ after she claimed her dramatic weight loss was due to sensible diet and exercise when in fact she’d had a gastric band fitted.

Yet now I feel great empathy with Fern Britton, as she admits she hit the booze after her mother died. She says she just wanted to ‘sit and drink gin and go to bed and that’s what I did’.

Thanks for the honesty Fern, and a word of sisterly advice from one who’s going through that, too: try to stay positive, spend time with loved ones and share the good memories of your beloved mum. That’s the tonic you need.

British actress Charlotte Kirk has exploded another Hollywood scandal. She allegedly consented to sex with Warner Bros executive Kevin Tsujihara on the understanding he would secure her bigger movie roles.

When he failed to do so, she messaged him: ‘When we were in that motel having sex u said u would help me and when u just ignore me… it makes me feel used.’

She may have felt hard done by, but she’s hardly a poster girl for the genuine #MeToo victims.

British actress Charlotte Kirk, pictured, has exploded another Hollywood scandal. She allegedly consented to sex with Warner Bros executive Kevin Tsujihara on the understanding he would secure her bigger movie roles

British actress Charlotte Kirk, pictured, has exploded another Hollywood scandal. She allegedly consented to sex with Warner Bros executive Kevin Tsujihara on the understanding he would secure her bigger movie roles

How dignified of Labour’s official Jewish affiliate, the Jewish Labour Movement, to decide not to quit the party but continue to fight endemic anti-Semitism from within.

The JLM has been part of the Labour movement since 1920 and will no doubt long outlive this current crop of vicious anti-Semites and their apologist-in-chief, Jeremy Corbyn.

Social media celebrity Kylie Jenner, 21, is the world’s youngest self-made billionaire

Social media celebrity Kylie Jenner, 21, is the world’s youngest self-made billionaire

The resignation of Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley is demanded after she said deaths caused by British security forces during the Troubles were ‘not crimes’, meaning soldiers should not be prosecuted 50 years on as they were acting under orders.

How ironic that, when a politician says what most Britons are thinking, the chatterati call for her head — without trial.

Social media celebrity Kylie Jenner is the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, aged 21.

‘I wake up every morning with the worst anxiety,’ she says. ‘My worst fear is finding something bad about me on the internet.’

The youngest daughter of the Kardashian dynasty, she admits to being single, sad and fears she’s ‘lost a lot of herself’ having had her entire childhood from the age of ten streamed on Twitter.

A billion in the bank, millions of followers . . . and yet she’s still missing the gloss in her life.

An NHS trial in Scotland and Tyneside concluded that if those with type 2 diabetes — usually very fat people — cut out the deep-fried Mars bars and reduce their calorie intake from around 3,000 to 850 a day, they lose weight and reverse the effects of this crippling disease. 

And it took an army of health experts and dietitians to prove that! 

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