I agree with Jon Sopel that in the long run, far from playing a blinder, the Royal Family have done themselves absolutely no favours by having this dispute play out in public. They should never have let it get this far. Harry is never going to disappear in a cloud of smoke however much they might want him to. This rivalry between the brothers could potentially rumble on for years! Just pick up the phone and speak to one another like normal people fhs!
As Sopel said, all of this rivalry between different factions, speaks of a family who loathe one another frankly and by all accounts the antipathy between Charles and William is considerable too. It’s not just the relationship with Harry that has broken down.
And once the furore in the press has died down, BP have caused a big stir for nothing because they have only re-stated the Sandringham agreement that was never written down or signed, and Harry, who never agreed to it, is still factually a Prince and can still visit charities as a private person. And the antipathy rankles on.
Whoever you think is to blame, it’s not a good look from the Head of State who is meant to be fulfilling a professional role and the positive things that they and other members of the RF are doing are being overshadowed by this division which plays in to the hands of the press, over and over again.
These publicly warring factions are also playing in to the hands of Republicans bc they highlight the downsides of having a hereditary monarchy and a royal family instead of an elected head of state.
If we are going to have a royal family then they need to keep their disputes to themselves and present a united, professional front. But atm we have the eighth in line to the throne arrested by the police for potentially criminal charges and the fifth in line exposing the toxicity of it all!
This is not what the taxpayers expect when they collectively hand over their £132 million a year to keep the institution running.