Growing up in post-war central Liverpool, we were weaned on stories of ‘the war’. Everyone I knew had lost someone close or knew of someone who never came home.
The May blitz of 1941 left its mark on the city for years to come. In our house in Anfield, the gas masks still hung from nails on the cellar wall – just in case.
Remembrance Sunday is when we as a nation mourn and remember and, as Culture Secretary, I regarded hosting the event at the Cenotaph as the greatest honour of my political career.
This year, like every other year, the deeply moving ceremony and the procession of 10,000 Armed Forces veterans passed with exquisite precision in the presence of the King and Queen, and the Prince and Princess of Wales.
But it was another, far less grandiose event some 70 miles away that really caught my attention – Prince Harry’s surprise appearance at a local Remembrance ceremony in the small market town of Brackley in Northamptonshire.
How very different from a year ago when he and Meghan were criticised for attending a Kardashian party in LA on the same night that the Royal Family attended the poignant Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall!
On Sunday, Harry turned up apparently alone, dressed in a suit and tie rather than military splendour and wearing a poppy and his own service medals on his overcoat. He stood at the back of the crowd for the 45-minute ceremony.
He was there to pay his respects, and no doubt to remember the comrades he lost during his decade in the military which included two tours of Afghanistan. His commitment to veterans has never been in doubt, not least in the success of the Invictus Games, which he co-founded.
Prince Harry made a surprise appearance at a local Remembrance ceremony in the small market town of Brackley in Northamptonshire
Watching the video footage online, I noticed an early hint of tension in his expression. Was he worried about how he’d be received? He needn’t have been. Local people were welcoming and his relief was clear as he relaxed, at ease with the small crowd with whom he chatted freely.
Isn’t this the Harry we all once knew and now miss? The Harry who’s a great leveller and can speak to anyone about anything – not the Harry of recent years, burdened by grudges and spite, court battles and a perpetual sense of victimhood.
It is a fact of life that sometimes there are things said which cannot ever be unsaid, forgiven or even moved on from. Harry’s tawdry, point-scoring memoir Spare and that excruciating interview he and Meghan granted Oprah Winfrey mean he has forfeited his right to membership of The Firm. The King has made it clear: the Sussexes are private citizens, and there is no road back for them as working Royals.
I have been a harsh critic of the pair and remain so. But at Brackley, Harry gave us a hint of a hybrid role he could fill, one that neither the King nor William is able to by virtue of their roles as monarch and heir.
Harry has a natural ability to connect with people. He’s at his very best with soldiers, veterans, the elderly and children. Could Harry carve out a role for himself for the greater public good and prestige of the Royal Family without ever being seen as a rival to the working Royals? Public affection for Harry is still there and, I’d argue, will never diminish for the millions who loved his mother Diana and who wept when they saw him, a 12-year-old boy, walking behind her coffin.
During one of his many misadventures as a young man, I was among the first to defend him because I recognised he had qualities and potential for a valuable future role in our nation’s life.
On Sunday, I was reminded of that: with fewer grudges, and more smiles, a happier Harry can once again win the hearts of the British public and become the People’s Prince.
Nvidia affair is all too familiar
What on earth was Jensen Huang thinking?
The founder, CEO and president of US tech giant Nvidia has built one of the most successful companies on the planet and is renowned as a workaholic perfectionist who will accept nothing less than 100 per cent from his employees.
Yet now he finds himself at the centre of one of Silicon Valley’s biggest scandals after admitting to an affair with a suspected Chinese spy, Alice Huang.
On Sunday, he apologised publicly to his wife Lori and his two children, who both work at Nvidia. But of course, no one is interested in that.
What the tech world wants to know is what commercially sensitive information may have been leaked to Ms Huang as the company’s share price tumbles.
It’s a depressingly familiar story in business, in Westminster and beyond. Alpha males unable to resist temptation who will risk everything for sex. They believe that power, status and money make them immune to the consequences. Nor do they care how many people they hurt.
Huang may be lauded as a formidable businessman, but as a human being? Not so much.
The shirtless photo Gordon Ramsay posted online as he celebrated his 60th birthday
Gordon’s in shape at 60
Gordon Ramsay has celebrated his 60th birthday by posting a shirtless photograph of himself looking leaner and fitter than he did at 40.
Gone are the days when a man marked his 60th with a sports car, a hairpiece and an ill-advised wardrobe refresh. These days, it’s all calorie counting and the hours you put in at the gym.
He’s certainly got an incentive – his best mate is David Beckham and no one can deny his pecs appeal.
Maya Jama has announced that she is stepping down as host of Love Island after nine seasons. Well, who can blame her? After winning a legion of new fans on Celebrity Traitors and with an intriguing cameo in Netflix hit The Gentlemen, she has clearly moved on from downmarket reality TV and has her sights set on bigger things. Let’s hope the gamble pays off.
My Remembrance Day reflection
Remembrance Sunday is over for another year but for many of us November 11 is another day of solemnity and perhaps more personal reflection.
At 11am tomorrow, during the two-minute silence my family will remember my great uncle who fell in 1918 and, on my late husband’s side, his grandfather who lost his life at the Hindenburg Line, also in 1918.
They shall not grow old…
