International Law

Prince Harry's phoney war

By John Hirst

The BBC 6 O' Clock News reported that Prince Harry has been in Afghanistan in the front line fighting the Taliban for 10 weeks. However, the photo opportunity showed the prince in a heavily fortified camp behind the lines sat behind a desk. He was also shown shooting a machine gun at nothing. And patrolling a deserted street which reminded me of a film set for a wild west movie.

Nicholas Witchell really should not claim that Prince Harry came under fire. At night he might be sat around a camp fire...

UPDATE: Credit to The Drudge for breaking the story. No credit for this line "Army chiefs have managed to keep the prince away from media". The media were there, they just subjected themselves to a self-imposed news blackout until such time as the Establishment were ready to release the news.

Some interesting comments over on My Telegraph blog. Link.

UPDATED UPDATE: While The Drudge is claiming "A world exclusive", this is not true as the story first broke on a blog in Australia back in January, and the day before The Drudge's so-called world exclusive it was mentioned in a German newspaper's diary column. Shouldn't Jon Snow really be saying thank God for our penal colony down under?

It emerged on Questiontime that a BBC documentary film crew has been with the prince since he went to Afghanistan. And, the prince has stated that he is now a normal soldier. Which other normal soldier would be allowed to take a BBC documentary film crew to war with him? Harry remains a coward. Gorgeous George Galloway accused the BBC of colluding in the war effort. Meanwhile, Newsnight thought Marks and Sparks ripping off its customers by charging 5p for every plastic bag was the big story of the day. Harry came a poor third billing.

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on February 28, 2008 (boomark / email).