Drama queens: the return of Meghan and Harry

We’ve all spent months bracing ourselves for what our leaders assure us will be a dreadful winter. As the weather turns, we can look forward to ruinous energy bills, runaway inflation, collapsing health services, strikes, blackouts, more strikes, violent crime, and perhaps even – why not? – a nuclear war with Russia.

As if that weren’t bad enough, Meghan and Harry are back, wafting over all the way from Montecito, California on billowy clouds of bonkers publicity, self-pity and self-help mumbo-jumbo.

On Monday, as Britain announces a new prime minister, Meghan and Harry will attend a ‘One Young World’ summit for youth leaders in Manchester, where Meghan will deliver the keynote address. They will also meet ‘a group of summit delegates doing outstanding work on gender equality’. The couple will then head to Düsseldorf for a ceremony for the Invictus Games, the international sporting event that Harry founded for injured veterans, before returning to London for the ‘WellChild Awards’ next Thursday.

That itinerary sounds almost too simple: young royals doing what royals do, meeting, greeting and applauding charitable endeavours. Establishment types might dare to hope that Meghan and Harry will end up not attracting too much attention, especially since Britain might be distracted by the news on Downing Street.

Things are never normal or low-key when it comes to Meghan and Harry, however. The couple are widely expected to bring a Netflix camera crew over with them, as well as their own substantial media team. Wherever they go, drama is sure to follow.

There’s the bubbling row between Harry and the Home Office over the provision of security for his family in the UK, for starters. The couple are expected to stay in Frogmore Cottage in Windsor on the Crown Estate, just a short walk from William and Kate’s new home, Adelaide Cottage.