{"id":1181489,"date":"2026-09-02T00:19:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T00:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1181489\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T00:19:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T00:19:21","slug":"sorry-the-telegraph-but-meghan-isnt-britains-biggest-critic-thats-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1181489\/","title":{"rendered":"Sorry, the Telegraph, but Meghan isn\u2019t Britain\u2019s biggest critic – that\u2019s you"},"content":{"rendered":"

On August 20, the Telegraph ran a story under the headline<\/a> \u201cAll the times Harry and Meghan criticised Britain\u201d. The incidents cited included expressions of such unreasonable and unhinged wokery as the interview in which Meghan \u2013 it is mainly Meghan whose criticisms were foregrounded \u2013 had spoken out about racism in British history; her complaints about the time Princess Michael of Kent had shown up to Christmas lunch wearing a \u201cblackamoor\u201d brooch featuring a racist caricature of an African; and the way said she\u2019d been told that British tabloids \u201cwill destroy your life\u201d. (How anyone could have given her that impression remains a mystery.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time of writing, the story has 1,151 comments, which I am quite simply refusing to read.<\/p>\n

Something else the Sussexes criticised is the British \u201cstiff upper lip\u201d: the national determination to repress emotion. This is clearly not something much in evidence at the Telegraph these days, however. Here are just some of the aspects of Britain about which that newspaper has recently found itself going funny colours in fury.<\/p>\n

Its NHS:<\/strong> \u201cThe NHS won\u2019t stop killing people, and nobody seems to care\u201d, David Frost, June 26; \u201cI\u2019m a doctor and I don\u2019t trust the NHS to deliver babies\u201d, Katie Musgrave, August 28.<\/p>\n

Its BBC: <\/strong>\u201cThe BBC will come to regret its bizarre obsession with drag queens\u201d, Michael Deacon, August 15; \u201cYour licence fee is now paying for competitive sand-castle building\u201d, an attack on a beloved national institution disguised as review of what sounds like a delightful new Bake Off\u2013 style game show format written by Benji Wilson, August 17.<\/p>\n

Its education system:<\/strong> \u201cEnglish texts \u2019dumbed down\u2019 for A-level students\u201d, August 29; although criticism of state schools seems to be largely via omission as it rarely mentions their existence, so most attacks are instead focused on\u2026<\/p>\n

its universities:<\/strong> \u201cBritain\u2019s bloated university system is a drain on the economy\u201d, Roger Bootle, August 24; \u201cGove: Cambridge peddles \u2019toxic nonsense\u2019\u201d, August 27; \u201cIf universities don\u2019t change, don\u2019t bother going\u201d, Annabel Denham, January 27.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Its prime minister.<\/strong> \u201cBurnham has declared war on the South. Your homes and savings are no longer safe\u201d, Allister Heath, July 1; \u201cBurnham is a financial arsonist who will torch the public purse\u201d, also Allister Heath (honestly, he\u2019s terrific value),\u00a0 July 22.<\/p>\n

His Cabinet:<\/strong> \u201cEd Miliband is the most tragic kind of overgrown student politician\u201d, Harry Mount, August 21, \u201cLucy Powell may be an even worse Education Secretary than Phillipson\u201d, Stephen Pollard, also August 21; \u201cJohn Healey is a dangerous fraud\u201d, Stephen Daisley, August 28.<\/p>\n

Its people:<\/strong> \u201cMiddlesbrough shows in microcosm our young men\u2019s descent into delinquency\u201d, Camilla Tominey, August 28; \u201cHalf of young people would never fight for Britain\u201d, April 22; \u201cThe white working class may still be its own greatest enemy\u201d, Janet Daley, July 4.<\/p>\n

Their mental health:<\/strong> \u201cAntidepressant use in Britain is surging, and it\u2019s not OK\u201d, James Kirkup, August 28; \u201cNHS pays private clinics \u00a33k per ADHD diagnosis\u201d, news story, same day.<\/p>\n

The entire north.<\/strong> \u201cWelcome to our Andy\u2019s coronation in the Rovers Return \u2013 with Big Ange behind the bar\u201d, July 1 \u2013 a baffling column in which, as packing material for complaints that it\u2019s absurd it is for a prime minister to care about boring things like buses, Allison Pearson strings together a string of northern cliches (\u201cdead proud\u201d, \u201chas he \u2019eck as like\u201d, \u201cLancashire hotpot and a gravy fountain\u201d) seemingly calculated to show the paper\u2019s disdain towards anyone who has the impudence to appear in public with a northern accent.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of these headlines, you may notice, have been published since the start of July. Hypercritical headlines often don\u2019t reflect the more nuanced argument beneath them, of course \u2013 but nonetheless, the Telegraph chose to publish those headlines. And more to the point, it started it.<\/p>\n

A liberal might suggest that being able to criticise your country is not merely legitimate, but a duty, a sign that you want it to overcome its flaws and live up to its ideals. But their coverage of the Sussexes makes clear that the editors of the Telegraph do not believe that to be true.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And so, we are forced to conclude that, by its own logic, the newspaper is now run by a bunch of traitors who loathe the government, people and institutions of their country far more than Meghan Markle at her most vicious could ever manage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On August 20, the Telegraph ran a story under the headline \u201cAll the times Harry and Meghan criticised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1181490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,2452,1144,519,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-1181489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-media","tag-northern-ireland","tag-royal-family","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117198584127195335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1181489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1181490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1181489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1181489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1181489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}