The Royal scandal we are witnessing is one of almost incomprehensible bad manners and missed opportunity

I’m afraid we are in Mandy Rice-Davis territory with Prince William’s denial that the Royal Family is racist – he would say that wouldn’t he? We live in a dysfunctional and mendacious society, not least at the top. Statements by public figures are almost invariably lies or at best economical with the actualité. Add to that the fact that racism is on a spectrum from casual and infrequent at one end to institutional at the other. Where the Royal Family is on that spectrum, and if it’s on it at all, isn’t a provable fact, it’s an opinion.

To wonder what skin colour the child of a mixed race marriage will be doesn’t strike me as racist per se. I’m sure the parents do it routinely. Though how that wonderment is expressed could surely be. The fact that the firm hasn’t come clean about Harry’s allegation strikes me as suspicious suggesting that the remark went further than just innocent speculation.

The Royal Family is elitist and has a long record of snobbery and personal dysfunctionality. Three of the Queen’s children have been divorced. The heir to the throne was a calculating and uncaring adulterer. His first wife was marginalised and treated in an inconsiderate way and her mental health suffered – thirty years on that pattern has repeated itself.

The scandal we are witnessing is one of almost incomprehensible bad manners and missed opportunity. In most families there is a challenge to welcome and embrace a new member – especially if they are different. Meghan is different in almost every way. The opportunity to turn those differences into positives was there to be grabbed. Not to find this intelligent and impressive and talented woman a proper Royal role is not just sub-optimum it was wounding to her.