Accusations of racism within the Royal Family continue to cause shockwaves, spurred by the latest book by Omid Scobie which claims two royals, who have now been named, expressed concerns over the colour of Prince Archie’s skin.
Royal commentator Michael Cole joined Cameron Walker and Pip Tomson on Britain’s Newsroom to discuss the Royal Family’s next course of action.
Michael began: “The king, of course, is doing his thing. We just saw… his speech, and of course he went on his private plane. At least he didn't take his Bentley with him, as he used to do in the old days when people were less sensitive about issues of the environment and climate change!
“The thing is, in this country, the law is administered in the name of the monarch. It's R vs Smith or R vs Cole or whoever the defendant is. Rex against the defendant.
Royal commentator Michael appeared on Britain's Newsroom to outline the issue the Royal Family faces dealing with allegations from Omid Scobie's royal biography
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“And I think it's inconceivable that His Majesty could go into one of the Royal Courts of Justice and sue for libel or anything else in a case argued by King's Council before one of His Majesty's justices. It would be very, very difficult.
“And I can never think any member of the royal family suing for libel. It's always been their mantra: never complain, never explain.
As an image of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle appeared on screen, Cole continued: “And here we see the two people who indeed are not mentioned in in unfavourable terms. Every other single member of the royal family seems to be castigated to a great extreme extent, including Prince William and his wife Catherine, Princess of Wales. So it's difficult to see what the royal family can do.
“In the past, Prince William did sue a French magazine that published pictures of his wife sunbathing topless, and he won that case.
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Michael Cole (left) and Omid Scobie (right)GB News / ITV“And of course, Prince Harry has more than one case against British newspaper groups in the British courts for invasion of privacy and other civil offences, which he alleges in those two cases are ongoing. And Cameron and I have been covering them quite extensively in the past, and I'm sure we will in the future.
“So apart from issuing a sort of statement along the lines of ‘other recollections may vary’, it's difficult to know how the royal family should respond. Traditionally they would say nothing. I think there's a strong case for keeping schtum on this occasion. Silence is golden.”
Cameron chimed in: “I mean it's understood, Michael, that Buckingham Palace are considering all options. But what they failed to be drawn in on was, you know, action against who?
“Is it Omid Scobie, the author of the book. Is it the Dutch publisher for publishing those two names or is it the well known television personality who first said those names on British television a couple of nights ago?”
Sources close to Meghan Markle have insisted the Duchess of Sussex never intended to publicly identify them and that no one in her camp leaked the information to Scobie.Reuters“Exactly,” said Michael. “In Holland, it was either an honest mistake, which is one thing, or it was a publicity stunt to sell more copies of this vituperative volume. We don't know.
“I think it would be quite unusual for the Royal Family to take action against the Dutch publisher and the translator of that, who’s come out and said very clearly that the names that we both now know, were in the text that she was asked to translate.
“It's very, very difficult to see what the royal family can do. I actually think if I were advising - that's not a possibility, of course - that it's much better to let honest commentators, parse this matter and come to their own conclusions. The British public are not fooled, they make their own decisions very, very clearly.
Finally Cole offered one potential source of help: “What would help immensely is this. The King's second son is sitting in California on his hilltop.
"He should come in now and distance himself from this poisonous book and make sure that he repudiates its content because it all revolves around him and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle.”