Sun Haz Arrival Exclusive ISN’T

While the BBC learns the hard way that there are limits to the amount of Royal mourning viewers are prepared to stomach - the Corporation has been inundated with complaints about the wall-to-wall fawning over Phil The Greek’s passing - our free and fearless press has decided that their own readers want even more of it.

This is especially true when the opportunity presents itself to combine the grovelling with attacks on Haz and Megs for their heinous crime of talking to Oprah Winfrey, while not giving exclusives to the tabs and, indeed, hitting them with a series of lawsuits.

It had occurred to those who scrabble around the dunghill that is Grubstreet that, with Phil having his send-off next Saturday, Harry would be arriving imminently so he could go through the obligatory quarantine. Following this maybe not so brilliant deduction, the Murdoch Sun declared an “Exclusive”. Although it turned out not to be.

The front page of “The People’s Paper” (yeah, right) proclaimed “Exclusive … Prince Is Back …Arrives in UK ahead of Duke’s funeral … DASH HARRY”. The allusion to a character played back in the 1950s by the late George Cole will soar over the heads of most Sun readers, showing just how out of touch “The People’s Paper” really is.

So what’s the “Exclusive”? “PRINCE Harry flew into Britain yesterday for the funeral of his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh … It is the first time he has been in Britain since Megxit - and Harry quarantined immediately so that he can bid farewell to Prince Philip on Saturday”. Then we get the quote from “an insider”, most likely made up by the Sun.

So how “Exclusive” is the Sun story? Well, not very exclusive at all, as one glance at the front page of the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph shows. “Prince Harry is understood to have arrived in Britain from California yesterday in order to attend the funeral . His attendance at the service on Saturday will mark his first public appearance in the UK since stepping down as a working Royal”. The Daily Mail also had the story.

The inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker, as well as teasing a 1947 front page that never was - the use of colour was around four decades away in the future, and the Mail would never have used that size of banner headline in those days - have told readers “Harry flies in for funeral without Meghan … As Prince Harry arrived back in the UK - he will now go into quarantine ahead of Saturday’s funeral”.

And as the Mail had the news, so free sheet Metro, another Associated Newspapers title, had it too. “Prince Harry - whose TV interview with wife Meghan shook the Royals only last month - was said to have arrived back in the UK yesterday lunchtime. He is due to be reunited with brother Prince William as they walk behind their grandfather’s coffin”.

Heck, even the Daily Star gives Haz a front page mention. In any case, all that would be needed was for someone to check who boarded UK-bound flights at LAX. That would give them the best part of ten hours to check it out and get a story written. Which means the hacks at the Sun almost certainly did not have an exclusive on the news.

The Sun must be in a seriously desperate state right now. Just rejoice at that news.

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