Piers Morgan Uncensored - Piers Morgan Uncensored: Should everything stop for the Queen's funeral?

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

On today's episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored: Is it right that everything should stop for the Queen's funeral, and should politicians scrap party conference season and get on with fixing the country instead? Piers questions whether Harry should scrap his upcoming tell-all book whilst Tony Parsons criticises Oprah for leaving Harry and Meghan "completely unchallenged" during their infamous interview. Esther Krakue and Grace Blakeley clash over migrants crossing the Channel and what it means for the UK. Watch Piers Morgan Uncensored at 8pm on TalkTV on Sky 526, Virgin Media 627, Freeview 237 and Freesat 217. Listen on DAB+ and app.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tonight, I'm Pearz Morgan Unsensored. Her Majesty lies in state. Thousands lying to pay tributes to the late Queen off an emotional procession to Westminster Hall. From Royal Customs to a very real crisis, should our politicians scrap party conference season and get on with fixing the country? And how much is too much? Food banks, funerals, even medical treatments are all cancelled for the funeral on Monday. Is that right? Live from London, this is Pearce Morgan, Unlellan. Incensed. Good evening. Welcome to Piers Morgan Unsensored, another emotional day for the country. Another day of Britain doing what it does best. Pomp, pageantry, class, and remembrance for the greatest of all monarchs. I don't know about you, but I watched that procession of the coffin today with a lump in my throat. It was incredibly moving. And it really did show us at our best while celebrating one of the worst

moments that we've had to deal with as a nation. It felt like the world's been on pause, hasn't it, since the late Queen died? And quite rightly, the death of any head of the state, never mind one as beloved and enduring as she was, is a moment of history. We've all been living that history in real time with the respect and affection that this moment commands. But it was only eight days ago

that the new Prime Minister shook hands with her majesty and took charge of a country that, frankly, has been falling apart at the scenes. And as much as we've stitched ourselves together to get through this latest blow, there's an unholy mess waiting on the other side after Monday's funeral. I've got no issue with Parliament being suspended

for these days of national formal mourning. It's unfortunate they've just spent seven weeks on summer holiday in the worst cost of living crisis in memory. And frankly, it's utterly ridiculous that they're about to pack up for another 26 days so they can have their party conference season. For the uninitiated, party conferences are like

music festivals for political swats. They all crammed together in big sweaty halls, listening to pointless self-aggrandizing outpourings about why they're better than the other side. And then they all go and get blind drunk night after night after night. Is that what this country needs right now? The Conservatives have literally just spent six weeks in a rolling party conference to elect their new leader.

Enough of the chat. Our country is in crisis. After the funeral, they should get back to work. Well, joining me now as some columnist Tony Parsons, talk to your contributor Esther Cracker, and socialist also and commentator Grace Blakely. Well, okay, let's start with this, Grace. Blakely. I'd imagine you're a regular

attendee to the Labour Party conference, I'm unfortunately, yes. So you know that when I say it's just a great big jollia, but it's, why would we want to be seeing these scenes of our members of Parliament on the last night after night at parties when they should be dealing with this crisis?

I don't quite agree with you on that, Piers, because whilst it is true, that conference is often relatively fun, it is also part of the democratic process of the Labour Party and that is part of the democratic process in this country. I agree with you that it is reprehensible, that basically politics has been put on pause.

And I don't actually think that's right. I think that these politicians should be getting back to dealing with the cost of living crisis, the massive recession. What can't they do in Parliament that they're going to be doing at their conference season? Particularly the Labour Party conference, right? Because the Labour Party is supposed to be a democratic organisation where members can get involved, where unions can get involved and say, these are the issues that we're facing, put these policies into your manifesto.

That needs to happen because, quite frankly, the people at the top of all of these political parties aren't listening to anyone at the moment. All right, Esther, I just don't think they should be doing this. I've been to these party conferences many times. They are just an excuse for a good old jollia. But I don't think they should have even had the summer recess. No, yeah.

I think it's a big of being responsible from the beginning. The Tory leadership race for this time anyway. And I think that reflected very badly on the Conservative Party, but I also think it reflected badly on the other parties in Parliament because they didn't say, actually, we need to get back to work because this country's on its knees. I completely respect sort of the formal mourning period, But again, these conferences can wait.

They can wait until next summer or whenever. But now is not the time. We keep talking about, you know, we're going through this winter of discontent where people are going to have to choose between eating and heating. And you literally have these parties that are not going to be working for the next how many weeks. It's ridiculous.

What do you think of this? I don't, I can't object to the party conferences going here because I'm not sure who they are. I don't know if Kirstama supports the strikes or he doesn't support the strikes. I don't know if it's a new late. Labour Party or if it's just a Jeremy Corbyn Tribute Band. I don't really know if the Tories have recovered from Boris Johnson's Greta Thunberg

Tribute Act. You know, I mean, I really think it's important that the identities of these political parties are defined before the next general election. They might argue, well, that's why we have the party conference season to actually, you know, work out what it is. I don't think they've got time to be in this vanity project. Most of these party conferences, I would say 90% of the speeches are completely irrelevant. to the national interest.

A lot of it is young politicians want to make a name for themselves. The speaker, the leader make their big speeches. So what? I want to see them in Parliament thrashing out the way to save this country from what could be very, very quickly, the most serious financial crisis we've ever faced.

I think the idea that people are going to be choosing between heating and eating is kind of behind the curve, really. I think that there are going to be plenty of people that can't afford either. Well, they already are. You know, so I think... Do you think Liz Trust's policy on energy, for example?

It's a gigantic sum of money. She's committed to bailing people out with this cap on energy. Will it be enough? Is it the right thing to do? Are we creating a massive rod for our back? They should have kept the Brexit promise, which the great Govan Bojo Brexit promise was to scrap all the EU green tariffs,

scrap the VAT on energy bills. Well, they've already done that as part of this package, and it's not nearly enough. And then scrap more, scrap more, scrap all the... You can't get that way, you can't get there with just scrapping extra taxes. I mean, the issue here with this plan, and this is why Parliament needs to be in session

to scrutinise this plan, to scrutinise this legislation, because Liz Trust has effectively just said, let's give £150 billion to the energy companies, right? Particularly to the big energy companies, the fossil fuel producers, and cap people's energy bills at £2,500 a year. Fine with the cap, but it's not actually a cap. It's a massive subsidy to some of the biggest and most profitable corporations that we have. I don't understand.

I do not understand why she didn't do a windfall tax on the energy company. It's crazy. They shouldn't be making any profits. Even the windfall tax... Because the thing is, unless you're willing to tax these companies at 100%, which they won't do, it's completely unrealistic, the windfall taxes actually make up a very small... Well, then, so you ask them to contribute something.

The point is... Not that the state just gives the money, and they then give to shareholders. By the way, when the state gives money, what we're really doing is, we are going to have to pay this back. We're giving money to BP shareholders. But the thing is, this is actually the most... fiscally responsible thing to do at this critical moment. And the reason for that is, if you cap it, right,

if gas prices fall, the difference that the taxpayer actually has to pay is less. If you just say, we're going to give families £1,000 a month, you have to stick to that commitment for however long, regardless of what the market prices for gas are. So actually, if the price is for, we pay less. As a Brexit supporter, it seems to me I took a position that I've only remained. I wasn't completely sure. I found it was a very complex argument.

My gut feeling was I'd rather stay in Europe. And my issue is that we've had the pandemic, we've skewed every way of analyzing it, really. But as we've come out of that, as we get back into real life, the number of people who say to me, Brexit is causing me problems massively outweighs the number of people saying,

thank God for Brexit. It's really helped me in this way. At some point, Brexit has to work, doesn't it? Well, I think it's in the last chance saloon with this remainder Prime Minister, because for me it's a massive disappointment. For me, I feel the promise has been completely betrayed. Who do you blame for that? I blame

the politicians that sold us Brexit and didn't keep their promises. Boris Johnson? Yeah, Gove. And for me, the benefits have not been worth the pain that it's caused. You know, we have terrible relations with, you know, it's a ground war in Europe and we have terrible relations with France. It's insane.

It's absolutely... I thought what she said about a friend and foe. It was so stupid. So stupid. Grace, let me ask you. I mean, on Brexit, Labour's position under Kirstama has been, we won't try and reverse it. But is there going to be a moment? Not necessarily right now. But when we have a clearer run at analyzing whether Brexit is working,

if it demonstrably is against the national interest and we can't seem to make it work, is there an argument for Labor to be a little bit more aggressive and say, what I suspect a lot of the polls are moving to, which is actually maybe we should have another referendum on this? I mean, look, Brexit tore the Labour Party apart and it tore the Conservative Party apart in many ways. It tore the country apart.

And I think going back over it and trying to rehash the referendum vote is not a good idea. Because the thing about Brexit was that the actual vote said one thing. And after that, there was a process. The Brexit was always a process. It was never a fixed thing. That was in the hands of politicians. And it was up to them to try and manage that process in the national interest. They resolutely failed to do that, at least in part,

because of the massive divisions that there were within major political parties. And obviously, you know, the Remainers within the Labour Party basically brought down Corbyn's government, Corbyn's government, Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party. The problem is Liz Trusses Hard is not in Brexit. She voted Remain. So I just don't think she's going to be... I think she's an advocate for it.

I think she's got the zeal of a convert. I disagree. I think I think I think she is. I don't think she's very diplomatically sound. How can you possibly say that insult one of our greatest allies, France? I mean, this is someone who's... I want to move on. I want to move on to this.

I want to move on. I want to move on to the national anthem. I had a big problem with all the football being cancelled last weekend. I thought that was the right moment. I should have cancelled it this weekend. Well, if you're going to do it, it cancelled this weekend, but they didn't. And so now you've got a few games back on, a few games back on. Interestingly, they've announced now that at every Premier League game and league game, actually, here,

there's going to be, when they're played over the next few days, there will be a minute of silence. They'll then play the National Anthem. And then on the 70th minute, there will be applause, which I think is a great thing for football fans to be able to have there. their chance to pay tribute. But interestingly, UEFA, who run, of course, the Champions League and the UEFA leagues,

they have said you cannot play the national anthem. And what's been quite interesting is people have decided to take on UEFA. So tonight, Rangers were playing Napoli, and this happened. Now that is the correct response to UEFA, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. I think future historians will look back at this week and see it as the week that Queen Elizabeth, the second secured the union.

I think increasingly, I think that she knew what she was doing when she went up to Balmoral and she stayed at Balmoral. And the first few days were a completely Scottish experience. If you're Nicholas Surgeon, you would have been watching the last week, not publicly saying this, but thinking to yourself, this has put back, I think, the calls of Scottish independence. I don't think the historians will look back as this on the week that the union was saved.

I think historians will look back on this week as the union was saved. I think historians will look back on this week as the week that free speech started to die in this country. Because, you know, we're on your show, Piers. This is Piers Morgan uncensored. And at the moment, there is massive censorship happening in this country with people being arrested. The holding... People are being arrested. When you were you're saying of a holding time.

When you were supposed to... I was not supposed to come in yesterday. You would have known I have led a tirade against this censorship. Good. I'm glad to hear it. Because I do... I'm sorry. Conservatives have been complaining about being... censored for years.

Yeah, exactly. And now suddenly when it's not there, when it's not a question of, oh, can we say mean things about people? It's like, can people... Hang on. Who do you think he disagrees with it about that? I don't know.

Nobody's having their doors kicked down at 3 o'clock in the morning. You know, a few, you know, spotty jobs get collared because they're sharing of Prince. I mean... No, no, hang on. I interviewed a guy, I think it was on Monday night. and he had been arrested because he passed one of the scenes

of what they do with the new king, the proclamation. He passed it and he shouted out who elected him. And for that, he got arrested. Well, I tell you, I was a punk during the Silver Jubilee and you risked getting a kicking every time you stepped out of the house.

I have a punkers risked getting a kick in anyway. It's not the point of thing. So things are much more civilized. So things are much more civilized. I think, you know, if you share someone when they're walking behind their mother's coffin, you know, part of the world I come from, you know, you're lucky to keep your front teeth, never mind getting arrested. It's an interesting point.

Even if that person is marching in a public display of the royal family who has just paid a woman who he claims he never met $10 million to make a court case go away. Imagine if he had now. It'd be really expensive. But my point being, this is probably the most of the most. serious allegation against the senior royal in my lifetime. He paid all these millions to a woman he claims he didn't

meet who made serious allegations a sexual assault against him. And there he is marching in a very public way. Is it actually that outrageous that some members of the public were really offended by Andrew's presence there? I think that... Notwithstanding, he's... I saw the footage of the guy,

and I just think that there's... Keep it in proportion. The guy wouldn't stop. He kept on... You know, it's Scotland is around working-class Scots. I'm afraid if he just didn't know how to make his protest, make it in an appropriate manner, he just thought that the world should hear

his opinion, you know, as a child of social media. I sort of agree with Gracie. Oh my God. I know. What's happening? Let's turn upside out. Everything's changed this week, right? The reason I say that is I do think that if you actually start to suppress people's opposition to the idea of a monarchy,

in any form they want to express their protest, if you do that, I think you actually, you hasten the beginning of the end of the monarchy. But you can't just let, when that coffin is walking down the mall or white hole, you can't just let some. But these people weren't approaching that. Tony, here's the thing.

Unfortunately, actually I think you can. I think the thing about free speech, I think it was Churchill, is that, you know, some people think that free speech is whatever they think. And if you disagree with them, it's an outrage. The point about free speech is actually that you tolerate people being very distasteful, if not offensive. And the moment you start to chip away at that,

I get all that. I get all that, but it's just a really naive middle-class supposition to think that you can just stand in a crowd, you can offend all the people around you, and there'll be no reaction. There'll be no reaction. There's a difference between there being a reaction. You can have a reaction from other people.

Other people could have their say. An organised police state response to you voicing your protest. There was a man who literally said, I have a blank piece of paper here to a policeman. If I was to write, you know, F the monarchy on this, would you arrest me? And he said, yes. That is scary.

I want to move on to a moment today where Sharon Osborne was out meeting people who were queuing to come and pay their respects to the queen. And Sharon, I think you took a bit of a turn, the interview she had with the members of the British public. Take a look. I've just really like to talk. I love these morgue and I'm such a fan. Our Pils. Oh, don't say that. All right.

Send him your love. Go on. Am I going to be live? I'm going to be on later. You'll be on. Later. I love you. I love everything you stand for. You should be Prime Minister.

I love you. We can't let these crazy people... It just goes to show what I've always said. The British public have sound judgment about these things. Would you like to see the Prime Minister Grace? Unfortunately, Piz. I don't think that that would be my ideal democratic testimony. We actually agree with more things than you realise.

I want to play a clip that went viral today. It's actually, it turns out, it's quite an old clip. but it just made me laugh. This is a bunch of vegans marching into a supermarket to throw roses on meat. Roses, real roses, onto slant of meat,

apparently in honour, as an honour for the fact that the animals involved had lost their lives. Here's my question, which is they are murdering roses to do that. Oh, for God's sake.

They are ripping roses out of the ground, ending their lives. They are murdering living roses. Do you go and do that? Outrageous. Who thinks are the roses in this?

Do you? I mean, for God so, I'm not even a vegan, and that's a silly argument. Quick question before I let you go, because we're going to throw you at a minute for someone who likes the royal family. Again, I haven't even mentioned that yet. Republican.

The issue of migrants is not going to go away. We've had record numbers coming over the channel. Everyone agrees this can't go on like this. You can't have the numbers just exponentially rising. Everyone thinks it's horrifying and dangerous, especially for the young people that are coming over as well. What do we do about this? The Rwanda plan seems to me completely, for one of a better phrase, dead in the water. The Rwanda is the dumbest idea. It's the dumbest idea of all time. It's never going to work. It's wrong on every level. It's never going to work legally, morally. But people are coming from France. And the idea, you know,

One of the things that I regret about Brexit is that there's a ground war in Europe and we're acting inside the French, our enemies. It's absolutely insane. One of the best speeches about the death of the queen was made by Macron. And I share the standard... France, obviously.

The standard view of Macron as someone who smeared the Oxford Astroshenica vaccine, totally unforgivable. We gave a beautiful, generous speech. A country that sensibly gone rid of their monarchy several hundred years. Okay, so what do we... What do we do about the sheer volume of people trying to get into the country?

You know, it's illegal, but I believe in asylum. I believe in the refugee system. But clearly, our system is not working. You can't just have an open... No, but the only moral solution is that you smash the gangs. You smash the gangs. I mean, again, this has always brought out as a solution, and it's impossible because you're basically you're arguing to fight ground wars in our country.

It has to be possible. You need to have, again, a sensible system. asylum for people who need to come here because, let's say... We've tried everything. What is that sensible system? We have tried everything. Because they're young, able-bodied men getting ahead of the key in front of women. What we're seeing right now in terms of the energy crisis, the food crisis, this is just the beginning of a global crisis associated with climate breakdown that is going to see millions of people forced to move away from their homes.

We need to come up with a solution that allows people to move when they need to move. Basically, we need to work together as countries that are on the receiving end of migrants. By the way, the vast majority of migrants are in countries in the global south, next to countries that have support. What is this solution? It means, you know, we need to basically come up with a way of sharing out the burden of hosting. And actually, it's not even often a burden, because let's be real, we are running out of workers for the NHS, for social care. And if we call immigration, then there is just not going to be anyone coming in here.

Have you spared a thought to what would social cohesion would look like if you have all these people from different, part of the world just get crashing the way to the UK. We are already a diverse and not ethnic ethnic country and having a stable process of managed migration that allows people to come over here. We don't have a stable process. We have tens of thousands of people coming over a little d. Do you think if the queen was you know an old, a mother of someone, just a normal person who would be looking after her? It would be a Filipino nurse. It would be a nurse from somewhere in Eastern Europe. Do you think the people coming over who do you really mean? Who come here perfectly legally?

No, exactly. And that's why we need to have a managed system. We're not talking about the legal process of immigration, which in which it's a country. We're talking about the whole thing. We're talking about people who don't come here through the legal process. Well, exactly. We're talking about the whole thing together. Are you under the impression that these people, there's always been the case? Are you under the impression that these people coming in dinghies are doctors, engineers and people who can work for the NHS? Some of them actually are. When you come from... Is that why they're coming illegally?

Well, yes, because they've often been, you know, booted out of their country. They've been forced to leave. That is ridiculous. It's completely. That is ridiculous. I think we should always leave Grace Blakely with someone calling her ridiculous. So I'm glad it was you, Esther. Grace, we're going to lose you because you don't want to talk about it and do with the rules. You don't care.

I don't mind talking about it. I just, I don't care. And also, I'm a Republican. I think that there should be the point at which the monarchy ends. All right. Well, I think, exactly. We've called you ridiculous now. We're building you off.

That's fine. I'm quite happy to be booed off. Thank you very much, Grace. As always, a joy to see you. Well, coming next, you two can stay. I already criticized for his frustration with very, various types of pen should King Charles be held to the exact same standards as his late mother. We'll debate that after the book.

Well, it was the longest apprenticeship in history, but King Charles III is here as our monarch. He's going to take some getting used to for everybody, including himself. The new sovereigns already faced criticism for his past record of asserting political opinions, as well as negative press this week about redundancies at Clarence House. He's also been lambasted by the traditionally sensitive corners of the internet for his frustration with a leaking pen. The late Queen reacted in the same way, asked the trolls. Well, probably not, but should King Charles face constant comparisons with his mother? Is it time to embrace King Charles for the man he is rather than the woman that his mother was?

So joining me now as King Charles's goddaughter, India Hicks, plus Tony Esther are still here. India, thank you so much for joining me. You are going to be at the funeral. You're also going to be at the committal of the Queen's body, at the very end of this extraordinary period of mourning. What are your feelings about all this? to someone who's obviously so close to the family? I think that we're seeing in general an overwhelming unification of people wanting to pay their respects.

I think you've been highlighting a few incidences here and there. I think we can all agree that our kingdom, our Commonwealth and the world have come together to really thank an extraordinary woman for the job she did. We now have to rely on an extraordinary man, which I think King Charles is, to be anything like as good a monarch as his mother, which will be an incredibly tough challenge for anybody. It doesn't matter.

In my view, she was the greatest monarch we've ever had. Knowing him as you do, is he up to this job? Princess Diana famously said in the panorama and I think the top job will be beyond him. But it looks to me, from the first few days, it's not beyond him at all, and he's rising to his challenge. I think what's interesting is he's so,

completely different to his mother so that it'll be a very blank canvas on which to paint his own picture, which is important. He will have a very strong queen beside him. We know that Camilla is a very strong woman. Look what she's survived already. And I think together they have a very good chance at doing an awful lot of good. And I think Charles has been vocal in the past about what he feels his passions. He was prescient in his view on ecology and the environment. He did things that none of us even began to think about, the word green, sustainability, all of that didn't exist.

But he can't do that now? He can't. And do you think he can keep to that pledge? I think that I'm an ambassador for the Prince's Trust. I've been there for two years, so I've seen up close and personal the change that that trust has done. It's been in place since 1976. Who imagined that he would be able to do that?

That is now a global foundation. The astonishing amount of good it does is incredible. And I think that he can step away from that. That will continue to be its own motor, its own course. And he will be able to now step into the shoes that he has to fill. Has he got to keep his temper when his pen's leaking? I think he is someone who is grieving. He is exhausted.

He has had to be on show publicly every minute of the day for the past five days. It's an enormous thing to undertake. I think you're allowed to have a bit of a temper tantrum when your pen leaks. I actually thought it was quite dearing. I've blown my stack over pens before, especially when they'd leave all over your hands. Tony, what do you think? I mean, you wrote a great piece today in the sun, and it was about why the Queen was the biggest star of them, all big of the Beatles. I've always felt that.

And you can judge it by the sort of overawed way that even American presidents behaved when they were around her. But Charles has got to start all over again now. He's been this apprentice, but now he is king. I think the reason hereditary monarchy works in this country is that every monarch earns the, love of our people. And I think that the Queen, to me, what's incredible is that she became more important in her extreme old age. You know, she was absolutely, I can't remember one word that a politician or celebrity

said during the COVID pandemic. But I can remember with total clarity, those two four-minute speeches in the spring of 2020. Two-four-minute speech, unless, you know, so brief, so devastating. You know, just those words, you know, our streets are not empty. They're full of love, are seared into the national consciousness. Yeah, my parents were not monarchists. My parents were not royalists. But the photograph where they looked happiest is when they were 20 years old

and going to Buckingham Palace to meet King, Georgia Six to collect my dad's distinguished service medal. And they loved that king. They loved that shy, kind, brave king. Right. And you were saying about your mother that she's on the verge of a quite extraordinary, possibly unprecedented triple coronation. Well, and I love what you've just said.

You know, you don't have to be a monarchist to find pride in those moments. They're leaders. These are leaders of our countries, leaders of the faith and leaders in so many ways. Yes, my mum went to King George VI's coronation at a little green cape, and then she went to the Queens.

And if she has the stamina and the strength to survive another year, she could well be into her third coronation. I think that's Guinness Book of Records. I don't think anybody's ever done that. That's quite amazing. It's an amazing story. She's the same breed as the Queen. They are extraordinary women, women,

who have survived in a tough old man's world. Think when the Queen took that throne, what she had to do, who she had to put up with church. You were bridesmaid when you, at Charles and Diners. I was. What was it like? Do you remember it or not? I remember it very well. It was amazing.

I tell you what was amazing. Looking back now at this grand old age of 55, with the crowds, and it's very rare that you see crowds who aren't grieving or aren't angry or aren't demonstrating. These were crowds who were jubilate. They were jubilate. They were in jubilation of the whole thing. And they were excited. And at that stage, it was a fairy tale wedding.

We all believed the fairy tale was going to end in the most wonderful way. And that was really remarkable. A lot of people came out. A lot of people came out. Yeah, amazing. Nestle, the poll came out this week, very supportive of Charles, his popularity surging, as people think he'll be a good king, from 30-od percent to 60-od percent in the space of three months.

So immediate reaction from the public, very, very positive. 94% loved his first TV address. The only issue he has is age profile of support. Younger people, under 50% are supportive of him, whereas older people are much more supportive. What does he do about the young? and given he's 73, you know, my 10-year-old daughter looked at the TV and went, he's very old this kid, isn't he?

Which, you know, she thinks I'm very old. What does he do about the youth? How does he connect with them? I think it just, it's kind of, he just has to settle into his role. I think people develop a love for the royal family when they actually connect with them on a personal level. You can't keep comparing him to the queen because, you know, he's not 26 just married with kids, right?

He's a lot older. So he just needs to settle into his role. And the love will come. It's just, he has to curate his own image and keep doing what he's been doing. So, well, that's why. And I also think if you look at sort of stratification as well, so it depends on sort of your community background,

whether you come from a family that already loves the royal family, sort of what your allegiance is to, I suppose, the Commonwealth and to the United Kingdom. That all plays a role in who warms to him. Father would. Well, I was going to have a thought there, which is I think that actually Charles and Camilla, it's a sort of fantastic fall.

They've got William and Kate, and that's very powerful. William and Kate do have the attention. I totally agree. I think we're in good hands. I think the bloodstock is good. Yes. Good to see all. The pens are a little 40. Yeah, the pens are. He needs a new pen.

Tony, stay with me, because we're going to debate after the break whether the real spanner in the works of all this could be Prince Harry's tell-all book about the royal family, including his father. Should he pulp it, as I think he should? Or is he allowed to have his say? We'll talk about that after the break. Thank you very much, India.

Good. Really appreciate it. I'm bad not here for that. While Harry and Megan joined the rest of the royal family today presenting a united front for the procession of the late queen's coffin. Princess William and Harry walks side by side behind the coffin is at left Buckinghamham Palace. The family entered Westminster Hall together. Oprah Winfrey has suggested that the late Queen's death provides an opportunity for peacemaking. Is she right or is this just a temporary truce to get through a week that should all be about, of course, Her Majesty Queen is for the second?

Well, of course, the big spanner in the works is looming for the royal family. something I know personally, they're very, very concerned about, is Harry's apparently explosive tell-all memoir, which has been written and is ready to roll off the presses. Joining me now to discuss this. Sun columnist Tony Parsons talked to be contributor to Esther Cracko, Laura Megan, supporter, Paula Rohn, Adrian. And best-selling author Douglas Murray is in New York.

Let me start with you, Douglas. Welcome to the show. I read a column to New York Post that really hit a nerve this week about Harry should pulp this book, that now we've had this dramatic event, we've lost the Queen, his father is now King, and he made a statement saying, it's time to honour my father, King Charles III. How is that compatible with a tell-all book,

which will be presumably, as most of his outpongs have been about, his father, very critical of the King? Yes, I think they're not at all compatible. And I think this must in some ways be a very lonely time for February, by all accounts on the day of the late Queen's, he was having to arrange his own travel arrangements and was being reminded in fact that had he been part of the family still he'd have been looked after by them but he had to sort of go his own way because he said go his own way now he's seeing some of the costs of that one of the costs of

it i'm sure is a certain coldness for members of the family uh how could you not um guard what you say when a family has said so many things about the family and it's interesting to say more. How could he expect? He ought to be treated entirely warmly. And they've already said so many untrue things about the royal family, so many hurtful things, and are promising more to come.

Of course he should call the memoir. It's a decent thing to do. He's made plenty of money from other deals, from Netflix, from Spotify and others. doesn't need to release the memoir now. I completely concur with that, but Paula, you think he should be able to publish the book? Of course he should.

Why? He should have the opportunity to have his say. He hasn't stopped yapping for two years. Literally, he and his wife barely a week goes by without them sticking a knife into the royal family in the monarchy. So what do you mean he's got to have his say? He doesn't stop having his say. That's the problem.

We could say that about the press too, couldn't we? We could say that about the millions of stories that have been reported in the press about Twitter going wild. We know that reports have been done, haven't it? When you have two members of the royal family, constantly publicly attacking the royal family and the monarchy, of course the media are going to respond. People say to me, when are you going to stop criticising

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry? When they stop attacking the royal family, is my answer. Even in the tone, it's very aggressive, they're attacking the royal family. They are. They call them a bunch of callous racists. Is it the case that they are telling their truth, that they are finally...

What is someone's truth? Finally get an opportunity to have their say. There is no such thing as someone's individual truth. When Megan Markle talks about my truth, it doesn't exist. There is the truth, which are facts, and there's everything else. You don't have your own version of the truth. The problem with that argument is that is exactly why they needed to have this book because you will deny their truth.

And you can't continue to do that. Why should they be allowed to tell blatant lies about the royal family? Well, because they don't believe they are telling blatant lies. And we don't know. Megyn Markle told Oprah Winfrey that their son, Archie, was not going to be a prince because of his skin colour. That's what she inferred in that answer. So you're very careful there, peers.

As you may now know it. You're very careful there, peers. That is what she inferred. It's not what she said, which is how you started this conversation. And this is why we need to be careful, because this is such an emotive topic. during this, of course, exceptionally sad period of time where we know that they are a grieving family

and we know that they have done their absolute best to show a united front. I'm not talking about now. I'm talking about when this book lands. Tony, I think it's going to be like an unexploded bomb when this thing goes off. It's going to be something which has been ticking away, ticking away. I know the palace are incredibly concerned.

Much more so now Charles's king because they also fear Harry might have a go at Camilla, who's now the queen consort of this country. and try and settle schools going back to his parents' marriage breaking up. I do think there's the law of diminishing returns. I don't think anything will ever have the impact of that Oprah interview. I don't think anything will ever drop like that. A tunnel book from Harry?

Because, you know, it was so unchallenged. Oprah looked like the worst journalist in the world. Everything that was put out there was completely unchallenged. And I think people were shocked and hurt in this country because I was among the crowds at Windsor the day they got married. And there was a genuine, real love and enthusiasm. There was no racism whatsoever towards Meghan Markle

before that wedding. From the press and Miss Country. None, Nanda, zero. I know what I read. I know what I wrote, for example. Because you don't know what... This country embraced the whole thing. You don't know what existed for her.

And what she is saying... I do know that her truth has turned out to be a pack of life. Because I noticed that we're focusing on Megan, but Harry is part of this as well. And what you are concerned about with this book is the truth now. I'm concerned about their version of the truth, which is often completely untrue. Here's my problem with it. If all they did was tell the truth, that's one thing. But 17 different statements from the Oprah interview alone were proven to be untrue.

We still don't know who this supposed royal was who raised concern about their child's skin cover. I do wish that they actually said who it was, because I thought it was very immature for them to not. Smears them all. I don't have a problem with Harry coming out with the book, actually. He's led quite an extraordinary life. No, 10 years in the army, you know, I don't have a problem with that. But I think, I suspect, with good reason,

that it's not going to be tasteful, that it could be an attack on Camilla. But surely he understands now that... The fictional truth behind Megan's, you know, disastrous experience. Well, let me ask, let me ask, let me ask Douglas Murray. Douglas, there's a kind of perception here that they're, doing all this because it plays really well for them in America. But the New York Post cleared its front page for a very mocking image of Meghan Markle recently, looking like a toddler and a tiara throwing tantrum after tantrum.

What is the mood, do you think, amongst the majority of Americans about what they've been doing? Well, there's a deep skepticism about it. Some support, but also, I think, just a lot of embarrassment. a sort of embarrassment about the fact that Markle joined the royal family. There was, as several people already said, incredible goodwill towards her and towards the youth. I never saw anything in the British press

that was even remote critical of Megan herself. On the day itself of the wedding, it had been a happier day, the sight of Prince Charles Walker's new daughter-in-law up the aisle, escorting her mother in St. George's Chapel. It was such a sign as it was the photographs of the queen meeting her first great-grandchild of Megan and Harry. These were healing things and there was so much goodwill around the world.

And I'm afraid that Megan and Harry have, through their own actions, just thrown that goodwill away on both sides of the Atlantic. And the trouble started actually, the trouble started when the whole fury over her father. blew up and her decision to then completely disown him. And from that moment on, you can see the trajectory of the criticism in the media building and building, because they then embarked on this huge victimhood tour, where they kept being rankly hypocritical about things like, you know, preaching about carbon footprint and catching private jets all the time and so on, but also constantly whining, playing the victim.

The complete antithesis of what the Queen, for example, stood for. Douglas, thank you for joining me. As always, spot on. Thank you to my panel. There is one bit of good news this week. Gregs have just announced that they are closing their shops on Monday, which means no vegan sausage rolls for the British public. So there's always a silver lining in every cloud.

We're going to talk after the break, actually, about this closure of the country. Is it right? So many things have been shut down. Is it right that on Monday pretty much everything shuts down? We'll debate that after break. We'll talk about to you, Piersball and I'll say. Queen's funeral is, of course, a national holiday.

The idea is that everyone gets to watch it and to say goodbye to our greatest monarch. It's a steady occasion. In practice, it means school closures, shop closures, medical treatments postponed, a struggling economy on standby, even people having to postpone their own funerals because of the funeral on Monday.

Even the Golden Archies will go dark at least until 5 o'clock. McDonald's convert, it will shut all 1,300 of its UK stores to allow staff to pay their respects. So is this right, is really the question. Or is it over the top? I've got two experts with me, Jenny Cleaver, the broadcaster, and Yvonne Richmond, Tulloch, who's the CEO of Atalos.

So let's just talk about this, because when I just heard that Greg's closing down on Monday, I mean, I did have a wry chuckle because it means no vegan sausage rolls. Other people, I think, have been ridiculous in their virtue signaling. The Met Office saying they weren't going to do weather updates because it might be disrespectful. It's absurd. However, I do think that Monday is a unique occasion. What do you think?

It absolutely is. Of course, we've seen it on the media, haven't we, all three, these last few days? Our Queen is so special to so many people. She's part of our heritage as a nation here, but she's valued by people all over the world. So there is an important moment here in marking her death and having these 10 days of the morning. How far do you take it?

Like, centre parks got themselves into a hell of a mess because they said they were going to basically kick everybody out of their parks because of the funeral. Then under mounting media pressure, They said, all right, you can stay in, but you have to stay inside. Not even you turn that, I think, and so on. It's difficult. If you're like a company like centre parks and you've got thousands of people staying there,

what do you do if your own staff want to go and pay their respects? Yes, I mean, that is difficult, isn't it? And we're very used to bank holidays, and in bank holidays, our hospitality industry doesn't close down and so on. So I think we have to acknowledge that this is a bank holiday, but it's also different because we didn't know it was coming. And so a lot of people have had things cancel. I mean, Jenny, I just feel quite strongly this woman was a unique woman. 70 years on the throne, we can at least surely give her one day

where the country does actually shut down and pays respects to one person. My concern with all of this is that so it's been left up to businesses to decide whether or not to shut. And I feel that a lot of businesses are doing this out of fear of being castigated for doing the wrong thing or being seen to be respectful. Or because their own staff want to pay respect. But there are ways that you can let you, you can say, okay, if you want to go and be in the street, go and be in the street.

If you want to watch the ceremony, you can watch it, will allow it to happen. But I feel like, for example, particularly with schools, I think school shutting is a mistake. I think there's a real opportunity for kids to learn. You see, I couldn't disagree more. I really think that... I think every child of the country

should actually be able to be at home with their family and watch this event. How many families, though, peers? How many families do you think, given this bank holiday, are going to take their kids and educate them about constitutional monarchy. No, a lot are going to watch the funeral together. A lot.

I mean, I would say the vast majority of the country will actually watch the funeral. I think that if schools had a special day where everybody was watching it together and you could learn about the monarchy, my brother-in-law took a citizenship test to learn to come to this country. It's not like a pandemic where you're sending them home for months on end. I think a lot of kids are going to be stuck at home playing on computer games because there's nowhere to go because there's no attraction and shock. But, Jenny, after 70 years, shortly we can give the Queen 24 hours, don't we? I think that, you know, I really want my kids to see it.

I will be, my kids will be watching the funeral, but the funeral ends at a certain point in the afternoon. And then I'm not going to be able to give them the education that they would have at school, where they would learn about this place in history. Who are you talking about? Why can't you? Why can't I? I'm not a history teacher and I don't know about, you know, constitutional monarchy explaining around to my house.

And I'll give them a little, a little reasonable. I think most people, when faced with a bank holiday, won't be using it as a learning moment. And I think that this is not a, this is a short... I don't think it's a learning moment. It's a moment of paying tribute and respect, I think. To Queen Elizabeth II. This is our last chance Monday, proper chance as a nation, to come completely together and say, for today, it's all about this woman and our gratitude.

Yes, absolutely. But I take your point completely because there are really... It's wrong, her point. There are really mixed views, aren't there, about our monarchy? Actually, it's a very small... There's a small number of republicans. The thing about our monarchy is it works because we consent to it. The majority of us want it.

And once it becomes something where you must have this attitude, and you must feel this way. But we're not doing that. And it all crumbles apart. No Republican-thinking person has to watch the funeral. No one's being forced to watch it. but everyone's been given the chance. And I think that is the right thing to do on this day.

And that's the important thing. I've got to leave it there. Ladies, thank you both very much indeed. Great to see you both. I appreciate it. That's it from me. Whatever up to? Keep it unscensored.

Good night.