If the media onslaught against Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was a devious plot to transform red-blooded republicans into royal defenders, it would have been ingenious. A savvy royal family would have cultivated their newest princess, acknowledging that the long-term existence of the monarchy depends on continued support from – or at least acquiescence of – the socially progressive younger generation. Yet the first woman of colour – that we know of – to take her place in the dynasty has been hounded out: both she and her husband declared they would “step back as ‘senior’ members”, savaging the tabloids and royal correspondents as they did so. The royal whispering campaign against both that commenced as soon as Meghan first appeared has only escalated, with the Prince of Wales described as “incandescent with rage” and a “senior royal source” announcing that “this is a declaration of war on the family”.
A wider culture war is now threatening to tear apart the monarchy. As Afua Hirsch notes, “the racist treatment of Meghan has been impossible to ignore”, that however rich, beautiful, charitable or well connected you are, “in this society racism will still follow you”. Look no further than an obsessive, vindictive tabloid campaign against Meghan. Ah, but her detractors sneer, what sort of victim is she: supremely wealthy, wanting for nothing, surrounded by luxury. This does not distinguish her from any other royal, of course – including the likes of Prince Andrew, an associate of a paedophile who, a rash of front-page headlines aside, has not been subjected to a tabloid campaign against him.
Britain’s culture war can be summed up like this: a currently triumphalist faction that believes that progressive social norms have gone too far and that so-called “identity politics”, PC culture and the “woke” need to be driven back. Meghan became a target because she is a mixed-race American with no aristocratic blood, who dared to import vaguely progressive values into the most conservative of British institutions. Even worse, she supposedly seduced a linchpin of the monarchy to these nefarious “woke” ways: Prince Harry is indeed now a long way from wearing Nazi uniforms. “I preferred naked billiards party-boy Harry to this newly ‘woke’ planet-saving preacher,” as Piers Morgan had it. Meghan was “awful, woke, weak, manipulative, spoilt and irritating”, said Eamonn Holmes; she is assailed as the “global queen of woke”.
And here is why the rightwing press savages her. They regard themselves as the guardians of traditional morality, as though they were the heirs of the medieval church. That’s why they spent much of the 80s and 90s vilifying gay and bisexual men and women, and now incite moral panic about trans people; that’s why they whip up bile against migrants, refugees, Muslims, or indeed any other minority deemed a threat to “Britishness” as they interpret it. We live in a time of “whitelash”, when – across the western world – the winning of rights and freedoms by women and minorities has provoked a furious reaction. From Trumpism to the now hegemonic Tory right, from the Vox party in Spain to the Hungarian authoritarian regime, reactionary movements portray such struggles as mortal threats to men, white people, heterosexuals and anyone else deemed the norm.
Meghan’s chief crime is not to share the wealth and opulence that defines royal life, but to be deemed a fifth columnist: a woman of colour who epitomises the encroachment of the progressive values that are articles of faith for so many younger Britons. She has accordingly suffered her punishment beating. But a word of warning. Yes, the Tory right now has a majority, is drunk on power: minorities and their defenders are expected to get back in their box. But a younger generation that passionately believes in such values is going nowhere and, in the end, will win. Deep down, the culture warriors know that, and it is that insecurity that drives their viciousness.