Hypocrisy: Prince Harry Fights Global Warming Flying A Private Helicopter

The bewildered boy who walked behind the coffin of his mother, Princess Diana, became a man in our eyes when we learned he had been secretly embedded in Helmand Province in 2008.

Prince Harry later did a second tour of duty in Afghanistan as a co-pilot in an Apache helicopter, a role in which he distinguished himself. How ironic, then, that it was a helicopter this week that brought him crashing to earth.

Just two days before Harry made his impassioned speech to 12,000 children, urging them to act on climate change, he took a private helicopter from London to Birmingham for two brief official engagements.

True, he saved himself half an hour in traveling time. But the flight cost around £6,000 and a massive carbon footprint, whereas he could have got a first-class train ticket for £34.

And don’t forget that, despite the fact he implored the children to save the planet, his wife Meghan happily flew in a private jet last month to New York for a £300,000 baby shower party — even though she presents herself as a fervent anti-poverty campaigner.

It’s all very well for Harry and Meghan to embark on a preachy crusade, telling people to set high ethical standards and save the world from climate change and poverty, but nothing corrodes the credibility of a Royal faster than a ‘do as I say, don’t do as I do’ mentality.

It’s the sense of entitlement and privilege that is so ill-judged. Even Harry’s uncle, Air Miles Andy, who’s been vilified for his love of jets and helicopters, has the sense never to tell us how to behave.

By doing so, Harry risks comparison with eco-warriors such as Bono and Leonardo DiCaprio, who cross the world in private jets as they lecture us about climate change.

Harry should not be embracing the New Age nonsense of California. He’d do better to seek inspiration from the people of the Cotswolds, or Coventry, Cumbria, or Cornwall.

Harry should model himself not on the likes of George Clooney, but someone like George VI, his great-grandfather, a reluctant monarch who overcame a crippling speech impediment out of a sense of duty to his people.

Harry has already done wonderful things — championing the HIV Aids charity Sentebale, crusading against landmines, putting together the Invictus Games for injured servicemen and women.

But his decision to lecture us about the world without practicing what he preaches is a grave error. We want the old Harry back — we loved him the way he was.

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