At least Charlie Big Lugs had the good grace to mention the lads who don't come back, or come back badly wounded!

I wonder if the penny has dropped with CBL?

#1 What an infantile posting! Resorting to playground name calling illustrates the vacuous nature of your comment and does you no credit.
The Royal family will always be in a no win situation. If Harry hadn't gone to Afganistan, he would have been accused of cowardice or receiving special treatment. Now that he has gone, Max Clifford states "authoratively", its just a PR stunt.
As to AJ from Fife, I assume you have met and spoken at length with Prince Charles, whom you affectionately refer to as Charlie Big Lugs,to enable you to have come to your well informed position of hoping that "the penny has dropped with CBL", whatever that may mean??

The prince has a reputation and a legacy to foster future royalty from Wales. He is a young man with a heavy burden. Drink and smoke, but returning from the world capital of heroin production, a substance test may be in order.

'I'm not a hero' says Harry. Yeah you're right mate you're not and this whole publicity campaign has been a gross insult to genuine war veterans.

If the outcome of this episode is to highlight the onerous task of the lads already out there then it will have been worthwhile.
Apart from his hypocritical hebdomadal tributes to the fallen at PM's question time, when is Brown going to give the Armed Forces real credit for the job they are doing in carrying out HIS government's policies.

#4 Joe M. Are you one of those "genuine war veterans" that you feel he has so grossly insulted?

How much of a drain on the cash-strapped MOD's budget was this royal deployment?

How much would it have cost to deploy a non-royal 2nd. Lieutenant?

Although initially sympathetic when the story first broke, the relentless saturation coverage on TV and in the press for what is now a giant PR exercise for the royals is driving me up the wall.

How much of the TV License income has been blown on the round the clock coverage by the BBC?

When are the media going to learn that total overkill of a story leads to at best boredom with the subject and at worst antipathy?

This whole affair is a charade mastermindinded by the Palace and MOD and intended for a gullible public with the aid of a compliant media.
Harry was never in any really danger, surrounded constantly by a his personal protection Ghurkas. He was kep well away from any real action. Did you notice that the tv footage purportedly showing him on patrol did NOT show the Ghurkas just out of the shots?

It is absolutely unacceptable to treat this guy any differently since what is being implied is that it is OK for all other forces personnel to be fodder for the guns and bombs but not a member of the royal family. If members of the royal family are NEVER to be targets then they should NEVER be accepted into the military in the first place.
What is needed now is an Inquiry into the issuing of D-notices and why our so-called free press still goes along with them. Harry's safety is NOT a mattern of national security. Rose Gentle's campaign on under resourcing of the military is NOT a matter of national security. Why was a D-notice slapped on her?
Why was a D-notice slapped on a young man going to court against the military last week subject to a D-notice?

As is shown by the sh@t written by Eddie Barnes elsewhere in this newspaper the media have well and truly nobbled by the "Establishment".
What cowards they are!

More than likely Filmed in a Quarry in Yorkshire with Toy Soldiers in the background, he still wants to be a Soldier if he passes the test let him join the Salvation Army, sorry i don't think a Ginger Minger, Lager Lout, Drug taking, Prince would be allowed in.
Today there is TV Show called Prince Harry in Afghanistan he has not been there long enough to have seen anything, big deal what a load of Royal Sh#t what about all the Dead Lads that have never came back, but of course Harry is a Royal, what other Royal has GINGER HAIR.???????????????????????????????????

(sigh... it must be a hard life being a royal...(sigh)...

#8
Absolutely spot on. If these royals are at increased risk both for themselves and others then they should never be allowed to join the forces.
From other posts on these pages in recent times these parastic wasters of space are quite popular in the colonies and dominions. Could not a sinecure be found for them in Ottawa or Cape Town or, even better, Tristan da Cunha?

May I suggest that this royal layabout be sent into a factory, office or building site, with the purpose of doing a days work. This I am sure will give him an insight into THE REAL WORLD.

No word yet on the National Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey for the safe return of the heir's spare?

"Frustrated Harry flies home"
Take some advice from your 'Uncle Charlie'
'Harry mi Lad'
Find yourself a good woman and give us interesting News to talk about! :-)

An uncertain future?
At least he can be fairly certain that he will have a future, unlike the folks who are still there fighting a totally unnecessary war.
Bring the troops home.

AT THE END OF THE DAY - WHO GIVES A SH*T

BUSH AND THE POODLES BIG F**K UP WITH WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION - YEAH RIGHT

BUSH IN THE OIL COMPANIES BACK POCKET - WITH THE PRICE AT THE PUMPS DISGUSTING AND ALL THE OIL COMPANIES PROFITS TOTALLY OBSCENE.

This has been an operation to help drive the Army recruitment PR machine - one photo op' after another. Good for the military, good for the royal family. It looks as wise a decision to my eyes as did the 'It's a Royal Knock-out' all those years ago, except this time 9/10th of the UK press are still in lapdog mode with the story.

I find it ridiculous anybody could think Diana would have supported this venture. She was vehemently opposed military violence, (one reason that made her unsuitable to continue as the future monarch's mother, another being that she was having a sexual relationship with a man of Arab extraction).

For a member of our royal family to enter into this questionable military conduct is a highly political statement. Our action in Afghanistan is not defensive but commenced with the 'need' for a Turkmenistan to Pakistan oil pipeline with troops readied before 911 allowed the operation to commence.

This gullible young man has been taken advantage of. His expression of enthusiasm for killing people is foolish to the extreme. Sure he has put himself where our political class dare not encourage their kids to go - I see no young Blairs alongside of him. But that makes him no more a hero than any other of our military personnel - there are many heroes. We do not need this shirtless fool to respect them.