Sky reporting that Harry not going !

(He hung on for the leaving party though !)

http://news.sky.com/skynews/home

The Prince of Wales insignia is 3 White Feathers.

White Feathers were given out to cowards !

In August 1914, Admiral Charles Fitzgerald founded the Order of the White Feather. With the support of leading writers such as Mary Ward and Emma Orczy, the organisation encouraged women to give out white feathers to young men who had not joined the British Army. One young woman remembers her father, Robert Smith, being given a feather on his way home from work: "That night he came home and cried his heart out. My father was no coward, but had been reluctant to leave his family. He was thirty-four and my mother, who had two young children, had been suffering from a serious illness. Soon after this incident my father joined the army."

The government became concerned when women began presenting state employees with white feathers. It was suggested to Reginald McKenna, the Home Secretary, that these women should be arrested for "conduct likely to disrupt the police". McKenna refused but he did arrange for state employees to be issued with badges testifying that they were serving 'King and Country'.

Although he was a serving soldier, the writer, Compton Mackenzie, complained about the activities of the Order of the White Feather. He argued that these "idiotic young women were using white feathers to get rid of boyfriends of whom they were tired". The pacifist, Fenner Brockway, claimed that he received so many white feathers he had enough to make a fan.

In the film "The Four Feathers" (about cowardice), the main character (who receives the feathers) is called Harry !

To be factual, Prince Harry has been ordered not to go to Iraq. He is a soldier and must follow orders. It is so easy for people sitting safely at home to criticise those willing to serve. To put a maliciously false slant on such a story is quite disgraceful.

Royal Blue wrote:
To be factual, Prince Harry has been ordered not to go to Iraq. He is a soldier and must follow orders. It is so easy for people sitting safely at home to criticise those willing to serve. To put a maliciously false slant on such a story is quite disgraceful.

We don't know that Harry was "willing to serve" - only that he made that claim to boost his PR (against the image being portrayed of him in the media). He could have known all along that he would never go.

His unit left some time ago - a clear sign that he was never joining them.

As for the claim that his presence puts others at risk - that's quite farcical !

ALL the soldiers are about the same age / have the same haircut / wear the same uniform, and their faces are largely obscured by helmets.
How would anyone know who he was? This "reason" is just a cover story.

Just look for the bodyguards around him.

I`m surprised nobody has questioned the daftness of the public anouncement that he was going, or queried the possibilty that he actually might be going anyway.

Harry will still be doing his "bit" -

While his men are getting legless (quite literally) in Iraq
He'll be getting legless (not so literally) outside various places in Knightsbridge !

Bournemouth usually ITK.

There is a lot more in this than we say except the Royalty issue.
The forces do have to have a reserve squad, one of them may have marital problems etc and be unfit for service.

Today's headlines say the army are "pondering his future".

I suspect he'll be made a Major-General for the courageous way he has sacrificed his trip to Iraq for the good of his men !

He could always join the army's needlework division - like his Uncle Eddie (who found that the Royal Marines were a bit too butch for him).

DJones wrote:
Just look for the bodyguards around him.

????