Yesterday The Daily Telegraph published an article on its website. The headline? 'A rare misstep from the Duchess of Cambridge?'. The piece opined that the Duchess had made a mistake in co-writing an article for CNN with Jill Biden, wife of US President Joe. The Telegraph article was not hugely critical - it was very measured, really - but did argue that Kate may have erred in setting aside her 'stringent political neutrality'. Members of the royal family, after all, are not permitted to express a political affiliation, and cannot vote. Did Kate cross a line? That's a matter of opinion. But the opinion of the writer of that article seems to have changed rather hurriedly. The piece has disappeared from the website.
There has been no statement on the reasons behind that. But is it not reasonable to point out that the Duchess's alignment with a political figure - the First Lady of the United States is, surely, a political figure simply by close association - may test the impartiality rules? After all, we couldn't stop ourselves attacking Meghan for similar incidents.
Last year, Meghan and Harry, Duchess and Duke of Sussex, caused an enormous backlash when they urged their American friends and fans to vote in the US election, one of the most hard fought and divisive presidential races of all time. Crucially, they did not pick sides. Harry and Meghan's values hint firmly that they supported Biden, but while Meghan did vote there has never been an official comment on her political stance. But the call to vote was seen as an anti-Trump measure, and they were attacked for getting political. They were told to be quiet and to mind their own business, and many suggested that they were making a mockery of the rules of the royal family. Their loudest detractors failed to mention that there was actually form in this pro-vote message: in 2003, The Queen herself got involved after a low turnout in the Welsh Assembly Election. 'It is vital to the health both of the United Kingdom and of Wales that our democratic institutions flourish and adapt,' she said. 'I share your concerns that we must encourage all our people to exercise their right to vote. This is a real challenge now before us all.' Harry and Meghan's wording may have been more florid, but the sentiment was the same.
Kate and Jill's piece is not a political manifesto. It is an establishment of their joint thoughts on early years education. 'We both believe that part of this vision for the future must include a fundamental shift in how our countries approach the earliest years of life,' they write. 'If we care about how children perform at school, how they succeed in their careers when they are older, and about their lifelong mental and physical health, then we have to care about how we are nurturing their brains, their experiences and relationships in the early years before school.' Kate is not proclaiming herself a Conservative voter or a Labour one. But she is aligning formally, in writing, with the wife of the most important Democrat in America. Her article sets out a perfectly reasonable ledger of what needs to be done, and while it is not explicitly political, I have no doubt that Meghan would have been torn to shreds if she had done something similar. She has been criticised for asking people to vote. Her friendship with Jacinda Adern, the New Zealand Prime Minister, has been a bone of contention. So where is this energy for Kate? It's almost as if Meghan's political-adjacent musings were never the problem.
I don't want people to come for Kate. It is wholly reasonable for her to discuss one of her key passions with another influential woman with a political connection. I just want people to also realise that in not attacking Kate for this, they are displaying an enormous disparity in the way they treat Meghan. It won't change any time soon, but maybe if we point out these hypocrisies ever time they occur, one day the way we talk about these two women will finally align and arrive at a kinder, fairer middle ground.
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