Suzanne Harrington: Harry and Meghan were right to blow the whistle — here's why

Suzanne Harrington: Meghan Markle left her (successful, independent) world to join the world of Harry Windsor, found it hideously racist, and so – because they clearly love each other - he left his world to join hers. Picture: Joe Giddens/PA Wire

Many UK homes will currently be heated from the steam coming out of gammon ears as the Harry & Meghan show drops on Netflix. As I write, the show has only been up for 38 minutes, but already Twitter is melting with bile.

Whatever you think about Harry and Meghan, if you think about them at all, the whole thing is such a masterclass in scapegoating and distraction, and how we, the public, allow ourselves to be distracted by such establishment scapegoating.

While the Irish establishment is merely inept, the UK establishment marries its ineptitude with an Etonian entitlement that borders on feudal – and weaponises its scapegoating. Nobody scapes a goat like the British elite.

Meghan Markle left her (successful, independent) world to join the world of Harry Windsor, found it hideously racist, and so – because they clearly love each other - he left his world to join hers.

That they did not go quietly has resulted in a maelstrom of hate. Meanwhile back at the Palace, a lady-in-waiting grills a black British visitor from a London charity. No, but where are you REALLY from?

Down the road in the Houses of Parliament, some of the wealthiest, most powerful and privileged individuals in Britain continue to declare war on postal workers, ambulance workers, health workers, rail workers and border workers, saying how these workers are determined to ruin Christmas by striking about pay and conditions.

Instead of addressing what all the strikers are striking about in any kind of meaningful way, the establishment – the Tories and their Tory media – declare how ‘hard working families’ are being ‘held to ransom’ by strikers, bypassing the fact that the strikers ARE the very same hard working families.

If this gaslighting doesn’t quite resonate within even the thickest tabloid head, further scapegoating is provided by those little dinghies of cold, scared people, bobbing across the Channel from Calais, who are being called an “invasion” by the UK government, dog-whistling the racism of the same demographic who hate Meghan Markle.

Whatever. The real distraction is that nobody, apart from a handful of Guardian journalists, is making any kind of fuss about a baroness on another kind of boat – a far bigger one than a dangerously overfilled inflatable dinghy.

The Lady M is a ten-million quid yacht owned by Tory peer Michelle Mone. The aptly named Mone, currently on a leave on absence from the House of Lords to ‘clear her name’, allegedly received a secret payment of £29million from a PPE company given a government contract she orchestrated.

So adept is the scapegoating machine at distraction, that instead of giving this PPE scandal the full force of our focus, we are directed towards an American actress and her princely hubby on Netflix.

Look at those treasonous villains, shouts the media. Look at these asylum seekers, threatening our way of life.

Look at those striking workers huddled around braziers, ruining our Christmas. Look at them – all of them. Just don’t look at us.