Prince Harry’s “self-destructive” behaviour could be influenced by post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a retired colonel who has also suffered with the condition.
Philip Ingram said he recognises many of his former traits in the duke’s demeanour and that he physically “shivered” when he saw some of his recent interviews.
“A lot of the behaviours I’m seeing in Prince Harry are almost triggers for me,” the Army veteran, who served for 26 years and retired as a colonel, told Sky News.
“They remind me of some of my behaviours whenever I suffered quite severe PTSD.
“I’m seeing a troubled individual and an individual that needs help, not someone who should be continuously criticised in the way he is being.”
It comes after a series of revealing leaks from Prince Harry’s upcoming book, Spare, in which he makes claims including that his brother attacked him and that he killed 25 Taliban in Afghanistan.
Mr Ingram said he chatted to Harry several times at a ball when he graduated from Sandhurst military academy and that he had a “sparkle in his eyes, a confidence” .
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However, he now believes the prince is “falling apart” and should be protected.
“In what’s in his eyes, in his demeanour, in what he’s saying – and the way he’s saying things… What I’m seeing in him is what I call self-destructive behaviour – which is a recognised symptom of PTSD,” said Mr Ingram.
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Harry could be showing PTSD symptoms, says retired colonel
The retired colonel said he believes Prince Harry is not out for revenge and may not be fully aware of how he’s behaving.
“He’ll never be able to understand until something crosses that threshold and he goes to himself and says ‘this isn’t me’,” said Mr Ingram.
A royal expert has said Harry’s claims are the “most sensational royal revelations” in almost 30 years and that they will “shake” the foundations of the monarchy.
Mr Cole, an ex-spokesperson for former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, told Sky News: “It’s the most sensational and damaging set of royal revelations since Prince Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana, sat down with the now disgraced BBC Panorama reporter Martin Bashir in November 1995.
“Prince Harry in this book isn’t really blowing the doors of Buckingham Palace, he’s detonating a huge landmine under it and shaking the royal edifice and indeed shaking the British establishment.
Image: Michael Cole said the situation was in some ways ‘tragic’
“These are very serious allegations and they cannot always be ignored.
“It is tragic in many ways that he feels he has to go on record like this, but quite clearly he does and nobody can say that he hasn’t pulled his punches, because he has let them have it.”
He also claims that he and his brother asked their father, King Charles, not to marry Camilla following Diana’s death.
Mr Cole said: “Allegations of this kind ought to be resolved within a family. Families do have disagreements, this cannot be the first family in the world where a new arrival has caused conflict.”
‘Confessing to taking cocaine is a big mistake’
Prince Harry also makes a number of personal revelations in the book, including that he took cocaine and marijuana, and lost his virginity in a field.
“He has made some major errors in this book in my view,” Mr Cole said.
Image: Prince Harry in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan in 2008
“Confessing to taking cocaine is a major error, a big mistake.
“I think it is a mistake to confess to a crime like this and also to say his personal tally of the people he killed in Afghanistan.
“That goes against the soldiers’ code in every way and I’m sure his fellow officers will not thank him for that.
“He has painted a target on his own back with this. He’s increased the level of danger to his whole family.”
Harry has ‘completely embraced commerce’
The book, published by Penguin Random House but accidentally released early in Spain this week, follows the release of Netflix series Harry and Meghan.
The couple have a deal with the US streaming giant reportedly worth tens of millions of pounds.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex expressed their desire to become “financially independent” following their decision to step back from frontline royal duties in January 2020.
Image: Prince Harry and wife Meghan in their recent Netflix series
And Mr Cole said Prince Harry had now “completely embraced commerce”.
He said: “His royal status is just a calling card and from now on he and his wife are in the money business.
“I find it difficult to be sympathetic to them because they are two handsome, beautiful people with two lovely children and lots of money… it’s not a bad existence and while some of these complaints are serious, a lot of it is very trivial.
“They obviously feel that they have had to be frank, but that means an end to their previous existence.”
Invitation to coronation is a ‘problem’
Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace have so far declined to comment on the book’s claims.
They will be braced for yet more coverage in the coming days, with Prince Harry doing several interviews to promote the book.
In one interview, with ITV, Prince Harry said: “There’s a lot that can happen between now and then. But you know, the door is always open. The ball is in their court.
“There is a lot to be discussed and I really hope that they are willing to sit down and talk about it.”
Mr Cole said the issue is a “problem” for Harry and Meghan.
He said: “The King has made it clear that they would be welcome at his coronation but that proves a problem.
“If they accept and they come that leaves them open to the claim of hypocrisy and if they reject the invitation they will seem rather small-minded and rather petty and there would be additional pressure for Prince Harry because all royal princes are present in the abbey on coronation day and would be required to swear an oath of loyalty to the new king.
“The King has played this quite well and is making it clear that his second son is not an outcast in his view.”
The system for regulating water companies in England and Wales should be overhauled and replaced with one single body, a major review of the sector has advised.
It has recommended abolishing regulator Ofwat as well as the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), which ensures that public water supplies are safe.
The report, which includes 88 recommendations, suggests a new single integrated regulator to replace existing water watchdogs, mandatory water metering, and a social tariff for vulnerable customers.
The ability to block companies being taken over and the creation of eight new regional water authorities with another for all of Wales to deliver local priorities, has also been suggested.
The review, the largest into the water industry since privatisation in the 1980s, was undertaken by Sir Jon Cunliffe, a career civil servant who oversaw the biggest clean-up of Britain’s banking system in the wake of the financial crash.
He was coaxed out of retirement by Environment Secretary Steve Reed to lead the Independent Water Commission.
Here are nine key recommendations:
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• Single integrated water regulators – a single water regulator in England and a single water regulator in Wales. In England, this would replace Ofwat, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and water-environment related functions from the Environment Agency and Natural England
• Eight new regional water system planning authorities in England and one national authority in Wales
• Greater consumer protection – this includes upgrading the consumer body Consumer Council for Water into an Ombudsman for Water to give stronger protection to customers and a clearer route to resolving complaints
• Stronger environmental regulation, including compulsory water meters
• Tighter oversight of water company ownership and governance, including new powers for the regulator to block changes in water company ownership
• Public health reforms – this aims to better manage public health risks in water, recognising the many people who swim, surf and enjoy other water-based activities
• Fundamental reset of economic regulation – including changes to ensure companies are investing in and maintaining assets
• Clear strategic direction – a newlong-term National Water Strategy should be published by both the UK and Welsh governments with a “minimum horizon of 25 years”
• Infrastructure and asset health reforms – including new requirements for companies to map and assess their assets and new resilience standards
In a speech responding to Sir Jon’s report, Mr Reed is set to describe the water industry as “broken” and welcome the commission’s recommendations to ensure “the failures of the past can never happen again”.
Final recommendations of the commission have been published on Monday morning to clean up the sector and improve public confidence.
Major other suggested steps for the government include greater consumer protection by upgrading the Consumer Council for Water into an ombudsman with advocacy duties being transferred to Citizens Advice.
Stronger and updated regulations have been proposed by Sir Jon, including compulsory water metering, changes to wholesale tariffs for industrial users and greater water reuse and rainwater harvesting schemes. A social tariff is also recommended.
Oversight of companies via the ability to block changes in ownership of water businesses and the addition of “public benefit” clauses in water company licences.
To boost company financial resilience, as the UK’s biggest provider Thames Water struggles to remain in private ownership, the commission has recommended minimum financial requirements, like banks are subject to.
It’s hoped this will, in turn, make companies more appealing to potential investors.
The public health element of water has been recognised, and senior public health representation has been recommended for regional water planning authorities, as have new laws to address pollutants like forever chemicals and microplastics.
A “supervisory” approach has been recommended to intervene before things like pollution occur, rather than penalising the businesses after the event.
A long-term, 25-year national water strategy should be published by the UK and Welsh governments, with ministerial priorities given to water firms every five years.
Companies should also be required to map and assess their assets and resilience
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
A new public inquiry will “uncover the truth” behind the so-called “Battle of Orgreave”, a bloody fight between striking miners and police officers in the 1980s.
One hundred and twenty people were injured in the violent confrontation on 18 June 1984, outside a coal processing factory in Orgreave, South Yorkshire.
Five thousand miners clashed with an equal number of armed and mounted police during a day of fighting.
Police used horse charges, riot shields and batons against the picketers, even as some were retreating.
Image: Masses of miners and police clashed during the day of fighting
Image: Police officers on horses charged against protesters
In the aftermath, miners were blamed for the violence in what campaigners believe was an institutional “frame-up”.
“There were so many lies,” says Chris Peace, from campaign group Orgreave Truth and Justice, “and it’s a real historic moment to get to this stage.”
“There’s a lot of information already in the public domain,” she adds, “but there’s still some papers that are embargoed, which will hopefully now be brought to light.”
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Image: Campaigner Chris Peace
Although dozens of miners were arrested, trials against them all collapsed due to allegations of unreliable police evidence.
Campaigners say some involved have been left with “physical and psychological damage”, but until now, previous governments have refused calls for a public inquiry.
Launching the inquiry today, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky Newsi that she wanted to “make sure” campaigners now got “proper answers”.
“We’ve obviously had unanswered questions about what happened at Orgreave for over 40 years,” Ms Cooper says, “and when we were elected to government, we determined to take this forward.”
Image: A police officer tackling a miner
Image: A bleeding protester being led away by police during the ‘Battle of Orgreave’
Image: The Bishop of Sheffield, Pete Wilcox, will chair the inquiry
The inquiry will be a statutory one, meaning that witnesses will be compelled to come and give evidence, and chaired by the Bishop of Sheffield, Pete Wilcox.
“I’m really happy,” says Carl Parkinson, a former miner who was at Orgreave on the day of the clash, “but why has it took so long?”
“A lot of those colleagues and close friends have passed away, and they’ll never get to see any outcome.”
Image: Former miner Carl Parkinson
Image: Former miner Chris Skidmore
Mr Parkinson and Chris Skidmore, who was also there that day, were among the group of campaigners informed first-hand by Ms Cooper about the public inquiry at the Orgreave site.
“It wasn’t frightening to start off with,” Mr Skidmore remembers of the day itself, “but then what I noticed was the amount of police officers who had no identification numbers on. It all felt planned.”
“And it wasn’t just one truncheon,” says Mr Parkinson, “there were about 30, or 40. And it was simultaneous, like it was orchestrated – just boom, boom, boom, boom.
“And there’s lads with a split down their heads for no good reason, they’d done nothing wrong. We were just there to peacefully picket.”
Image: Police used riot shields against the picketers, even as some were retreating
Image: In the aftermath of the fighting, miners were blamed for the violence
In the intervening years, South Yorkshire Police have paid more than £400,000 in compensation to affected miners and their families.
But no official inquiry has ever looked at the documents surrounding the day’s events, the lead-up to it and the aftermath.
“We need to have trust and confidence restored in the police,” says South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, “and part of that is about people, like this campaign, getting the justice that they deserve.
“Obviously, we’ve had things like Hillsborough, CSE [Child Sexual Exploitation] in Rotherham, and we want to turn the page.”
Consumers will get stronger protections with a new water watchdog – as trust in water companies takes a record dive.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed will announce on Monday that the government will set up the new water ombudsman with legal powers to resolve disputes, rather than the current voluntary system.
The watchdog will mean an expansion of the Consumer Council for Water’s (CCW) role and will bring the water sector into line with other utilities that have legally binding consumer watchdogs.
Consumers will then have a single point of contact for complaints.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the new watchdog would help “re-establish partnership” between water companies and consumers.
A survey by the CCW in May found trust in water companies had reached a new low, with fewer than two-thirds of people saying they provided value for money.
Just 35% said they thought charges from water companies were fair – even before the impact could be felt from a 26% increase in bills in April.
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‘We’ll be able to eliminate sewage spillages’
Mr Reed is planning a “root and branch reform” of the water industry – which he branded “absolutely broken” – that he will reveal alongside a major review of the sector on Monday.
The review is expected to recommend the scrapping of water regulator Ofwat and the creation of a new one, to incorporate the work of the CCW.
Image: A water pollution protest by Surfers Against Sewage in Brighton
Campaigners and MPs have accused Ofwat of failing to hold water operators to account, while the companies complain a focus on keeping bills down has prevented appropriate infrastructure investment.
He pledged to halve sewage pollution by water companies by 2030 and said Labour would eliminate unauthorised sewage spillages in a decade.
Mr Reed announced £104 billion of private investment to help the government do that.
Victoria Atkins MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “While stronger consumer protections are welcome in principle, they are only one part of the serious long-term reforms the water sector needs.
“We all want the water system to improve, and honesty about the scale of the challenge is essential. Steve Reed must explain that bill payers are paying for the £104 billion investment plan. Ministers must also explain how replacing one quango with another is going to clean up our rivers and lakes.
“Public confidence in the water system will only be rebuilt through transparency, resilience, and delivery.”