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The royals, the empire, war and repression: time for honesty
The Queen will be mourned by the millions who loved her, but a reckoning must be made with her family’s key role in preserving a corrupt, authoritarian system of monarchies across swathes of the Middle East, writes JOE GILL
IN SERVICE OF THE EMPIRE: (Clockwise) Prince Harry patrols a village during the British occupation of Afghanistan, 2008, Prince Charles does the sword dance with the Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, 1997, the Queen accompanies the Shah of Persia to the races at Ascot, 1972, and more recently is met by Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan at the start of a five day visit to the absolute monarchy in Abu Dhabi, 2010

FOLLOWING the death of Elizabeth Windsor, no-one in the Establishment media is taking any chances with the public mood.

Public affection for the late Queen is not in doubt and yet BBC journalists are whipping up paroxysms of grief that wouldn’t be out of place in North Korea.

The BBC’s Johnny Diamond and Nicholas Witchell have wrung out every possible emotive line about the Queen’s selfless devotion to service and the nation’s unending sorrow.

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