Mid-February, a curious story popped up in the Times of London. Their sources claimed that Prince Harry planned to return to the UK for a visit in May, specifically to attend an Invictus Games ten-year anniversary service at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was ten years ago that the inaugural Invictus Games were held in London, much to the dismay of Harry’s brother. Within that Times piece, “sources” dropped another interesting piece of news/gossip: the UK was making a big push to host another Invictus Games, this time in Birmingham in 2027. Johnny Mercer, the minister for veterans’ affairs and a veteran himself, is a big supporter of Invictus and Prince Harry. Mercer even attended the games in Dusseldorf last year, and I believe that Mercer is very much behind this push to bring the games back to the UK.
The Times piece also claimed that Harry was interested in Birmingham’s bid and likely to move in that direction when it came to announcing the location of the 2027 games later this year. Which I don’t believe – while Mercer’s intentions might be above-board, everyone else in Salt Island is setting a trap. They’re desperate to “force” Harry and Meghan to come back, even if it’s three years from now and just for a ten-day Invictus Games. Well, the British government is baiting the trap really well, and in their new budget, they’ve allocated £26 million in funding to a potential Birmingham games:
The Government has announced funding of up to £26million to back the UK’s bid to host the Invictus Games in 2027.
This demonstrates the UK Government’s commitment to stand by and support the heroic Armed Forces community, says Defence Secretary @grantshapps. @WeAreInvictus pic.twitter.com/F7zJqR0s66
— Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) March 6, 2024
Again, while I buy that Mercer and many people in the British veterans/defense community have good intentions, this is still a trap. This is still the Tory government trying to lure the Sussexes into a position where they’ll be compromised or endangered. The Tories know their media handlers are desperate for all things Sussex, so this is their attempt to have Harry and Meghan served on a silver platter, plus three years of headlines about “the king bans Harry & Meghan from returning to Britain for Invictus” and “William claims sole ownership of Invictus!” All in all, I hope this heavy-handed bait is pushed aside and Harry and the Invictus team choose another country. Washington, DC has bid for the games too.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.