Instant Opinion: ‘If Prince Harry and Meghan don’t like the limelight, they should stay out of it’

The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.

1. Philip Collins in The Times

on the ‘contradictions of celebrity monarchy’

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If Prince Harry and Meghan don’t like the limelight, they should stay out of it

“The relations between media and monarchy are a compact between three parties: the journalists, the reading public and the royal family itself. It is a game in which each party alters its course in accordance with one of the others. The journalists pursue the royals because it sells newspapers. The people buy the idea of celebrity monarchy at least in part because it is publicised and validated by respected news outlets. The royals court the media because it is free and uncritical marketing for a constitutional monarchy.”

2. Stephen Booth in The Telegraph

on why no-deal needn’t be an ‘unmitigated disaster’

No deal may be the only way of honouring the Brexit vote – and it doesn't need to be a disaster

“The short-term disruption resulting from a no-deal Brexit would be material but, for an economy as big and as adaptable as that of the UK, it would be manageable. Brexiteers who say no deal would not cause any problems are wrong – but so are Remainers who claim that it would be an unmitigated disaster. The crucial point is that the Government is not powerless in a no deal scenario. In a new report today, Open Europe has outlined how the right set of responses could address many of the issues that would arise under no deal.”

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3. Gary Younge in The Guardian

on pitting Corbyn against a Johnson no-deal Brexit

For those who want to stop no deal, Jeremy Corbyn is the only hope

“In the second round of the French presidential elections in 2002, which pitted the conservative Jacques Chirac against the far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Communist party local councillor, François Giacalone, voted for the conservative. ‘When the house is on fire,’ he said, ‘you don’t care too much if the water you put it out with is dirty.’ Right now, the house is on fire. Johnson’s first couple of months in office have illustrated that what’s at stake is not a contest between bad and worse. The key consequence of understanding that Corbyn is the legitimate leader of the Labour party is understanding that this fire cannot be extinguished without him.”

4. David Brooks in The New York Times

on the enduring support for Donald Trump’s presidency

Why Trump Voters Stick With Him: an imagined conversation

“The big picture is this: We knew this guy was a snake when we signed up. But he was the only one who saw us. He was the only one who saw that the America we love is being transformed in front of our eyes. Good jobs for hard-working people were gone. Our communities in tatters. Our kids in trouble. I had one shot at change, so I made a deal with the devil, and you’d have made it, too.”

5. Rory Stewart in The Evening Standard

on his plan for his next political move

I’m running to be an independent Mayor — and together we can fix the problems of this great city

“So many of our problems in London are blindingly obvious. You don’t need me to tell you that too much of our housing is unaffordable, or that our air is grotesquely polluted, or our streets unsafe. Instead you need someone like me to sort these things out…Our politicians have been taken hostage by public relations consultants, and despite their optimistic promises, they are privately uneasy, pessimistic, and indecisive leaders, who have little experience of how to actually change the world.”