Why is it that Prince Harry turns everything into a gruesome soap opera? The latest news is that he's reconsidering bringing his family over here this month as planned because his request for police protection has reportedly been turned down.His camp briefed the staunchly republican Guardian newspaper that his long-planned UK visit with his family to meet King Charles had been 'pulled from under his feet at the 11th hour' over inadequate security.We learned that he was distraught and would not subject his children to being 'chased by paparazzi wherever they go from the moment they step off the plane'.Chased by the paps? Was Harry seriously invoking the death of his mother Princess Diana to bolster his argument for taxpayer-funded security? A kind of emotional blackmail to get his way – royal-level security for his family on demand even though he is no longer a working royal?Diana died in a Parisian tunnel in 1997 after a high-speed car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel while fleeing photographers. So Harry using that highly emotive reference here can surely only be deliberate.Yet it is also hysterical and, to my mind, disingenuous.In reality, there is very little possibility of his children – Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five – being 'chased by paparazzi' from the moment they step off the plane in this country.Firstly, as anyone who has ever accompanied VIPs through Heathrow or other major airports will tell you, from the moment their aircraft arrives they are chaperoned off the plane and spirited away into VIP suites, fast-tracked through passport control then escorted into blacked-out limos to their destinations. Harry's team has said that his long-planned UK visit with his family to meet King Charles had been 'pulled from under his feet at the 11th hour' over inadequate security While the behaviour of the paparazzi pursuing Diana's car in that tunnel was unconscionable, the cause of the tragic crash was that the man driving was drunk and going far too fast, writes Amanda PlatellSecondly, things have changed dramatically since Diana's day and for the better. There are rightly now severe checks and hefty penalties precisely to protect the privacy of children, whether they be royal or celebrity kids or just those who end up in the news for whatever reason.While we regularly see William and Kate's children George, Charlotte and Louis (and unlike the Sussex kids get a look at their actual faces), it is usually with the Wales's permission and in pre-arranged authorised pictures. That's the way the world works now, a tacit agreement between the media and the royals that gives them privacy and control over their children's images.The Wales's children are not chased by the paparazzi, nor snapped when Mum, Dad or their grandparents Carole and Michael Middleton drop them off or collect them from school, which they do every day.What is more, while the behaviour of the paparazzi pursuing Diana's car in that tunnel was unconscionable, the cause of the tragic crash was that the man driving, Henri Paul, deputy head of security at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, was drunk and going far too fast.Harry's protestations are especially bewildering as the Sussexes made clear their children would not ever be present in public on this trip if ever it takes place.The plan was that they would reside in privacy in one of the many royal palaces where they would receive 24/7 protection courtesy of the King for their short stay.Yet now, neither the King, nor the palace, nor courtiers are any the wiser as to whether Harry will arrive in the UK at all, with or without his family.That kind of will-they, won't-they cat-and-mouse game is just cruel – and comes across as a naked bid for more attention, drama and headlines.It must be so sad for the King who is sensitive and tender at heart and at 77 so stoically managing his cancer battle. He must be desperate – as any grandfather would be – to see the grandchildren he's not set eyes on for four years, since the Sussexes came over for the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee.Harry is clearly determined not to let the memory of Diana fade. If the family do come here, he plans to take Meghan, Archie and Lilibet to visit her grave on the private island at the Althorp Estate which is not accessible to the public.Of course you would expect him to do so. But why do we have to go through this endless charade in which Harry and Meghan play the victims of the beastly Royal Family and monstrous British state?And why do I get the feeling that it could all turn into a money- and documentary-making opportunity orchestrated by greedy Meghan, now that the Sussexes are on their uppers and her With Love Meghan venture has left her with mountains of unsold jam?Of course, you might expect such behaviour from the couple given what they've done in the past, using their royal status to cash in as much as they can however much pain it causes members of Harry's wider family.But what I did not anticipate was for him to invoke his mother's death in this way, seemingly to try to get his way on security.Even for the runaway prince, it is a new low. Shame on him.