THE Queen turned 96 years old this week which is a pretty remarkable achievement.

What makes it all the more remarkable though is that her grandson Prince Harry has only been around for 37 of those years to protect her.

Harry made the quite ridiculous, even for him, claim this week that he ensures that she’s protected and has the right people around her.

For one of the most protected women on the planet and surrounded by hundreds of flunkies as she is, it must have been very reassuring for the monarch to hear.

You know, just in case she doesn’t feel safe or gets a bit lonely rattling about Windsor Castle by herself.

To suggest that the Queen is just like any other elderly widow and needs her strapping grandson to keep her safe and do her shopping and odd-jobs round the place is simply laughable.

But nothing that Harry says or does any more should surprise anyone.

Here is the man who walked away from the royal family to live 5,000 miles away in California with his wife and children so they could live a normal life in total privacy.

Since them he has done nothing but talk about the royals on various TV shows in his adopted home.

He is also currently suing the Home Office over a lack of adequate protection that will enable him and his family to return to the UK to visit.

Now, I’m not an expert on royal security but his claim that they will receive no protection when they’re here and staying with his family seems ludicrous.

If an attacker were to lunge forward brandishing a gun, for example, would the armed officers that are bound to be present not react to prevent a tragedy simply because he lives in the States?

Of course they would.

Many of the minor royals have an incredible sense of privilege that they don’t really deserve, but Harry tops the lot when it comes to a feeling of entitlement.

He probably even shades that of his uncle Andrew and that is an extremely high bar indeed.

Harry was talking after he had visited the Queen with his wife Meghan Markle this week on a brief stopover in London.

Most folk would have just visited their grandmother and headed off but not Harry. Not when his grandmother happens to be the Queen and he can garner some headlines.

During an interview with US network NBC, he said: “It was really nice to see her in some element of privacy. Being with her was great. It was just so nice to see her, she’s on great form.

“She’s always got a great sense of humour with me and I’m just making sure that she’s protected and got the right people around her.

“Both Meghan and I had tea with her, so it was really nice to catch up with her. We have a really special relationship. We talk about things that she can’t talk about with anybody else.”

Make of all that as you will but the words are breathtaking in their arrogance as well as highlighting his own utter naivety.

The Queen is a great-grandmother many times over and is surrounded by close confidantes as well as family members who regularly visit.

They will all have played a role in rallying round after the death of Prince Philip last year and, indeed, the hissy fit that Harry himself pulled when he walked away from the institution.

There is nothing on record to show the Queen has been rude to anybody in her 96 years on the planet and she has had to make small talk with despots, dictators, presidents and Donald Trump.

I’m sure the Queen was delighted to see him and talked at length about various things but I’m also sure she does that with all her family members.

None of them subsequently go on coast-to-coast TV in the States to talk about it.His comments will also deepen the rifts between himself and his family, who until a few years ago appeared to have his backing.

Harry also said he did not know if he would return to the UK to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, saying there are ‘security issues and everything else’.

And he appeared to commit his immediate future to the US, saying: ‘Home for me now is, you know, for the time being, it’s in the States, and it feels that way as well.’

It is hard not to feel sympathy with a man who lost his mother at such a young age and being a member of the royal family is probably a lot harder than most people think.

But he is now 37 years old, is a father of two and lives a great life in the sunshine with his rather attractive wife.

It’s really time he stopped biting the hand that once lavishly fed him.