There is a new report about a poll conducted by Ipsos MORI involving the public opinion of the British monarchy. The article does not say how many people were involved in this poll, but it seems that this poll is by a legitimate agency, rather than some dumb online poll from a fashion website. The company is a market research company with a legit website, so while I don’t know what the numbers for the poll are, I would assume that they aren’t misleading. I’m going to skip the bit about 65% of those polled wanting the new royal baby to experience a normal working life, by holding an actual job, and just say: that’s interesting; they don’t want the baby to be a do-nothing, over-privileged brat that is completely out of touch with the average public. I’m going to skip to some other things I think are interesting: the fact that Charles’ popularity is on the rise, and the whitewashing of both Kate and William’s lives.
“[T]he public seem to be softening towards … Prince Charles: only 35 per cent of those questioned thought that Charles should give up his right to the throne, with the majority – 52 per cent – wanting him to keep his place in succession.” That is interesting, since for a long time there has been a movement (of sorts) that Charles should give up his place in line to William. This all started when Diana implied in her Panorama interview that William should be the next king instead of Charles. After the divorce and Diana’s death, the public hate-on for Charles was at an all-time high, and since William was young and handsome the movement held steam with the public and some really stupid reporters. And of course after his wedding it happened again, and again after the announcement of the new baby. I think Charles has his problems, like everyone, but I honestly do think he would make a better king than William–especially since William seems to really not want it at all, which is evident through his behavior. Charles has been waiting an awful long time for it (61 years), and is much better prepared for that type of role than William could ever hope to be. So my question: Is the public forgetting Diana (it has been over 15 years since her death), or is the public simply seeing how awful William has turned out to be (not at all the remake of Diana like they were hoping for)?
“Kate, who enjoyed a short career in the fashion industry as an accessories buyer at Jigsaw in 2006 while the couple were still dating.” What? Are you talking about her 10-month stint working only 3 days a week and getting a ton of time off whenever William called her to go on vacation or to polo, and then NEVER working again in her life? Yeah, that is a ‘short career’. It’s not like she was working there full-time (paragraph 8). I think it’s funny that the Daily Mail tries so hard to make people think Kate is such a hard worker when her 3-day-a-week job was the only job she ever had before she married William (and that was in 2006, a full 5 years before her marriage) and she rarely does any royal duties now that she’s married in. It is pretty hilarious how hard the DM is working to make Kate into something, when clearly she is nothing special, but it is also frustrating and disappointing that they put this do-nothing on a pedestal for us to praise–and people fall for it.
“William, who as a search and rescue pilot is one of the few royals to have any kind of ‘real’ job”. I will not discount the fact that William is a trained SAR pilot, and if he does actually work them on a regular basis, that’s a good thing. The part that I don’t necessarily believe is that part that he works for them as regularly as the press and the palace would like us to think. Often times the palace will use the “William has to work” line as an excuse to get him out of having to do royal duties, because William seems to really hate doing royal duties (probably more than Kate, she at least likes getting dressed up and photographed). The palace used this excuse back in late August to explain why William was not at the Paralympics, but then it was revealed (thanks to an unnamed photographer and a super-long lens) that he was not on duty but was sunbathing on a chateau in France instead. This excuse is the go-to anytime William is not doing royal duties, but then it turns out that he is on a hunting weekend with friends the weekend his wife is rushed to the hospital with anything-but-hyperemesis gravidarm. And of course he seems to get a ton of time off to go on vacation to Martinique or Switzerland whenever he feels like it. I want to mention something else, William wears glasses. Now if you know anything about flying, you’d know that a pilot must have 20/20 vision or else he/she will not be considered for a pilot’s license. So how, you might ask, did glasses-wearing William get to be an SAR pilot? That’s an easy question to answer: he was born second-in-line to the throne. He got special treatment when any other person who wore glasses would have been told to find something else to do. William uses his “job” at SAR as a crutch and an excuse to prolong his submission to full-time royal duties.
