Call Olivia Pope, y’all, it’s the Edward and Sophie private plane SCANDAL!  Lol, just kidding.  But this article is trying to make it a big deal.  It even compares Edward and Sophie to William and Kate and says how great Will and Kate are because they took a budget airline the last time they went skiing and Edward and Sophie hired a private jet to take their family on vacation to Switzerland.

I was thinking about this, and if it were Will and Kate, we’d all probably be pissed at them for wasting money and blah blah blah.  Yet with Edward and Sophie, I’m kind of just meh about the situation.  So either I should chill when it comes to the Cambridges or I need to be more upset when it comes to the Wessexes (grammatically, is that how I pluralize Wessex?).  I don’t want to be a hypocrite like William.  So here it goes… how dare you Wessexes for taking a private jet to fly your family on vacation!  *Shakes fist in the air*

In all seriousness, I wonder who pays for their private jet and security.  I don’t think the public pays for their security.  Wasn’t it taken away from them and the Yorks and others a while back?  I guess someone pays out of pocket for that.  They get money from the Queen to fund their offices for their charity work and royal duties—the Queen’s money she pays them with comes from the Duchy of Lancaster, which technically is owned by the state and the Queen is paid from the revenue profits.  I guess the Queen pays for them to live and work.  It’s not like they have any other income.

You know, I know that Edward’s venture into TV production didn’t work out (and he apparently caused a scandal involving Will and Charles got mad) and Sophie had a scandal regarding her work in PR a number of years ago (before they both quit their jobs to focus on royal duties), but at least Sophie had a proper job before she married Edward and at least Edward tried to have a career apart from living off of his mother.  Edward gets made fun of for failing in his career venture, but at least he tried.  I respect that.  Because you know what, yes the royals take on charity work, but the Queen’s children are basically 50+ years old and living off of their mother (except Charles because he has the income from the Duchy of Cornwall)—she pays for their offices, she gives them houses, she must pay for their staff and living expenses because they don’t have any other income (I guess Anne has her horses, but I’m not sure how much they make her versus how much she spends on them, and of course she must have been given the money to buy them in the first place).  They may work hard for their charities, but they really have it pretty darn cushy.  It’s not like they are even working the same amount that a normal person works—they aren’t putting in a full 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, with 2 weeks vacation, you know.

This may not be the popular opinion, but I respect Edward having a genuine interest in something and pursuing it and trying to make something of himself apart from his family.  One could argue he used his royal connections to get ahead, and if it were the Middletons I’d be saying something nasty about it, but even with the Middleton’s grasping, famewhoring ways, everyone uses connections to get ahead in business; it’s not the worst crime in the world.  And while the Middleton’s trading on their royal connection is seen as tacky, I bet almost everyone would have done the same thing.  Hell, I said at the time (on a different blog) Pippa published her book that I would have taken the deal she did if it were handed to me—I would have written a much better book than her but that’s beside the point.  I’m not excusing Edward’s current status of living off of his mother and not working half as hard as the average worker, but at least he tried, you know.  Not everyone does.  Even the average public doesn’t always go out on that limb and try something like that.  Hell, Edward tried harder to make something of himself than Kate did.  And Sophie had a good career going before she married Edward—and shiz hit the fan.  Kate never had a career at all.  Hell, Pippa tried harder to make a career for herself than Kate did, but that’s not the point here.

Sorry this post devolved into me ranting about… I don’t even know.  I didn’t start out intending to go there.  I guess I went on the Edward and Sophie’s careers rant because the Mail article was kind of making fun of them for trying to have careers outside of the Family—and many other articles and comments have made fun of them for it—and I think it’s stupid to make fun of them for trying and failing.  It doesn’t matter that they failed, it matters that they tried.  Not everyone is willing to try.  Without meaning to get self-help-y:  Trying and failing is better than not trying at all.  I may sound like a Wessex apologist, and maybe I am, but I don’t see anything wrong with trying.

I’ll end my rant-filled post by saying it’s nice to see James out and about.  We never get to see him.  I guess the Queen doesn’t like children being around unless they can behave themselves properly, so James doesn’t go to church at Christmas or to the balcony for Trooping of the Color or anything like that.