Prince William and Prince Harry were in Datchet today as part of a 20 man Household Cavalry team helping to clear debris and put down sandbags to abate the flooding in the area.  Check out this picture to see how bad the flooding is.

England has been having a serious flooding problem for months now.  Prince Charles visited some flooding victims in Somerset a last week.  The flooding has even hit Windsor Castle as some of the grace and favor homes have been flooded.  From the complaints I’ve read, I guess the government isn’t doing much to help the victims.  Shame.  Kind of like when the US government took so long to help the Katrina victims in New Orleans in 2005 (but I don’t think it took months for the government to help after Katrina the way they are in England).

According to the official word from KP, William and Harry didn’t want their trip publicized so that it wouldn’t overshadow the seriousness of the flooding and the relief effort.  And when a photographer/reporter asked William about his volunteering William said, “Well you could come and help instead of holding/hauling cameras around/about.”  William’s voice on the tape is a bit mumbled. William has a point, except that comment came from a place of hating the press more than actually thinking the reporter should help with the flooding.

I hate to say this, but I kind of have to side-eye the whole “we don’t want it publicized” thing.  They may not have called the press, but there were a number of photographers and this trip has been well publicized. They probably called the press, but unofficially. Like, the press got a tip from a “source” and knew to be there. It is an excellent photo op to alleviate their bad press from the hunting trip.

On Twitter, the former royal chef, Darren McGrady, called out William and Harry for their sandbag lugging.  He said that they should use their status to rally the troops to do something instead of actually participating themselves.  I completely disagree with him.  I think getting in there and helping is a great thing to do.  Not only does it lift spirits to see the royals actually volunteering, but it is a great way to publicize the seriousness of the problem and “rally the troops”.  Which is why I don’t understand why the Princes would want to keep it private, and why I kind of think they were behind the press thing (if only unofficially).  Of course, they wouldn’t see it that way; they would only see it as a nice PR move, but still.

Good for William and Harry for getting in there and helping.  Hopefully this wasn’t purely a PR stunt and they will do more of it, but I doubt it.  The more I think about it, the more I think it was a PR stunt, which makes William’s aggressive comment to the reporter completely uncalled for. The reporters are there because you called them to publicize your PR stunt, don’t be rude to them. It’s like when Kate called Tanna to photograph her playing tennis, and then sued him or whatever action she took. Stupid. Here’s a tip for all celebs: don’t call the paps on yourself and then be rude, without those paps you would be nothing because clearly you don’t have the star power or acting ability or whatever to land roles to keep you in the news and you have to call the paps for daily coffee trips.

Here’s a video of William’s comment to the reporter:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhvXuxdQL7E&w=560&h=315]