First we had a bunch of articles telling us that William’s move back to London in the autumn was planned to coincide with Prince Philip’s retirement; then we had the Express tell us that the timing was a happy coincidence, but Kate is totally going to model herself on Philip. Now we have the Times telling us that The Queen wants Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry to step up their game and stop playing around with their dumb crap.
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“The Duke of Edinburgh’s impending retirement has set off a potentially far-reaching discussion in the royal family about the monarchy’s role in public life and the need for a balance between ceremonial duties and what royal sources described as ‘individual activity’. The Queen has signalled that the separate households run by her family should ‘realign’ to place more emphasis on state business instead of initiatives such as the Heads Together mental health campaign launched by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
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“Both Harry and William have spoken of their struggles coming to terms with the death of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales and the importance of ending the stigma about mental health. ‘As successful as that campaign was, it might be that soul-baring isn’t what Buckingham Palace is looking for,’ a royal source said. ‘The direct impact [of Prince Philip’s retirement] will be that the Cambridges will be expected to step up and undertake more state business and do less of their own campaign work.’
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“The Queen’s views were conveyed to more than 500 royal staff at Buckingham Palace on Thursday by Sir Christopher Geidt, her private secretary. A royal source said: ‘The Queen was strongly invoked in that meeting; Sir Christopher very much spoke with her authority. It was less about the announcement itself [of the Duke’s retirement]… and more about refocusing — let’s get back to doing what the royal family is here to do, representing the nation. That means less of the individual royal activity than there has been in recent times.’
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“Heads Together has been hailed as a success by campaigners, and Harry has said that ‘the monarchy has to advance’ in terms of tackling difficult issues. Last night Kensington Palace, which handles publicity for the princes, said the pair had raised more than £10 million playing polo for charity. Harry took part in a polo match at Ascot yesterday to raise money for two children’s charities.
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“The Queen is understood to be proud of her grandsons’ efforts, but is said to be keen for them to channel more of their energies into official royal duties. William recently drew criticism for missing the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, instead going skiing and clubbing in Switzerland.
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“Philip’s decision to withdraw from public life later this year ‘is the opportunity to realign the households’, a royal source said. ‘The feeling is that… everyone must step up to help the Queen and focus more on what the monarchy is there to do: offer continuity and stability, to be a focus for the nation. So let’s make sure we’re all at the Commonwealth Day service, opening tea shops, attending flood disasters — things the public expects the monarchy to be doing.’
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“This summer, William will give up his job as a helicopter pilot and move with his family from Norfolk to London, taking on full-time royal duties. Even though he, Kate and Harry are committed to supporting the Queen, they also plan to expand their own initiatives in mental health, conservation and HIV/Aids. A royal source said: ‘It’s not a choice between one or the other. Showing strong leadership on issues of concern to the public is equally the bread-and-butter work of the royal family in support of the institutional mission.’
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“Within hours of Thursday’s announcement, Philip left by train for northern England on a private weekend visit to friends while the Queen remained in London. He is expected to appear at the Royal Windsor Horse Show from Wednesday and will attend the Queen’s birthday parade, the state opening of parliament and Royal Ascot week in June. The Earl of Wessex said yesterday: ‘He’ll pick and choose what he wants to do.’ Prince Edward said other royals would step into the breach, adding: ‘It is always a team effort and that’s we do, and the show goes on.’ However, news of the retirement was ‘quite a moment’ for the Queen, said a former aide. ‘[She knows] that she is now going it alone.'”
I want to first comment on the £10 million number, because this was brought up in the comments on a previous post. Back on April 23, the Express reported that Heads Together raised £10 million in the year since its inception. Over this past weekend, KP said that William and Harry have raised £10 million over their years of playing polo for charity.
Both of these facts can be true. The fact that William and Harry have raised £10 million over their years of playing polo for charity does not negate the fact that HT raised £10 million in 1 year. We do not currently have enough data to say one way or the other – we won’t know how much HT raised until they release their financial reports.
As far as the actual article goes, I believe that’s what the Queen wants, for William, Kate, and Harry to focus on bread-and-butter/state business type engagements. I also believe that the constriction of just doing those duties would be annoying and I understand why William, Kate, and Harry want to have the freedom to do their own thing. I just don’t think William, Kate, or Harry do enough of their own thing to warrant not doing the other stuff.
If William, Kate, and Harry all increased their participation in the bread-and-butter/state business type engagements, they would have a full workload and wouldn’t be taking any time away from their current work doing their own thing. Because it’s not like they spend full time doing their own charity stuff – they do that part time. So: Bread-and-butter/state business type engagements part time + personal charity type engagements part time = full time working royals. Boom. Problem solved.
I agree KMR – Willy is a very part time pilot, and equally very part time on charities and State matters. Harry probably does more in terms of time for charities, and is down the pecking order for State events – after all QE11 has 4 children, and the wives of two of them, as well as cousins etc who represent her now. Waity is still waiting to find her purpose other than trotting along with Willy and watching as he pushes a button . . . . . no expectation that she will up her game at all.
“Waity is still waiting”…LOL, how true
I don’t see good times for the monarchy with these three alone someday.They don’t have the hardworking attitude to take serious problems in their own hands.I don’t think being king is just cutting ribbons or visiting hospitals, there is a much deeper core for which you need the determination and conviction for,I still can’t see it in William.It’s sad.
I think the weakest link is William. If William was happy about his position and stepped up and made it known he expects everyone else to do so, the other two would follow. Kate would too afraid of displeasing him, and Harry has shown he is capable of working full-time during his time in the army.
Definitely.
The weakest link with no shame or pride in the potential of his job.
Lately i’ve seen comments about his shyness as excuses for his lucklustre work, but this is more BS as far as i’m concerned because shyness doesn’t stop him throwing his weight around and bullying people around him.
And never forget how sly he is, not to mention what a liar he is.
Shy he may be, but self absorption and how life affects him are his guiding drivers.
+1
I don’t see him as shy at all. Kate maybe. But he has never struck me as shy. Maybe he’s confusing introversion– which I guess it’s possible he could be– and shy.
No one could say it better than you EL. At least, Prince Charles accepted his lot in life and began the Prince’s Trust, smart man, and he didn’t want to disrespect his mother and Queen. William totally lacks respect for his family and himself.
Yes, that’s why I respect Charles. I’ve read that he long ago resigned himself to being mocked and ridiculed for who he is and what he represents. He then moved on to work hard to create his charities in ways that have helped quite a few people. There’s a certain grace in that kind of courage to move forward in the face hostility.
By the way, had anyone on this KMR seen the BBC production of Charles the III? It’s airing this Sunday on PBS in the States.
I admire both the Prince of Wales for the Prince’s Trust and the Duke of Edinburgh for the DoE Awards. Both men have carved out their own role rather than resenting someone else’s/waiting to step into another’s shoes.
KMR, you have identified the solution but will the trio like it? Doing their own ‘dumb crap’ (LOL) means to a large extent being under the radar in terms of accountability, along with their ever-ready enabling PR to muddy the waters. Does anyone recall William telling EAA that he had royal duties to attend to so could not work, and telling his family he could not do royal work ‘cos he was doing EAA work? Corralling the trio means not so many pairs of pants on fire.
GraceH (last post) identified the amount in the RF accounts: “If 10 million was raised by HT, it would have increased the Royal Foundations funds by 200%. In 2015 there was a change in how the RF reported their financials. There was a reconfiguration of the RF and it now calls itself a charity. Their total charity funds at 31Dec2016 was GBP 5,007,853. 10 million would have been a huge boost in funds.”
I think the issue is trying to untangle what’s been raised by various mechanisms, what’s been invested and what’s been allocated to charities.
GraceH is awesome with her explanation of the financials.
BP needs someone on staff whose only job is to check the excuses coming out of KP as to why diaries aren’t picking up. They need to remember the lesson of William lying to EAAA and to KP to get out of working for both. They also shouldn’t be a yes person.
I hope the 2 orderlies from PP’s staff that have been absorbed by KP are such people and can’t be fired by KP for being truth tellers.
And i wish they are given more responsibilities than simply geing orderlies because they should be organising KP not waiting for KP to tell them what to do.
I’m hoping GraceH might re-post her excellent explanation of financials re. RF when accounts become available and known, as well as offer further insights. I’m not suggesting for a moment that the books are being fiddled; it’s just difficult to uncover the true state of the financials without the useless PR getting in the way.
I agree that a hard-arsed diary checker of KP schedules is needed. Let’s hope PP’s two staff are empowered to do just that. The trio has gotten away with too much over the years. Counsellors of state? You must be joking. They’re too busy playing. W, H & K are adults and responsible for their actions, but TQ and Charles also need to shoulder some blame for not demanding minimum standards from the get go. The three buttercups will just have to suck it up. Boo hoo.
@Jen
After searching, I think the post you are looking for about the accounts is in the 04 Jan 2017 blog entry, my second post for that day. I also posted this comment in the 07 May blog entry. You can use a browsers find function to locate the post.
What is the point of being a counsellor of state if you only do charities, and part time at that?
There isn’t one that I can see. If done correctly, that can be a crucial role and sounding board. A group with different takes on situations who can advise the monarch on not letting personal feelings or interests sway situations.
I think the charity work is important because it helps them to connect with people globally, but the counselor-of-state role makes them politically relevant to Britain. I think they should do both. I have no idea what causes are truly important to William + Kate, but Harry’s interests are clear: kids, veterans, HIV/AIDS. I hope he’s able to keep up with both.
I agree they need to do both, and both can inform the Cousellor role. That is one of the problems with the BRF limiting most of their visits to the royal-friendly Home Counties.
Exactly! Other than Charles who holidays at the Castle of Mey each year and attends the local Highland Games the nearest I’ve been to a working Royal was Princess Anne when I was little (30+ years ago). Next nearest was when, (Princess Anne again?), stepped in for PP at a service in Orkney. Now Orkney isn’t that far away, I can see one of the islands from my house but there’s a pretty big bit of water in the way and it’s not the easiest or cheapest of journeys. I think the nearest Kate and Will have been ‘officially’ in Scotland is Dundee. Once. I do get a bit sick of the concentration on London and the Home Counties and I wonder how old their kids will be before the rest of the U.K gets to see them! Unfortunately there are no hospitals to open nearby, they are closing them down so I won’t hold my breath for any Royal interest anytime soon.
Any idea as to why they limit their engagements to these home counties?
Herazeus was right about “The Times” being the authoritative mouthpiece for BP. And boy have the Tiresome Threesome been slammed and nailed to the wall; they’ve been exposed for what they are- dilettantes and holitour aficionados -they faff about ‘working’ in exotic places and largely shun the drab and commonplace UK. This is positively excoriating.
No wonder the sudden notice of continuing HT because it was so monumentally “successful” (I think they are lying liars that lie). It’s a desperate attempt to climb out of the quicksand of duty and they’re going kicking and screaming all the way.
“Even though he, Kate and Harry are committed to supporting the Queen, they also plan to expand their own initiatives in mental health, conservation and HIV/Aids.”
Of course they are! Their own so-called initiatives are largely tightly controlled PR exercises that allow them to elevate their god-like celebrity while doing bugger all except bringing the body in obscenely expensive new clothes, playing polo and being cared for and entertained. The bread and butter stuff is all about duty, actually reading your briefs, and, ya know, constantly mingling with the great unwashed.
This is turning out to be very juicy. Willy is raging. So am I because these ignorant, lazy hypocrites are the last people who should have any influence on mental health and conservation. As for the AIDS initiative, is this a thing for them? Diana did it but I haven’t heard anything about the others, ever.
The court wars have begun!
+1. Maintain the rage.
This Times article does read as a BP and Clarence House smack down if the younger royals have belittled the bread-and-butter events behind the scenes. It goes directly against the theme we’ve been getting, esp from W&K from the beginning, that they were going to only do a few major charities and not do any of these other things. Then they turned out to be doing basically nothing for their big patronages. Harry at least have given the world Invictus and is making something of Sentebale (both of which are mostly personal time).
I’m worried the AIDS/HIV part is a land grab by W&K to try to snag some Sentebale popularity. I’d rather it remain Harry’s personal time, personally owned charity. I’m convinced that’s why W&K latched on to mental health, because Harry was getting good press for addressing those issues with veterans for a couple years before HT.
Re. HIV/AIDS – yes, the pattern from W+K is to ride on the coat tails of others’ work but whatever they take up will soon be dropped. They have form: William can’t follow through, and Kate’s along for the ride.
Wasn’t William supposed to go to Silicon Valley to talk to the tech guys about cyber bullying? Or was that just rumor because that’s another cause (like most of his) that hE doesn’t do much with.
I see this as the perfect excuse for them to drop the HT campaign when they want to
Yes, Sarah. His PR put out in January 2016 that he was preparing for a meeting with Facebook and Google executives in Silicon Valley. Of course, that would require work so we never heard about it again.
Thanks I thought it strange that it completely disappeared off the radar.
+1
I’m interested to see who starts accompanying the Queen, and if it ups everybody’s numbers or they hold steady. Will Sophie and Edward do their usual numbers, plus add on numbers when they accompany HM?
In terms of females accompanying the Queen, I’d like to see her more with Camilla and Sophie, even Princess Anne. Males? Prince Harry, to make William step up lol, “I wanna hang out with granny!” Williams cries.
“Now we have the Times telling us that The Queen wants Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry to step up their game and stop playing around with their dumb crap.”
LOLOLOL @ “dumb crap!”
I think it has hit the Queen very hard that once she passes the monarchy is not looking very good and her legacy can be threaten as well.
It’s a shame that the Queen has been content with William and Kate’s schedule until now. It’s been 5 yrs and she’s obviously been okay with their embarrassingly low numbers until now!!
She could have made them up their game a long time ago and now she wants this pair who’ve shown no iniative to be work horses?? Yeah okay
I would love to see Harry at a state dinner tho.
Well, I’ve read that she promised them a 2-year pass after their wedding – she wanted to give them time to settle and enjoy married life like she did in the very early years of her marriage. Maybe she just forgot about them LOL.
That 2yr pass HM is supposed to have given WK post-wedding is actually a media made up lie.
It was PR swinging into action to obsfucate the fact that after selling Kate to the world as a dazzling workhorse who couldn’t wait to hit the ground running and work during the engagement period, she had turned around after the wedding and refused to work claiming she needed time to settle into the marriage. Time needed being unspecified.
The first PR effort painted her as needing to be a housewife in Wales, cooking William’s favourite chicken dinners, running his bath at the end of each day, and joining the Anglesey RAF wives’ club. ( one of my friends still remembers the RAF wives club lie because she was so excited about it and subsequently disappointed when Kate didn’t join, yet wrote them a foreword as if she was a member)
Second effort was the media pundits, who’d written glowing reports about Kate’s work ethic started discussing the Queen’s Malta stay and Philip’s being stationed there for 2 yrs as a deflection.
Details were moved around to suit the new Kate narrative eg the fact that Philip didn’t go to Malta until 2yrs AFTER their wedding. The Queen visited him on Malta 4times during those 2yrs and kept the babies back home with nannies and grannies.
The national archives show that HM was on Malta for 2months at a time during those visits to Philip, and continued to work for/ with her father before, during and after Philip’s stint on Malta.
Before you know it, Kate was said to be modelling her life on the mythical 2yr timeout the Queen had in Malta to be a housewife.
When that wasn’t selling so well, the myth was massaged further to claim that HM had herself given them 2yrs to settle into married life based upon her own mythical 2yr timeout in Malta.
As time moved past the 2yr mark of the marriage and WK still refused to work, most people came to realise the lies they had been fed, started researching that mythical 2yr timeout, and realised what a bunch of hokum it was.
KP is trying to spin Kate as modelling herself on Philip in much the same way.
Oh, that’s makes sense. Thank you! Still, 4 months of intermittent domestic bliss in Malta (over two years) must have been so nice for QEII. I read that she got to go to a hair salon for the first time during her stint there, which I thought was such a sweet little detail.
Anyway, in fairness to the Cambridges – they didn’t refuse to “work” – they just didn’t do much work at all: a Canadian tour, a gala or two, a photo op with the Obamas – just the fun stuff, I guess.
As with all things Cambridge’s and work related- Lies on top of more lies to justify their not working.
What I find baffling is that the Queen and Charles do have a work ethic and most kids emulate their parents in that regard (always the exceptions) yet William thinks his parents working made them bad parents and one of his justifications of not working?!
Most parents in the states at least are working 40-60 hr was just to provide the necessities
I thought that was a press-created thing. Like, the press made that up because William’s SAR contract didn’t expire until two years after they were married.
William’s contract was due to expire /before/ he turned tail and left SAR, wasn’t it? He got bored.
It was definitely in reaction to Kate’s 180 immediately after the wedding.
All media right upto the wedding day emphasised how much she was dying to work and was merely held back by the lack of an official role in the royal family.
The HM/ Malta story started within weeks of the 180 after there was a tiny nasty moment in reaction to it.
We even got a pap stroll to Waitrose in Anglesey to emphasise the new narrative.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/05/06/article-1383965-0BEBA4FA00000578-248_634x920.jpg
With time, the genesis of the 2yrs started to develop alternative theories, but it was initially based on HM’s mythical 2yrs in Malta.
In terms of work carried out that year, apart from Canada and Denmark, all their engagements were driveby photo ops except for galas eg that Obama meeting was only 10mins.
Finally, William never completed his SAR /RAF contract. There was a tiny article about him leaving early which would incur a £400K penalty if he was an ordinary member of the public, but being a prince had accorded him the privilege of waiving it.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-william-owe-taxpayer-400000-1844015
But i think the RAF were glad to see the back of him after he pulled stunts like taking RAF helicopters for joyrides yet having to pretend it was all part of the training plan and blaming themselves for it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-560834/Prince-Williams-30K-stunt-lands-RAF-helicopter-Kates-garden.html
We were given the spin by many fans that he had to leave because of SAR going private to an American contracting firm. The fact that that wasn’t happening until 3 years after he left didn’t occur to them.
Anyone who was with SAR was able to compete for a future job with the incoming contractors. Trouble is, a US company wasn’t going to cover up for the heir to the throne the way the military branches had done for years.
They could so very easily step up to do what she wants them to do but also have time to focus on their pet projects. The problem is W&K’s pet projects are being insolent and lazy.
The more that comes out, the more the skipping of Christmas made sense. It was a pouting fit.
I wonder what William would do if Charles passed away before the Queen. He is so totally unprepared and we don’t know that Charles will have the same long life as his parents and grandmother. He is almost 70 and King George died when he was just in his fifties.
When the emergency meeting was announced last week, I wondered if anything had happened to Charles. If genes are anything to go by, and all going well, he’ll be strong into his 90’s. And the royals last so long because they live so well. Nevertheless it gives Charles only a small window as king, whereas William the Undeserving will theoretically have a much longer stint, should the monarchy even exist then. I can’t see it financially sustainable in its current form of £300+ million per annum, not when the UK has nurses having to use food banks ffs.
Well, this should be interesting, is all I can say. Sounds like the start of a Royal Rumble! Kate better get pregnant fast so she can have : 3 months off to be sick (which I hope is a real thing with her), 3 months to do a little work, then 3 months of very little work…….baby is born, maybe another 3 months off.
I thought she took like 8 months maternity leave with Charlotte.
I would have thought that Kate would have chosen to do work with women’s health and HG as a way of raising awareness for the issue. The fact that she has not makes me question if she really had it.
I know some women who were at risk of kidney failure from HG and told they would need to abort the pregnancy if they became too sick. If Kate really rid have HG with both pregnancies that would explain why she would not have a third baby, though.
Kate was back to working her normal schedule by Sept 2015. So that’s only 5 months (since she took April off).
Eh, just because a woman doesn’t want to do anything with the cause of HG doesn’t mean she didn’t have it.
I had HG. It would be a long stretch of the imagination to believe Kate had it. I couldn’t do anything but lay down for 8 months. There wasn’t any shopping or visiting family. They all came to me in order to take care of my children.
If and this is a big if, if she actually had it then I’m certain she would have come out and spoke about it, because that would have been an easy one but she didn’t. I’m in no way attacking you, Cookie, just trying to bring to light the realities from someone who truly suffered with it and spent most of her last pregnancy in the hospital. 🙁
With you on this Springs Mom. I had HG for 9 months * 3. It was truly horrible , I was in and out of hospital but still had to hold down a job, and by the third had to take care of two very young kids. No way I could have done some of the things Kate did. Bad morning sickness? Yes absolutely. HG I’m not so sure.
I agree with you. I don’t believe she had HG at all. It sounds more dramatic than morning sickness and an excuse for months of sympathy and time off. Once the expected time for having it was over she made a sudden reappearance looking entirely normal and was up and running in no time. It is these sort of incidents of deceit which have diminished or lost respect for the BRF in my eyes and I’m sure many others.
Wow, I thought my bout was rough! I had it through all three pregnancies but thankfully never had to be hospitalized. I would have a few “good” days here and there but man, being sick for months on end really takes its toll. The one thing that I’ve kind of privately laughed about is the reaction to Kate being back to pre-baby weight so quickly. I’m at my most slender immediately post-pregnancy. With my worst bout I was a size two. (I’m 5’8″ and innreal life I’m 4-6.)
+1
While we are on baby talk and can’t work because ….(.can’t wait for one Princess Henry!!)
This is the cold QEll that only did her royal duties, we have heard middelton PR on family ( of lazy workshy snobs) – and why POW was such a great (i mean poor) father/ single parent to his sons. carol middeltons better take note-
Prince Charles played with Queen: http://youtu.be/D-zeEir1zHw
The Queen must think what will happen to the monarchy once she is gone. Sad 🙁
Kitty, please try and make some different comments. The monarchy will go on, largely because the alternatives are no better. Have you got some other interesting ideas to add to our conversations? I’m sure we would all like to hear them. Why do you think the monarchy which is many centuries old will stop when HM dies?
Loving your comments today Birdy
+1 Birdy!
I mean a lot of the commonwealth countries will leave, and The Queen is the glue that has kept the monarchy together.
Aren’t the Kents retired as well? Who’s picking up their slack?
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent aren’t officially working royals. Duke of Kent is still working. His wife retired from public life years ago for personal health reasons.
Well. Philip has earned his right to retire. And the Queen is also over 90, so she could also be given a break. Or be made to, if she should cling to her vows about serving. Or are the younger guys really that incompetent? Come on, they just need to be thrown in to the deep end, not pampered anymore.
I’ve been chewing on some thoughts about the BRF for awhile, but what’s been going on since William’s ski trip has brought them to a head. I hope this all makes sense
First thing, it’s clear now that this has been going on behind the scenes for a few months. I’m thinking that the ski trip was just another FU to the BRF on Will’s part, since he is angry that he has been asked to fill the role that he was born into.
That leads to my major thought: for all that the Queen can be admired for her unwavering duty, it can also be said that her tunnel vision and inflexibility are marching the royal family towards another crisis. I sympathize with her for the turmoil she experienced during the abdication crisis and understand how it colors her views towards her position up to a point. However, it seems that she has never learned the balance between maintaining tradition and knowing when to be flexible and with the times. She has the ability to connect with people when she meets them in person, but she has never quite been able read the nuances or the national mood until a situation forces her to. Combine this with her hands off policy regarding her family (until it threatens her own position on the comfy chair, of course), and you have a bitter cocktail in the form of William along with a family feud that is beginning to play itself out in the press.
I’m with you on this. Other Brits disagree but I think the monarchy needs to evolve or we will always have an old HOS. HM could still offer herself inservice to her country whilst stepping aside as monarch . Her greatest failure has been her reluctance or inability to deal effectively and promptly with family issues. I think a HOS must be able to carry out all duties themself. That includes visiting all the realms of which they are HOS. Clearly HM even on a private plane cannot travel distances. I do wish she would hand on the crown now, and continue to be involved where she chose and enjoyed and felt she could make a difference. She’s remarkable for her age but now is the time for her to accept a lesser but still critical role. So it’s not what we do ? This is 2017, the last year has shown us that times change. I would love a young dynamic, forward thinking HOS .
I’d respect her for holding the crown till death did its part if she’d also delivered a withering smackdown to William from the very beginning. While he had every right to go through the grieving process with his mother, he does not have the right to use her death as a crutch and an excuse. He does and will continue to do this because no one has called him out on it, just as he continues to be an arrogant bully.
Quinn, Willie is a bully of the worst kind. He’s in a position of some power for which it’s been deemed disrespectful to confront or stand up to him. He exploits that position. I have other words for someone like that but won’t say them here. I despise people like Willie.
I’m with you, Indiana. The rumors about abdication being the threat he holds over her head, his Diana-like temperament, etc. This was not a nice kid, and he is not a good man.
I wonder how he would have turned out if QEII hadn’t been afraid to say “Do it. Abdicate. You’ve got a younger brother.”
One of my biggest issues with the Queen is her ability to stick her head in the sand in regards to her family and some of their more glaring issues. William should’ve been taken in hand a long time ago. This isn’t a recent problem with him. If Charles can’t control him then she should address the matter herself.
I get that people like and find comfort in the fact that the monarchy is stationary. I think if it’s going to continue it needs to adapt with the times on many different fronts. How much they get funded being one. Spares and spares spares need to be expected to either live off inheritance or able to work in the real world. Only the heir and his line (until spare(s)comes of a certain age) get automatic RPO’s and then when off duty they feel the need they can pay for their own. Who gets the HRH. I know herazeus doesn’t agree but I don’t think whomever Harry marrys should be HRH-just Duchess of whatevs and his kids stylized accordingly.
There’s a reason the things that evolve usually make in in the long run and the ones that don’t, don’t.
When more and more people question hereditary rule and the cost of maintaining that lifestyle -I’d say it’s time for the monarchy to evolve
Agree with you Sarah! The funding should only extend to the Monarch and the direct heir and any minor-age children of the direct heir, if we are to even have the joke that is the monarchy at all, that is.
… the same direct heirs are the problem – waste of and his middelton in laws. They are the ones shopping with millions in multiple renovations – on multiple properties for 2 teenage- adults and 2-kids, with no return to the people in the 16 years of entitlement, luxury vacations/ freebies and perks!
I have just been watching an old docudrama about the Queen’s five crises in which a talking head (Graham Thomas?) says the queen has behaved as if she will be the last monarch and described her reign as a “glorious holding action” that didn’t advance the monarchy. It’s like she has woken up now at the eleventh hour to what a mess William and Kate are. Really BP could have copied and pasted many of the KMR articles and comments from the last couple of years to send to those two slackers. My feeling? It’s probably too late. I don’t know if they can be the heirs we would wish them to be, because change of character in mid-life is hard work, and they don’t work.
“a glorious holding action”- how perfect a description! Her behaviour certainly suggests that. My feeling is that this became all about her and her longevity; the extravagant celebrations of that seemed to multiply the older she got. Once on that path, everyone else faded in significance. It’s as if her own legacy would be her longevity (and sense of duty, elevated into a fetish), and leaving a meaningful legacy behind beyond that in her heirs didn’t really matter. Thanks for bringing us another novel interpretation.
ETA: It also makes me wonder if it’s Charles who pushed the new reality finally and forced her to wake the hell up and take her foot off the brakes. We all tend to think it was the queen, the one who has avoided decisiveness her entire life.
+1000
the fake HT organization for whinybillmiddelton to have his mMiddleton court away from POWand his royal advise will be another question of bill middelton court to dodge royal duties charities for the people and the use of funds for charities. This org is a sham that bill with carol middelton attach Prince Harry – similar to the climbing ‘private’ middelton wedding that whiny include Prince Harry into.
Prince/ess Henry Wales will be better off having their own Line duties in line with BP/POW – sincere credible hardwork and duties and charities than in bed with whiny lazy entitled bill carol waity midde!tons scheming workshy/shady funding behaviour to continue with his funding to middletons.
HM DoE is onto the bill waity carol middeltons, the Times other media is spot on with TQ (PP) disgust. POW should be correcting his Line from the lazy waste of lambridges – but knows ‘my mom died’ card by a 34 year old his teenage-adult spouse will be used.
If the queen put her foot down and is now trying to reestablish the ‘firm’ as anything but a ‘royal road show’ with the main players in the public mind being the ‘terrific trio’ I think that ship has long since sailed and sunk. These young ‘royals’ have considered themselves celebrities and so does the majority of the public, in my opinion. Those ridiculous headbands, waity’s flashing and skin tight jeans, and now William wearing modern pants which show too much are set in the public eye. When Billy boy mocked the tube strike and Sophie brayed with laughter I lost any and all respect for either of them. That was akin to taking their RPOS and walking the streets filled with homeless hungry people and munching on caviar and drinking champagne. Not in the literal sense but that showed how much they care, which is not at all and all their supposed support for anything is just smoke and mirrors, pr and photo ops. That right there is ‘celebrity’, and they don’t even really know what work actors and actresses do to earn that moniker.
The queen is bailing and flailing and for anyone to suggest that waity is modeling her ‘royal career’ on PP is really guzzling way too much kool aid. I don’t know about anyone else but as far as I’m concerned the ‘firm’ is entertainment, watching all the pomp and seeing how these people get all dignified and puffed up when the reality for me is out there. This is just my view. Laughing, giggling, showing off is not professional behavior and the ‘mystery and awe’ of the ‘firm’ has been damaged. No longer can they hide away, not with the age of the internet and social media. Whatever my thoughts on the queen and PP are, those two worked at real jobs and the queen really believes that she is chosen by God. I have some not very gracious thoughts on how she has used her belief so I will leave it at that.
I give Harry a pass on the Las Vegas scandal, he was young and in Las Vegas. The Nazi outfit was totally ugly and way out of line, it was wrong and anyone who had schooling should know what that meant. That to me was beyond words reprehensible.
+gazillion
Sigh and swoon. Marry me. I love almost all of your comment so much. As Jen recently said : maintain the rage.
“I don’t know about anyone else but as far as I’m concerned the ‘firm’ is entertainment, watching all the pomp and seeing how these people get all dignified and puffed up when the reality for me is out there. ”
Yes, for me it’s an awful lot like watching Dynasty except that the consequences of their existence are real and not necessarily pretty.
I agree with everything you’ve said. The damage has been done. These people are out of touch with reality. I am really hoping that Canada decides to leave the commonwealth once the Queen passes. I don’t feel that these people are a good representation of their own country, let alone mine.
William and Kate have always seemed very reluctant royals. As has been discussed here numerous times, they are happy to enjoy all the perks and indeed Kate did pursue this life, but they are wary when it comes to actually working. Over the past couple years, to me, it increasingly seems that they are being forced to work. We’ve seen the public and press criticize them for their idle lifestyles, scandal over vacations, and now Prince Philip retiring. I am very curious to see how they handle and adjust to an increased royal workload. Particularly William as it seems he’s been avoiding this situation for years. I think there’s going to be a pretty steep learning curve and I’m very interested to see how they all acclimate.
The biggest challenge is to get the key players in the Royal family to work together as a cohesive unit. It seems that they all have their own agendas and even worse, they dont seem to get along. In particular William and his father.