The Royal Family #16

[TYL159]

This is the whole paradox of the Royal family. Through dint of birth they are immediately propelled to the top of British society in terms of status and wealth. William would never want to send his kids to the local state school (even if it was outstanding). But they have to pretend to be like us and the media helps peddle that myth so the plebs don’t suddenly go whoah OMG THIS IS UNFAIR. Because of course it inherently is.

I have more problem with Charles and Edward going to Cambridge and depriving others of a place scraping BC and CDD in their A levels respectively.

When Charles went to Cambridge most pupils did not have 3 A grades as it was pre grade inflation and he got a respectable second class degree. William went to St Andrews of course. Plenty of people have inherited wealth, indeed plenty inherit more than the Royals do especially if their parents are part of the Super rich, nothing wrong with inheritance

Fine. We all know they have huge privilege. Don't pretend to be something else and dont leak stories to the press about how frugal you are because you used a £1k scarf twice. To be fair to them, a lot of this is the entirely uncritical and sycophantic press we have and the Royal sycophant industry that has sprung up, where arsrlicking the Royals on TV is a job for mediocre minor aristocracy and ex Royal servants . They are sycophantic because the Royals use their leverage to allow/ deny them access and leak favourable stories to them snd they need print.

Richard Kay was hardly sycophantic in the Mail and if you think the Sun and Murdoch press were sycophantic to Fergie and Charles for instance you obviously had your head in the sand in the 1990s

 

[Stillwater]

I guess folk just see different things.

 

[Justhereforthedrama]

Would she not be on holiday this time of year?

Im not sure - maybe thats the explanation. Just she was very visible until mid July then hasnt been seen/heard from since

 

[TYL159]

I don't know how it works either but I do know they're not relying on money from the government to survive. They have unbelievable private wealth. They'd probably happily do less work and get less money because they don't need it. The whole royal thing just holds them back from living the lifestyle that other incredibly wealthy people do.

To an extent but they wouldn't get to live in the Crown Estate Palaces like Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace or Kensington Palace which are priceless or indeed Adelaide Cottage without being royal. Nor would they get to present trophies at big sporting events, nor meet so many celebrities or top politicians either nor get round the clock security, nor paid for foreign travel.

So it has its perks as well as duties, including the duties for Charles and William which will come as Head of State. Even if they would be rich still royal or not as serving royals

 

[FenellaTheWitch]

They're all cops under the specialisms, all trained the same to start with. In my area it was common for a detective to be moved back to uniform and area policing for a while on promotion and then back to a detective once they had some experience at the higher rank. I don't know what it is now with the single national force.

There is no single national force in the UK.

There are things like the National Crime Agency and National College of Policing but it still very much individual forces policing individual areas.

 

[Eirawen]

He was a dog!

Yes a but the sister was even worse in this case.

 

[Tangent Tiger]

Well, he does support charities

 

[Tangent Tiger]

She sent her kids to the same school as william and Harry. Wetherby.

I think Paul McCartney was insistent his children went to the local state school but Stella talked about the difficulty of coming from a different background to the majority of other students. I'd have to look it up as it was a while back now!

 

[Boring Monday]

TQ's dad was Albert, known as Bertie. He changed his name to George.

I don’t think it’s so much changed their name, as used one of their actual middle names.
Edward VII (of the special chair) was actually Albert Edward.
George VI used his last middle name … whereas Edward VIII used his first name for Kingly purposes but was known by his last middle name of David.
Charles has a pick of Charles, Philip, Arthur or George.
William has Arthur,Philip or Louis (George seems to have skipped a generation for good behaviour).
George has Alexander or Louis
(all of which shows the Royal Family really doesn‘t trouble the baby name book)

 

[Isa_Drennan]

So far in his book, he's revealed that the thing the Queen was happy about when her husband was being buried was that Meghan Markle was not coming,

Perhaps I’m missing something but I don’t get how this (of all the things that genuinely do) makes the old lizard lady look bad.

 

[FenellaTheWitch]

it wasnt pool.. it was billiards! haha

Definitely some sort of ball game

 

[Pulltheotherone]

I’m not a fan of helicopters but of course anything could happen travelling anywhere in anything.
It just seems an unnecessary risk.

 

[laughing]

I really hope Charlotte gets to the match this evening

 

[Chocolategoggler]

Oooh!

 

[TYL159]

I am wondering about this too, been planted here to defend them to the hilt I have never seen such an obsessively loyal Royal ist and so knowledgable too.

I can confirm I neither work for the Palace or Royal household, I once did a brief period at one of Princess Diana's charities but that is it

 

[Eirawen]

I am a few years younger than Charles. I went to the local state grammar school. All students who wanted to go to university took 3 or 4 A level subjects. I took 4. I was predicted to get B's and was encouraged to apply to universities like Birmingham and Nottingham rather than Oxbridge. A star did not exist but some of my friends who were expected to get A's were encouraged to try for London or Oxbridge. I think with C, D, as predicted grades we would have been advised to apply for an HND at the local polytechnic. A lot less students went to university in the 1960's. My father was a car mechanic not a royal and I worked a saturday job to earn extra money.
I don't think any of the royals are particularly academic.

No way would Charles have gone to a poly but with his pathetically low grades he shouldn't have been allowed in Cambridge as you say only A grades would have been allowed to darken their door.

 

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I know it must be hard to believe what it was like, but honestly, there really was such a weird atmosphere when Diana died. I think like others have said, it was such a shock.

She was always in the papers at that time, so even if you weren’t interested in the Royals, she was always just “there” and so alive. And then suddenly she wasn’t. It was just the last thing anyone was expecting.

I remember all the radio stations stopped playing the usual upbeat music, Radio 1 was playing

Spoiler: this song

over and over again, it was such a spooky song.

We'll have something like it coming again with the Queen at some point.

 

[Mrs Fluff]

Is this a thing? They can change their name?

Yep, Queen's father was Albert, but went by George as king for example.

 

[Multi-21]

Can’t William take a child if Kate isn’t there?

I suppose there is no one to look after them while he is doing official presentation stuff if Kate isn’t there. Don’t suppose the nanny would get a seat in the box to watch.

 

[elliebee27]

Does the Royal Family have to have security everywhere they go, or like this occasion they have to be on 24 HR call? What about if the kids go to birthday parties, do the hosts parents have to get vetted & protection team take the kids......what a very sad life to live

I think so, unless they are on protected grounds ie the estates, palaces and so on where there are naturally going to be 24/7 armed guards. When they go anywhere it must be vetted and sweeped. Like US Secret Service.