As someone who's in the middle of reading it, it does feel like even in the moments of positivity, a sour mention of the press is never too far away. Whether it's 'I loved X thing because there was no access from the press!' or 'X thing was ruined by the press', the press and even specific headlines get mentioned A LOT.
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I would agree with this. His description of army life is really fascinating but he does often descend into self-pity which was frustrating. I swung from moments of feeling very sympathetic towards him (the fact he couldn’t accept his mother was dead was heartbreaking) to really struggling with him.
As for Andrew, I suspect that this is one of those occasions when his supporters brief out an idea to see what reaction it gets. I think it would be a disaster for Charles to do anything that allows him back into public life. I don’t think it will happen.
I have thought for some time that all the bowing and curtsying should be abolished. It’s not a great look for the monarchy in 21st century.
Good for him. Credit where credits due.
PA is a real problem. He was never convicted, and while I personally don’t see how he wasn’t at least implicated in some ways, per law he IS not guilty of anything. Morally though, he is guilty AF. But I am not sure how you can argue with morals to make a solid case that will be looked at as example in the future. There is no Code of Conduct or a clear guideline. So any action is kind of arbitrary. KCIII. would be smart to put his lawyers on it. Having him not using his HRH is probably all they can make him do- I wonder if he actually could just shrug and use it anyway. Also, I am not sure the monarch can strip any titles. Especially the ones that weren’t handed out at their request. That’s for Parliament I guess and while I think they really have more important stuff to do than stripping PA, PA or JS (and some other shady assholes while they are at it) there should be a clear rule book and ways to strip people. High treason is not it in any of those cases.
It’s a bad position for Charles because he can’t execute any real power. The BRF is a very interesting case, having the position of the monarch as very powerful and at the same time very weak.
So yeah, they - Parliament and monarchy - need to outline this in clear form, modify the striping of rules and options of giving them up voluntarily. They need to get rid of several members asap. And outline the prospects for everyone not being the heir.
It’s a bad position for Charles because he can’t execute any real power. The BRF is a very interesting case, having the position of the monarch as very powerful and at the same time very weak.
So yeah, they - Parliament and monarchy - need to outline this in clear form, modify the striping of rules and options of giving them up voluntarily. They need to get rid of several members asap. And outline the prospects for everyone not being the heir.
for the likes of JS, You can’t strip someone of honours once they are dead … the honour stops when they die.
You can revoke them in life if the recipient does something to dishonour it (Lester Piggott had his OBE removed when he was in prison for tax fiddling, Rolf Harris had his taken after he was imprisoned) But for a Knight Batchelor (which the majority of entertainment/sports peerages), which isn’t hereditary then they person ceases to hold it when they die.
Zara doesn't need to - Her lovely husband l is doing a great job at exploting his royal connections in her place. I don't think it's lost on anyone that the year the Queen died he's done I'm a celeb and countless ads on "being royal"
Also seen Kate has done 3/4 public engagements since Harry's book has been released - The PR machine is so predictable at this point for them.
Notable bits from latest private eye:
Camilla did, undeniably, court press contacts during the 1990s, chief among them Stuart Higgins of the Sun and Geordie Greig. But this was a direct response to Princess Diana doing precisely the same, flouting all the customs of royal reporting that had applied up until the "War of the Waleses" by directly briefing her own favoured hacks such as Andrew Morton and Richard Kay, not to mention her full-frontal attack delivered via Martin Bashir and Panorama. In doing so, she was probably more responsible than anyone for reinventing the rules about royal privacy and press discretion against which her son now fulminates full-time.
Does Harry concede any criticism of his mother's own tactics in Spare? Not so much. "Although my mother was a princess, named after a goddess, both those terms always felt weak, inadequate. People routinely compared her to icons and saints, from Nelson Mandela to Mother Teresa to Joan of Arc, but every such comparison, while lofty and loving, also felt wide of the mark," we learn. "She was light, pure and radiant light."
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Delayed rectification
ONE relevant connection between Prince Harry and TV journo Tom Bradby that went unmentioned in their 95-minute interview on ITV this month came when Harry touched upon his belated but ongoing legal cases against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers and the Mirror Group over phone-hacking. "I put in my claims over three years ago and I am still waiting," he declared. "So one might assume that a lot of this, from their perspective, is retaliation and trying to intimidate me to settle rather than take it to court and potentially they have to shut down."
Really? If anyone is guilty of delaying matters over the years it's the prince himself, who cites a litany of libels going all the way back to 1998. Timing is something Bradby could have pressed him on, because it was the journalist himself who kicked off the entire phone-hacking scandal in November 2005 when, as a personal friend of both William and Harry, he spotted that private voicemails he'd left on royal phones had been quoted in the News of the World and told the Palace, who called the police.
While the full extent of the illegal activity on the paper was not exposed until several years later, evidence about the interception of royal phones was a central part of the first trial which saw Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire jailed early in 2007, with charges concerning the hacking of three of the princes' closest aides specifically cited in court. The News of the World apologised directly to the princes and made a donation to their chosen charities.
Given this, the most peculiar timing in the case Harry launched against the NOTW's publisher in 2019 is not how long it has dragged on for - but that it has been allowed to proceed at all, given that the period for claims for misuse of personal information is usually just six years.
But then, judging by the account in his book, the Goodman case appears to have passed Harry by completely. Writing of the subsequent wave of arrests and closure of the News of the World in 2011, he claims that "it was glorious to finally have our suspicions validated and our circle of closest friends vindicated, to know that we hadn't been stark, staring paranoid. Things really had been amiss." At that point, it had already been a matter of public record for five years.
It was not, apparently until eight years after that, when Harry was introduced by Elton John and David Furnish to barrister David Sherborne, "a lovely fellow who knew more about the phone-hacking scandal than anyone I'd ever met", that it suddenly occurred to him- doh! - he might be able to do something about it.
Camilla did, undeniably, court press contacts during the 1990s, chief among them Stuart Higgins of the Sun and Geordie Greig. But this was a direct response to Princess Diana doing precisely the same, flouting all the customs of royal reporting that had applied up until the "War of the Waleses" by directly briefing her own favoured hacks such as Andrew Morton and Richard Kay, not to mention her full-frontal attack delivered via Martin Bashir and Panorama. In doing so, she was probably more responsible than anyone for reinventing the rules about royal privacy and press discretion against which her son now fulminates full-time.
Does Harry concede any criticism of his mother's own tactics in Spare? Not so much. "Although my mother was a princess, named after a goddess, both those terms always felt weak, inadequate. People routinely compared her to icons and saints, from Nelson Mandela to Mother Teresa to Joan of Arc, but every such comparison, while lofty and loving, also felt wide of the mark," we learn. "She was light, pure and radiant light."
---
Delayed rectification
ONE relevant connection between Prince Harry and TV journo Tom Bradby that went unmentioned in their 95-minute interview on ITV this month came when Harry touched upon his belated but ongoing legal cases against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers and the Mirror Group over phone-hacking. "I put in my claims over three years ago and I am still waiting," he declared. "So one might assume that a lot of this, from their perspective, is retaliation and trying to intimidate me to settle rather than take it to court and potentially they have to shut down."
Really? If anyone is guilty of delaying matters over the years it's the prince himself, who cites a litany of libels going all the way back to 1998. Timing is something Bradby could have pressed him on, because it was the journalist himself who kicked off the entire phone-hacking scandal in November 2005 when, as a personal friend of both William and Harry, he spotted that private voicemails he'd left on royal phones had been quoted in the News of the World and told the Palace, who called the police.
While the full extent of the illegal activity on the paper was not exposed until several years later, evidence about the interception of royal phones was a central part of the first trial which saw Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire jailed early in 2007, with charges concerning the hacking of three of the princes' closest aides specifically cited in court. The News of the World apologised directly to the princes and made a donation to their chosen charities.
Given this, the most peculiar timing in the case Harry launched against the NOTW's publisher in 2019 is not how long it has dragged on for - but that it has been allowed to proceed at all, given that the period for claims for misuse of personal information is usually just six years.
But then, judging by the account in his book, the Goodman case appears to have passed Harry by completely. Writing of the subsequent wave of arrests and closure of the News of the World in 2011, he claims that "it was glorious to finally have our suspicions validated and our circle of closest friends vindicated, to know that we hadn't been stark, staring paranoid. Things really had been amiss." At that point, it had already been a matter of public record for five years.
It was not, apparently until eight years after that, when Harry was introduced by Elton John and David Furnish to barrister David Sherborne, "a lovely fellow who knew more about the phone-hacking scandal than anyone I'd ever met", that it suddenly occurred to him- doh! - he might be able to do something about it.
Absolutely. Mike has been cashing in on his royal relation for decades, and is known to blab about them just enough to stay interesting in the hope to get more out of him. Additionally he is basically a shady influencer. So yeah…. no brownie points for Anne’s offspring. I think out of all Beatrice is the only one working a somewhat real job since 2017. Peter Philips company is a joke and heavily relying on his connections. Eugenie might be another contender for actually working a real job. And it seems both women have stopped to take off more days than actually work. But who knows. At this point Beatrice is the only one not living on a royal property- but fear not, she and Edit purchased a £3.5 million manor home in 2021. Oh how the other 1% live.
He does have school fees to find, don’t forget
Ah yes that little chestnut...living the the slums of Anne's back garden where there is no state / grammar schools in the local village.....He does have school fees to find, don’t forget
Any new monarch has to be approved by the Accession Council of leading politicians as even King Charles III was last year. Parliament and the King could also agree to restrict HRHs to working royals
Beatrice and Eugenie have never had real jobs have they? I thought they had 'hobby' jobs. They're not cashing in on the royal connection either though to be fair. I suppose they don't need to really. They're rich enough.
I thought titles had nothing to do with security or salary? Beatrice is HRH and she has neither. I thought maybe it just makes Andrew feel more important.
I think the companies that employ Beatrice and Eugenie are happy to take the rough of having to only have them in the office occasionally with the smooth of having their name on the letterhead and an office door.
Someone spilled the tea a few threads back that this is also the case for Chelsy Davy's "employer".
I think so too. They're not making a fortune from those jobs either I presume. I think they just wanted a little part time job to keep them busy until they got married.
How much of an advantage could she be to a law firm though? If you need a lawyer you're not going to be impressed by a celeb connection surely!
Eugenue and Beatrice's jobs seem to involve having names that their bosses can use on letterheads (so also cashing in on their Royal connections). Before they married and had babies, their working lives consisted of more holidays than work.
Wasn’t there an argument about it a few years ago that the Queen and Charles wanted to take away their security apart from if they were on official royal duties and Andrew kicked off about it and said they needed it all the time? Didn’t he have to pay the difference if he wanted 24/7 security for them?
Yes I remember this. I think with Andrew it is all about status. Didn't he use the phrase ' Blood Princeses' to justify the security? Sounds like he also used it to justify why his daughters needed protecting from some vague theoretical threat but other people's daughters didn't deserve protecting from him and his mates.
Chelsy did an LPC so it's feasible she got the job on merit though
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