The Royal Family #40

[TheTacoLifeChoseMe]

I imagine they would still be working royals but would largely go unnoticed.

Sophie and Edward highlight one of the major flaws in the late Queen for me. They have a ridiculously large house and were promised one of the most important and regarded titles (Edinburgh) despite now being so far down the line of succession and being unrecognisable to a large swathe of the population.

I really like them and think they do a great job, but I think the late Queen was so stuck in her ways and her view of monarchy that she was unable to see that giving her youngest child so much when he would end up far down the ranks and not of much importance to the monarchy was pointless.

I have to disagree with this. Regardless of his position in the line of succession, he still provides a huge value as a working royal and supporting his brother as King. The late Queen was supported for many years by relatives - cousins, who are so far down the line of succession yet, even now, still undertake engagements and represent the royal family at many events etc. Princess Alexandra, Duke of Kent, Duke & Duchess of Gloucester. All way down the line of succession but still highly respected working royals. I think the Duke of Edinburgh is well placed to continue as a fairly high profile working royal. It's not the position in the line of succession that matters really (as proved by Harry and Meghan), it's about the value you add as a working royal.

 

[Honeystar]

I don’t have a problem with her being there, supporting Harry, meeting the athletes, handing out medals etc but it is a bit weird that she walked in procession with them. More that it just looked so awkward and the lacklustre clapping in the background didn’t help. And it’s a bit like, why are you in the procession? It would have been a bit like Kate or Wills walking out with the rugby teams last week - odd

 

[Honeystar]

Her muscles don’t come from being malnourished. She will be eating a clean, high protein diet to get those. I think it all comes down to your personal opinion. For example I think nothing of eating a whole packet of biscuits before complaining the next day that my jeans are too tight whilst my sister is a gym and sport bunny and would stop at two. She’s happy. I’m happy. And we’re both, as far as I’m aware, healthy. If she was obsessed and had an eating disorder I don’t think she would be able to accept food and drink on engagements, it would I imagine be too stressful and triggering for her.

 

[Boring Monday]

I suppose it also depends if he has another engagement especially if it’s for a smaller charity

The World Cup final will have plenty of attention on it already and if he drops something that needs the publicity/boost more then he’d be up for criticism at glory hunting instead of doing royal bread and butter visits

I think he’s more likely to be on his summer hollibobs than anything else but happy to be proved wrong.

I just think for the President of the FA not to be there for the national team in the World Cup Final being held in a Commonwealth country (regardless of whether said Commonwealth Country is already twitchy and making ‘quite like to leave’ noises) is a bit of an error.

 

[Falkor]

Anne's been in Thurso this week, which is nearly as far north as you can go without needing a ferry, at the University of the Highlands and Islands graduation ceremony, congratulating all 70 graduates. Thurso in bad weather is about as far from glamourous as it gets, but she's Chancellor of UHI, which is split into lots of mini campuses all over the Highlands and Islands, and she turns up and does her duty.

 

[Boring Monday]

It's a bloody long way for a football match. They may be on holiday. A Royal visit has to be planned in advance and there are huge security issues. The previous poster who suggested the whole family should be there seemed OTT. Is that Kate & the children (who aren't working Royals) or all working Royals including several elderly ones?

Unfortunately, it’s their job.

I think <to me, in my opinion and all the usual disclaimers> there are two issues at play here.

The first is that the President of the FA isn’t going to be there to support the national team in the World Cup final. The first they have been in for 57 years. The fact that is William is to some degree irrelevent. Whoever the President is should be there, but it is William and so William should be there.

Coupled to that <again to me, in my opinion, etc, etc> is that fact the tournament has been held in Commonwealth countries so given the Commonwealth rumblings and the fact that they have recently pulled out of hosting the Commonwealth Games, given that <to me, etc,etc> William should have been there anyway then it would have been exceptionally good PR and goodwill for he and his family to be there from the start of the tournament (not just going for the final) It’s not like FIFA keeps the dates secret and only drops them at a couple of days notice. There would be plenty of time to arrange a semi official, semi private visit, even if it did clash with their summer holidays. Because, again, that’s the job. The trade off for the 4 homes, pretty clothes and a luxurious lifestyle is occasionally having to put the job first.

 

[Em_gardener]

To be fair I don't think many people would complain about her wearing Invictus merch. I know the RF have their fake medals from Granny and they love to get them out for a good military parade but that's not the same as taking the lead spot in a procession of athletes into an event when you're not one of the athletes. It looked awful.

 

[Honeystar]

Feel like Beatrice has really come into her own since marrying Edo. The awful headgear of William and Kate’s wedding is long gone

 

[Honeystar]

I honestly think he was so desperate for a wife and family and pretty much every serious girlfriend ended because of either the press intrusion or not wanting the royal life that the minute someone came along who wasn’t phased by those things, he put her on some angelic sainthood pedestal. The root cause of the issue is the fact that nobody else did that, William suggested not rushing it (which is surely good advice given their position) etc

 

[Honeystar]

When you look at the welcome they’ve had in France, you see why having a HoS who is above politics has its benefits. No way would Rishi get that welcome, because it’s too political and there’s too much room to clash etc. The strength a monarch can bring to crucial relations with other countries shouldn’t be overlooked

 

[Honeystar]

I think a lot of it is a conscious decision. I don’t think she’s boring I just think she doesn’t have big controversial opinions which we’re so used to these days. You can often see her come more alive when she’s doing walkabouts and a lot of people who have met her have said she’s very self deprecating which I don’t think you see in the public facing part of the role

 

[jkroche95]

I saw an article about this before but have only just seen the video from this tweet and it’s even more weird than I imagined

I just think it's sad that the focus is on the wrong people. The focus should be on the athletes.

 

[squacksquack]

Why do you need to "fault her" for anything? What a miserable approach to life.

It’s a figure of speech… Someone mentioned she wasn’t going to Singapore as it’s when George has his exams and I was merely saying I would do the same thing were I in the same situation. It’s not that deep.

 

[DozyWebster]

Why do Harry and Meghan always breakdown and lay in the foetus position on the floor? I’ve noticed it’s a pattern with these two

 

[TYL159]

Yeah I don’t know if they’d go that far tbh, but there’s definitely something up. My other thought was whether either Charles or Camilla was a bit poorly and they are therefore staying close to home. I’m not sure William is that stupid to just not go given the current furore. He must know himself that his father may not have a long reign and then the focus will really be completely on him and his family. He’d be silly not to keep the focus positive in the meantime. If there’s nothing going on and he really is that arrogant towards public opinion then it’s not going to go well for him.

Look, most people are not going to storm Sandringham because the Prince didn't take a 24 hour round trip flight to watch the England womens' football team lose to Spain. This is a ridiculous media storm in a teacup, the Prince and his family watched the match on TV and he will no doubt greet the players on their return in London to thank them, who cares!

 

[Honeystar]

Why do Harry and Meghan always breakdown and lay in the foetus position on the floor? I’ve noticed it’s a pattern with these two

Personally I would be very alarmed if I found my fiancee crying on the floor the amount of times he mentioned in his book. I think I'd suggest cancelling the wedding if they were that unhappy

 

[jkroche95]

I don’t have a problem with her being there, supporting Harry, meeting the athletes, handing out medals etc but it is a bit weird that she walked in procession with them. More that it just looked so awkward and the lacklustre clapping in the background didn’t help. And it’s a bit like, why are you in the procession? It would have been a bit like Kate or Wills walking out with the rugby teams last week - odd

honestly, If both her and Harry were in the procession it wouldn't have looked that weird. But the fact that she was front and centre, while Harry (the main founding patron) was watching her in the audience was strange.

 

[Honeystar]

Yet again Harry manages to take something worthwhile and really great (invictus) and make it about him, and of course an honourable mention to losing his mother.

 

[stardust21]

Isn’t it funny how every human can view something differently? I watched it and thought it was the most at ease and natural we’ve ever seen Kate - but others have said the opposite! I missed the bit about role models though as I did skip when they got into heavy rugby speak so I must have accidentally gone past that bit

To me it just shows how hard her job is. Every decision, everything she says or doesn’t say, everything she does or doesn’t do is micro analysed and scrutinised and interpreted as both good and bad depending on the person judging.

I honestly cannot understand how anyone would actively seek out this job.

 

[Falkor]

Boris says she knew her health was failing.

Also on one of William’s walkabouts after her death he said they’d been expecting it, just not quite this soon. I do think she had cancer but they don’t reveal details of their health until quite a few year after their death. The Queen mother had cancer quite a few times.
---
I also think Philip had bladder cancer.

I swear she held on just long enough to make sure Boris didn't get the spotlight of doing a reading at the funeral! Good for her Although in 50 years' time it's going to make a great pub quiz question, because everyone will have forgotten about Liz Truss by then and assume it was Boris or Rishi.