AIBU to think that the way the Prince and his new bride are being portrayed as some as 'ordinary' is nauseating and stupid?

[Wamster]

This is not about them as people- they may be very nice as people. It's about the propaganda to portray them as some kind of 'ordinary' couple by the press and media. How can they be ordinary? All the hogwash in the press about the bride's mother having a say in the wedding as if it were some kind of nice, middle-class do, now I'm not saying she did not have a say, but does anybody really believe that had the palace NOT agreed with her, her views would hold any water? The nonsense about the new bride's sister and Prince Harry getting together

I cannot believe people are gullible enough to swallow the 'they are just like us' line. Surely whether for OR against the royals nobody can truly believe this?
AIBU?

[izzywhizzyletsgetbusy]

The author needs to get their facts right - John Major began his 'working' (hollow laugh) life as a bank clerk.

I seem to recall that it was established that he had 1 'O' level to his name, and it was his brother Terry who either sold or made garden gnomes instead of being one like his sibling.

As for the rest - absolute twaddle from the Barbara Cartland school of pure fiction. I'm tempted to say you couldn't make it up, but obviously someone did and got paid for it - grrr!

[SoupDragon]

Wedding aside, I don't think we pay anything for Prince William. I get the impression that he is paid for out of the Duchy of Cornwall estates since Prince Charles, Camilla, Harry and William are excluded from the "parliamentary annuity" which pays for state duties and staff of other royals.

[SusanneLinder]

I think they are ordinary people living extraordinary lives. They laugh,love,make love and go to loo like rest of us.They don't have to worry about money,but it doesn't bring happiness. The tragedy of Diana ,and the fact that William lost his mother at a young age proves that.

William seems to be a worker,he flies with the RAF ,unlike Kate who "appeared" to have no job worth speaking about and lived on handouts from Mummy and Daddy.

Re the Royals-well the taxpayer may have paid for some of the wedding, but this wedding was watched by billions of people worldwide. Add on the millions of people that appeared in London,spending cash, the Exchequer will be rubbing it's hands with glee.

I am not an ardent Royalist, but the Monarchy is a HUGE tourist attraction, even more so cos of the wedding. We need the Dollar,the Yen and the Yuan, and the Euro over here.

[ledkr]

sausage-just what i was going to say,how can a dress cost that much eh?
I find the whole "love story" thing a bit boaky too,its not as if shes a servant girls is it,or the daughter of the royal gardener.

[diddl]

But I think that they change with each generation-as most of us do-whether that´s good or bad, I don´t know.

I think I rather liked it before we knew so much about them, & they were papped coming out of night clubs.

[JoanofArgos]

I dunno, I think I could almost handle it better if it were only fusty old tits who couldn't apply their own toothpaste that we were paying for..... the fact that it's people who have sort of, in a way, seen at least a little bit of the real world who get the same amount of insane privilege seems almost more wrong, not less!

[BendyBob]

To quote Soupy 'the point is that they come as cross as being people who happen to be royals rather than royals IYSWIM.' Spot on there!

And that, if nothing else that is a HUGE leap forward (courtesy of William and Kate) into the 21stC for our royal family. That is the very thing I like about Kate and William and the failure to grasp it in the older ones is the thing about them I dislike ie Charles.

[SoupDragon]

I don't think they are denying that what they have is ordinary, I think that if you strip that awy, they are ordinary people. Unlike certain other royals/privileged people.

I realise I am very very lucky to be where I am (financially speaking). However, that doesn't mean I am not an ordinary person.

Joan, you are confusing an "ordinary life" with "ordinary people". No one would argue they have the former but they are perfectly capable of being the latter. Given the circumstances, I think they live as ordinary a life as possible some of the time. I don't think they court publicity or abuse privilege at all.

No, they can't be the same as us. I can't be the same as a single mother living on benefits on a rough council estate but that doesn't make me any less ordinary than a person who is those things.

When people say W&K are ordinary, I think they are holding them up as a stark contrast with the older royals. Ordinariness is a state of mind and an attitude. It has nothing to do with possessions and position. You can't imagine, Charles making jokes with his FIL to be at the altar or asking his new bride if she was happy. I can't imagine him living in a (probably very nice) farmhouse in Wales whilst working as a S&R pilot or socialising with his colleagues either.

[SardineQueen]

Teehee soupy

The alternative to your barb which entirely failed to hit the mark, is that some of us realise that we are very very lucky to have what we have, and so it annoys us when others in a similar position deny that what they have is in any way out of the ordinary. Just an excuse to avoid being compassionate IME. Like I say, the budget threads were full of it.

And on that note, I'll leave you all too it

[slavewife]

All I see here is a bunch of jealous, vindictive vipers. The Royals are never going to be "ordinary" as they are heads of state, however william and kate, are more down to earth than some members of the royal family, you can sort of relate to them, in a way you never could with charles and diana, or the anne etc... William has tried to keep aware from media scrutiny and try and live a normal life as much as he can away from his royal obligations.

[JoanofArgos]

Yes but that's still not 'ordinary' is it?

[SoupDragon]

Well, giving the designer huge amounts of publicity and PR pays for the missing profit margin. I would imagine they do similar deals with other public figures.

I think the point is that they come as cross as being people who happen to be royals rather than royals IYSWIM.

[JoanofArgos]

So getting a bespoke Alexander McQueen dress at cost price makes you an ordinary person?

[SoupDragon]

The dress may well have been at cost price though.

[carocaro]

Of course they would have paid for the dress!

Months of work, mountains of staff working on it, who all need to be paid, metres of very expensive material, of course they paid for the dress. No business could just swallow that enormous cost just for the kudos and association.

It does not work like that.

[TurkeyBurgerThing]

There is no way on earth that they actually paid for the dress. It'll have been gifted.

[SoupDragon]

What makes me think they are ordinary is that if you took away the things they did not chose (the royalty, being future king etc) they are no different to me. Richer, but really no different as people. Prince Charles, for example, is not.

Them not having a full state wedding and opting for a private village church ceremony would be like a film star refusing to do publicity for a film or you or me refusing to do part of our "job". The flip side of all the privilege for the royals is that they have to live a certain amount of their lives in public. Who would have wanted an ordinary boy to go through grieving for their mother and that huge funeral very much in the public eye? not to mention the intense media scrutiny as they baby-watch. I think the top tier royals have to deal with a fair amount of crap in payback for their privileges. Those in the lower echelons can live their lives far more privately and enjoy their privilege out of the public eye.

[SoupDragon]

What stopped them was, I presume, pressure from the royal family.

"Isn't it interesting how people who lead very privileged lives always insist that they are quite ordinary. I think it's to avoid any feelings of guilt creeping in, personally. The threads around the time of the budget showed this phenomenon in glorious technicolour."

And isn't it interesting that those who lead very unprivileged lives always insist that those who do can not possibly be ordinary underneath. I think it's to avoid any feelings of jealously creeping in.

[diddl]

"apparently Prince William would have preferred to marry in Kates local parish church. "

So what stopped them?

Royal protocol?

The fact that he is in no way ordinary & that his wedding had to be a state occasion?

[exoticfruits]

Few can afford the training to become a helicopter pilot.

This a career open to anyone if they pass the interviews.

[mumblechum1]

sardine queen, do you appreciate that there's a difference between privileged people (ie landed gentry types) and people who are successful through their own hard graft?

[pigletmania]

At the end of the day Kate is ordinary she is a commoner like most of us. They seem a very down to Earth couple tbh, apparently Prince William would have preferred to marry in Kates local parish church. When it comes down to it they are human like the rest of us, if the world were to end and we were left in devestation they would still starve and die like all of us.

[SardineQueen]

Isn't it interesting how people who lead very privileged lives always insist that they are quite ordinary. I think it's to avoid any feelings of guilt creeping in, personally. The threads around the time of the budget showed this phenomenon in glorious technicolour.

[edam]

Yup, Charles is surrounded by people who flatter him and jump to do his bidding. And his flunkies are all terribly nice to him but some of them act like the Big I Am when talking to anyone else. E.g. I was at a reception Chaz attended and had arranged to interview Roger Daltrey, about a charity RD supports (Teenage Cancer Trust). Only Chaz's stupid flunkies stopped me at the door of the room Chaz was in because I hadn't been invited to meet Chaz. I didn't want to meet the bugger, I wanted to interview Daltrey, for heaven's sake, but they are so up their own arses they can't imagine their guy isn't the star turn. No wonder Chaz gets such a bad press.

However, I did have the pleasure of Mr Daltrey (who is a v. nice chap) sending the chief executive of the organisation to go and get me so we could talk about the charity. The flunky looked most put out when chief exec and I walked past him.