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?

[SardineQueen]

Sidetrack - Karma on the BBC news earlier it only said that his youngest son had been killed. I can't believe they didn't report any of the rest of it. Unless it has been updated...

I also think that people have room in their brains to think about most things that are going on - for some a gossip about this is a welcome change from thinking about all the godawful stuff going on in the world. If you are talking about the media response, then yes, they do it all the time though don't they, and not just with this...

[edam]

Last time the yanks bombed Libya I think they killed Gaddafi's daughter.

[fedupofnamechanging]

I meant the news coverage. I think yesterday the first 2 stories on the news were wedding related. I think the first one was about the delayed honeymoon and the second was about the dress designer. I can understand it being top news on Friday, but I was a bit that it was still top news on Saturday.

[fedupofnamechanging]

It does happen all the time.

I love watching weddings and I also love bitching about the outfits. I am often unashamedly shallow, but I feel ashamed that I was thinking bitchy things about peoples dresses while these things are going on and I think the news shouldn't pander to peoples desire to think about 'nice'things and should tell us what's really going on in the world.

I'm not expressing myself particularly well, but I think that what I'm getting at is that the priorities were all wrong. People dying should be more important than a wedding.

[fedupofnamechanging]

Sorry OP. I hijacked your thread. Will shut up now

[nijinsky]

I think the media are just representing them as they are, which is leading a life which is pretty much the same as many people of their age. As Motheroftwoboys points out, the Royals now mix with a wide range of people from all sorts of backgrounds at uni. I myself don't know William and Kate but I do know several people from their set of friends and they are just part of that wide friendship group. I wouldn't call it very exclusive - true most of them would have gone to a fee paying school, but its always been open amongst that sort for someone sociable or clever enough to be accepted. Universities are very sociable and people tend to keep the friends made there. The universities, certainly Edinburgh and St Andrews, are full of people exactly like them.

I suspect they are far more "ordinary" than someone like "Fred The Shred" or some of the really stuck up people who inhabit all walks of life. Having rented property to a lot from that "set", they certainly don't get as much bought and presented to them on a plate as many students from less wealthy backgrounds. For example, they do rent rooms in flats, rather than their parents buying them for them. If they have a car (which is not guaranteed), it will be quite an old, rather ordinary one. Some of them have term time jobs, if given money by their parents or from a trust fund, it will be a limited budget and their parents don't run around after them, doing everything for them. They make good tenants because they can do things for themselves.

As for Kate not working since graduation, well I know plenty of other girls who have done exactly the same, from far less moneyed backgrounds, but who have found someone to pay their way through life.

[wannaBe]

"also i saw on bbc a reporter and photographer discussing honeymoon plans and they said that the couple wanted to be left alone on honeymoon and had made
it v clear they would sue anyone who tried to take photos of them (apparently they have a history of threatening court action for this.)" given the manner in which William's mother died I don't exactly find that surprising or out of order tbh.

I think that if they had a choice they would choose to be ordinary. But William's background makes it impossible for him to lead a completely "ordinary" life. but he is more down to earth than a lot of the rest of them; he has a job which he enjoys and which, to be fair, he is not obliged to do since he could leave now and take up his royal duties should he so choose. Kate Middleton fell in love with a prince - I imagine a lot of discussion went into whether she actually could live with that lifestyle which will be thrust upon her from now on.

It's not like a celebrity who chooses that life - he was born into it and had no choice.

[SybilBeddows]

'I imagine a lot of discussion went into whether she actually could live with that lifestyle which will be thrust upon her from now on.'

It said so in the Sunday Times today, though I don't know how they knew.
It's extraordinary to think how little of what we would consider common-sense planning and preparation, Diana will have had.

[slhilly]

wannaBe: "It's not like a celebrity who chooses that life - he was born into it and had no choice."

This isn't quite true. If William really wanted an ordinary life, he could renounce his titles, privileges etc. It would require overthrowing a tremendous amount of social conditioning, and would not be easy, but he could do it. He would never be entirely ordinary, ie free from media attention, but he could do an awful lot.

[NanaNina]

My objection is the fact that we the taxpayers of this country pay for all aspects of the monarchy. Someone on another thread said "we are not paying, the Queen and Prince Charles are paying" - who on earth does she think pays the Civil List on which the royals have to "exist" on a million or so a year, or maybe several thousands a year, dependent upon how near you are to the throne. WE do the taxpayers. Someone on this thread says "oh it's 70p per year" (I'm not sure that is right anyway but even if it is - who else gets 70p per year from every taxpayer in the country.

I have nothing personal against any of them but I just wish more people would realise that we foot the bills, all of them, and we can't afford it when people are losing their jobs, homes, people who are seriously ill are denied their benefits etc etc. I honestly think many people think the Queen has some money of her own - yes she has - but it all came from us - every last penny.

So NO they are not ordinary by any means.

[fedupofnamechanging]

Even if it is 70p each, that's a creme egg! Given the choice...

[hairylights]

They are far from "ordinary"

One of them is heir to the throne
Both have had expensive extraordinary educations (Kates schoolcurrently charges fees of approx £10k per term... That is not ordinary)
One is a trained helicopter pilot

[wotnochocs]

i know a few people who are helicopter pilots and i'd call them all ordinary??

Wouldn't mind 70p from everyone in the country!!

[hairylights]

I'd say occupations like checkout operator, secretary, clerk, chef, waitress, were more ordinary occupations.

In my experience of those state or privately educated, the overwhelming majority of privately educated people are extraordinary, IMHO, ie: they have had greater advantages in life.

Few can afford the training to become a helicopter pilot.

[mumblechum1]

Just goes to show what a subjective concept "ordinary occupation" is, then.

Just doing a random sample of the people who live on the same road as me, "ordinary occupation" means:

VP of international company, solicitor, airline pilot, barrister, editor, publican, CEO of very large company, civil engineer, another lawyer and a guy who owns a Porsche dealership.

One man's ordinary is another man's not ordinary.

[SybilBeddows]

sounds like you don't live in an ordinary street mumblechum

[SoupDragon]

"Few can afford the training to become a helicopter pilot."

don't the RAF normally pay to train their pilots?

[BendyBob]

I did used to get a bit the way the queen mother was portrayed as just a normal little old lady. She lived a life of unparalled luxury and had a teeny tiny weakness for running up rather eye watering debts.

I do get what you mean Wamster. I must admit I feel William and Kate seem much more aware of the world the rest of us inhabit. Kate because she is a commoner - ok the Middletons are wealthy, but still commoners. William because Diana had a hand in making him aware of life outside the royal family and he seems at pains to take this on board and into his adult life. Charles though - good lord, he lives on planet Charles I think when it comes to the realities of life.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?

[exoticfruits]

Few can afford the training to become a helicopter pilot.

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

[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?

[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.