To think the Duchess of Cambridge has no place in sports personality of the year

[Nishky]

Martina Navratilova made a moving speech about female role models so who do they roll out to present it?

Back to topic, sorry .... I was so struck by the irony of someone who has achieved precisely nothing presenting an award to someone so exceptionally talented. And she's not 'royal', she's an air hostess's daughter who married royalty, completely different.

she is royal. she might have married into it - but she's still royal.

Nope, she was born a commoner. No blue blood there.

The whole concept of 'blue blood' is pretty laughable though, given how thoroughly ordinary most Royals (not just ours) actually are. It's not as though centuries of breeding has conferred any tangible advantage, is it?

Their blood is exactly the same colour as everyone else's! If the sycorax ever do invade they'd be on the roof with everyone else.

I am perfectly happy to regard Kate as royal because the badge royal is an artificial construct. If there was ever a divine right of kings (which I don't think there ever was) the English Royal family lost it when Henry broke with Rome. And having regained it with James, then lost it again after chucking out James II. Kate has exactly the same claim to 'royalty' (which frankly is a badge of shame as much as it's anything) as any of the current mob. As for being the child of an air hostess - she's actually the child of a former air hostess turned uber successful businesswoman. Better that than the child of an irredeemably thick derangetron, surely?

My point was that she's no more royal than any one of us on this site. Quite possibly significantly less accomplished though. Just thought it was insulting for the winner to have to accept an award from a non-achiever

i thought Wiggins did seem to slightly snub her - Jessica Ennis chatted for a while but he didn't.

And in more good news Kate enjoyed a full Turkey lunch yesterday in Notting Hill with no modification to the menu and 'looked the picture of health'.

Excellent.

You may have thought it insulting Girl.

I wonder what the recipients thought? I suspect they didn't give a shit who gave out their awards. It a shame there's a few who have made such a fuss about it.

Well, its not bad news is it. It's not actually actual, you know, news, at all, really.

I was better a couple of weeks after being on a drip in intensive care with my first pregnancy (and losing one of the twins I was carrying). I didn't celebrate by eating turkey though (obviously). And nor did I get invited onto Sports Review of the Year (as I still persist in call it. Despite the renaming and the sudden trendiness amongst people who wouldn't have dreamed of watching it in other years) :(

No it's good news Mordion, definitely. More evidence of this silly palace pr machine trying to delude.

She should obviously be burned at the stake for eating Turkey though.

There's nothing wrong with eating turkey. But to be going out to
Party after party after party is pretty poor form. A nurse died recently and was buried a few days ago. A bit of tact from the royals would not go amiss. And to be honest, I felt a lot of sympathy for Kate when she was diagnosed with HG but my sympathy has waned.

Bakingnovice before we get the call of duty crowd swinging in, this was a private lunch party, not even a major public engagement. There's a report in the Telegraph.

I'm now wondering if it goes further: are the pr lot actively wanting Kate to go out in order to distance her from that death? I did find the timing of the sports thing grossly lacking in any sensitivity to the family of the nurse. Amazing really. So I wonder.

Anyhow, the hg thing is clearly and utterly rubbish. As I said. It just doesn't work like this. Even ordinary morning sickness doesn't work like this. People are so gullible still - what does it take?

I think both Kate and Will have been very insensitive regarding the nurse's death. I honestly think that they just don't care.

I think people in UK have become so used to the self-absorbed, arrogant behaviour of the royals that they think this is normal, and can't see anything wrong with it.

See, I don't particularly expect the Royals to behave well. This is the whole point, really, they are in this position in our society irrespective of what they are like, how they behave and what they think, because of inheritance. It's the most anti-merit system imaginable. There is a tacit recognition that I think people don't always care to acknowledge that we should be grateful for even the most mundane courtesies and kindnesses from Royals, because after all they don't have to offer them.

But I still don't like the ultimately irrelevant criticism of Kate based on appearance etc.

Yet another lunch party yesterday. She really is inspirationally brave.

How is it Kate's fault that the nurse took her own life? Should she be in mourning because an emotionally unstable stranger was pranked by two other complete strangers on the other side of the world and took the utterly incomprehensible step of suicide as a way of responding to the idiotic situation? It is sad, yes, but it's neither her fault nor her responsibility. She is carrying on as people in public life have to. If a member of her own family had died, she'd be expected to be back on track by now and showing up to events. It has been two weeks.

In response to the OP, no, I don't think she is an appropriate person to give out that award. She has achieved nothing in her life bar marrying well, I don't think that's anything to be proud of or inspired by and it jarred with the genuine achievements of the winners.

The thing I'm really interested in is the hyperemesis. I thought HG sufferers were bed-bound and dog-sick for weeks and repeatedly hospitalised. I only had moderate morning sickness but I wasn't in the mood for seeing anyone or doing much at all, certainly not attending lunches and glamming up for public appearances. It's weird isn't it?

I thought HG sufferers were bed-bound and dog-sick for weeks and repeatedly hospitalised

Depends on the treatment. If you have access to the best anti-emetics, and the ability to be intravenously re-hydrated, then you can be made very comfortable. Private patients who can afford to pay for the best treatment are hardly not going to are they?

There is another thread, in chat I think, where sufferers of HG have compared their own experiences. The only thing they all have in common is how different their symptoms are The most severe cases all seem to have had to rely on some heavy duty drugs - but again, in some cases the drugs wiped the recipient out whilst stopping the sickness, while in others the ladies were able to return to work.

Weird isn't it

Ah, but Eldritch, when our taxpayer money is involved, I do expect better behaviour. We spend £200 million a year on the royals. It is a net drain on our public finances (the whole 'they bring in tourism' argument is a bit bogus. E.g., France, a republic, gets more visitors than the UK. People might come to see palaces, but not the royals per se)

I hold the monarchy to the same critical standard I hold anyone feeding off the public trough, whether it is a 'royal', an MP, the BBC management, public sector services, council leaders or benefit recipients.

Good luck with that , Flatbread!

The problem is, those arguments, which are otherwise valid, don't sit with the inherited privilege and assumed superiority of a monarchy. Another very good reason not to have one.

I agree, Eldritch. It is a bit disheartening to see how many people support the monarchy.

I do think, though, it is what one poster said upthread. It is because the royals never open their mouth and give their opinion on anything. If they did, we might realise how moronic they are. They are probably even more rightwing in their political leaning than Osborne and his ilk.

Xposted, Kim. So true.