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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Kate Middleton

573 replies

WILKO9 · 27/09/2015 13:13

AIBU to find Kate Middleton really annoying ? It's probably just me but I find her so smug. Anyway feel much better for getting that off my chest !!!

OP posts:
TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 27/09/2015 21:09

Actually, I think I would cut off at the pass any medical professional or protection officer who talked to me about a patient or charge.

Completely agree. It's also not really anything to do with the charge that Carole was setting Kate's babybonnet at infant William.

What DisappointedOne needs is the midwives who attended Carole to give evidence. "The first thing she said when we placed the baby on her chest was, 'you will be the Queen of England'".

Which a) I bet didn't happen, and;
b) would be more sensibly attributed to pethidine than taken as evidence that Carole is a real life Cora from Once Upon A Time.

mikado1 · 27/09/2015 21:10

Thanks! Ah yes, harmless. Shows how analysed every move is!

featherandblack · 27/09/2015 21:12

Chilling. She's been fooling us all, hasn't she Hmm

Scremersford · 27/09/2015 21:12

onedirection I've never met anyone from a working class background who has gone onto a Russel group university and studied the history of art. It screams to me : I am wealthy enough to have had all the privileges which a private education can bring, yet I am not acedemically minded enough to study say biochemistry or English literature. Neither will I study a law degree or a degree which leads specifically towards a career within that field.

It screams to me someone deliberately doing a degree to place themselves within a particular social set. If she hadn't hooked PW, she would have probably have set her sights on a landed wealthy type, hopefully with a title. I suspect in Catherine's eyes, that equals achievement. History of Art at St Andrews is an expensive way to spend your university fees and accommodation costs. I know a few of this set and History of Art seems to have become the degree de jour lately.

She is hardly unique in this, there are a lot of girls in that set of people who are similar. Catherine's background placed her more outwith that set, so she probably had to put a bit more effort into fitting in.

Mind you, she is hardly the only woman to set out to marry well. I can think of several other women who have done much the same, but at a less wealthy level. I'm sure some men do it too. I even know women in their late forties who have achieved multiple successes in the field, having married well young, remarkably never having worked, got the divorce settlement, studied a second degree ie clever enough to study but not threatning enough to have an actual career, and targeted a wealthy widower or divorcee, preferably with a large inheritance. Come to think of it, many of them are arty types too.

Sparklingbrook · 27/09/2015 21:13

I love that video, shows she's normal. I would have done the same if some woman was barking to 'keep wrapping'.

ImperialBlether · 27/09/2015 21:14

But onedirection Pippa Middleton has a degree in English Lit from the University of Edinburgh - are you saying the two girls were treated completely differently?

And you seem to be implying that History of Art is an easy option... do you really think that? Do you know what it involves?

squoosh · 27/09/2015 21:15

Admittedly it's a bit of a cliché degree for certain posh gels but Art History isn't some fluffy subject chosen by people who can't handle the rigours of English Lit.

ToTheGups · 27/09/2015 21:17

I don't see anything offers site about her and quite like the royal youngsters.

DriverSurpriseMe · 27/09/2015 21:18

I don't think anyone has suggested History of Art is a Mickey Mouse degree, rather that it signifies a very particular type of young person from a privileged background who doesn't need to worry themselves about what sort of career will come out of such a niche subject.

squoosh · 27/09/2015 21:18

It is not a degree anyone would study with a view to become a doctor or a vet.

No because unlike America people in the UK people who want to be doctors or vets go straight into a medical or veterinary science degree.

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 27/09/2015 21:18

History of Art at St Andrews is an expensive way to spend your university fees and accommodation costs.

It may be is, but was it? I think she started university when tuition fees were £1000 a year.

squoosh · 27/09/2015 21:19

You could say the same of any Arts degree.

Scremersford · 27/09/2015 21:22

History of Art at St Andrews and English lit at Edinburgh are basically the same degree for that set. Its not as if they are going to spend months debating over the merits of future employment of either degree when most of them will work part-time for a few years at an auction house or art gallery while dating amongst the set they met at uni.

Nothing wrong with that really. Lots of people make contacts at university. Just saying. The Middletons must have very much wanted to get into that set. Edinburgh had the Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpes and a couple of the continental eurotocracy etc. at the time Pippa studied there.

Ta1kinPeace · 27/09/2015 21:25

That is indeed the video
For that tiny instant you see that she is a real person with a public persona
that neatly hides her real thoughts from the speculators in the press and on MN
99.9% of the time.
good on her.

She does a job.
She does it pretty well.
She can never resign.

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 27/09/2015 21:26

No because unlike America people in the UK people who want to be doctors or vets go straight into a medical or veterinary science degree.

Unless they can't get a place. In which case they often do a somewhat related degree and fight for a place on a post-graduate medical course the moment they graduate.

Although I bet if you search hard enough you will find a doctor who did a History of Art degree first and got his/her place on the post-grad degree course.

MarshaBrady · 27/09/2015 21:28

I like that video too. First time I've seen her being natural.

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 27/09/2015 21:29

^That is not intended as a slur on post-grad medical degrees, by the way. Just a reflection of how complex and interesting the world is, full of people who didn't take the "right" path to get where they did.

Onedirectionarestillloved · 27/09/2015 21:31

Imperial I'm not saying wealthy people do not study English literature.
I am saying thst I have never met a working class person who has gone onto a russel group uni who has studied the history of art.

The majority of people not lucky enough to have very wealthy parents and not lucky enough to enjoy the privileges which that wealth brings study something else.

Why is this?

I'm not saying the history if art is a breeze to study but of what benefit is it to someone who probably has to get a job whilst studying and will no doubt be in Huge debt when they leave?

I don't think it is coincidence that this degree attracts a certain social class.

Again I dont want to be rude but common sense tells you that only the wealthy sections of society can afford to do a degree which they don't use.

Neither prince William nor catherine Middleton have made any use of their degree what so ever.

I don't blame them for that neither do I dislike either of them they are also perfectly entitled to never use their degree to further their career.

However many others cannot afford to do this.

The fact does remain that they both chose very middle class degrees.

Pippa was not at university at the same time as William so that is irrelevant.

Let's not forget prince Edward who managed to go to Oxbridge with ridiculously low grades, was it 2 Es or something.

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 27/09/2015 21:35

Prince Charles: two A-levels (history B, French C), 2:2 degree in history, Cambridge.
Prince Edward: three A-levels (English C, history D, politics D), 2:2 degree in history, Cambridge.

Source: Daily Telegraph

The80sweregreat · 27/09/2015 21:36

Carole and daddy middleton (cant remember his name) worked hard for their wealth. The royal ancestors stole it from the people.
I like the Princes but Katherine leaves me cold. Diane tried to be different. I do miss her too, strangely enough. Must have been hard for her with so much hostility from her in laws. Fergie was never liked. I have never met any of them, but, like others i form opinions on what I see in the media. I get the impression Kate is hard work , but William seems happy enough!
Did read that James n Donna Air have split. Probably a huge row over the last marshmallow.

Sparklingbrook · 27/09/2015 21:39

No they are still together 80s, they say they can't understand why anyone reported they weren't.
Donna Air must love the Marshmallows.

The80sweregreat · 27/09/2015 21:40

Oh well. Mind you, i read the Beckhams are divorcing every day too! Must be horrible being famous

squoosh · 27/09/2015 21:45

Again I dont want to be rude but common sense tells you that only the wealthy sections of society can afford to do a degree which they don't use.

I disagree. I know many people from different socio-economic backgrounds who have done Arts degrees, some of them even in Art History. Very few of those people have gone into a career directly related to their subject. This is the norm, an Arts degree is commonly used as a starting point in all kids of careers.

Ta1kinPeace · 27/09/2015 21:45

Neither prince William nor catherine Middleton have made any use of their degree what so ever.

Nor did I, nor did many of my friends.
Nor do many, many people
because the point of a degree from a top Uni is NOT to go into that subject as a career
it is to learn how to learn and live

It still astounds me that people fail to grasp that degrees are just a step on a path

ScOffasDyke · 27/09/2015 21:46

My daughter is studying History of Art at Edinburgh. We are lower middle class.

It is not a mickey mouse degree for toffs, it is a demanding essay based course with many career options.

It's a 4 year course, my daughter will have student debts of at least £50k. Chances are she will never repay that debt in full, and we certainly can't afford to pay it for her.