to think Nicholas Witchall is a creepy wee arse licker?

[ssd]

seen his interview with William today, god hes awful

It's not just because of postage stamps - it's Old Liz's 90th tomorrow

i honestly feel that when the queen dies we should have a vote on whether we want a monarchy at all. its a total anachronism in 2016

I don't care about her birthday. I do care that I was meeting my friends for our once a month lunch/shopping in Windsor tomorrow and now we can't go because it will be rammed with flag waving lunatics.

Most people manage that and a full time job.

It's not compulsory though is it? Or do you think all parents of under-5s should work full time?

YABU it is a talent to interview someone with your tongue firmly up their arsecrack and not sound muffled.

I can never understand how he continued dealing with the royals after the odious comment. Wouldn't he have been better off changing his role

O no. They dare not say that again. I bet he takes pleasure in simpering to them knowing they dislike him intensely but have to pretend they don't.

The interview was utterly cringe-worthy,; a privileged prat and creepy Witchell.

God help us if William ever becomes king.

YABU it is a talent to interview someone with your tongue firmly up their arsecrack and not sound muffled.

NW is just about arsecrack height, so he's perfect for the role

My husband once had an argument with Prince Charles. Yes an arrogant arse he is. , never mind the plodding image we all get fed.

I think he should pull his weight and not hide behind his children.

Catmuffin - I can never understand how he continued dealing with the royals after the odious comment. Wouldn't he have been better off changing his role?

I came on to say that

While i'm here ... ''duty wears you down''? How sad. Thank god PW has the choice to put the 'wearing' stuff in his life to one side for a few years.

We should all take his lead don't you think? It's just a matter of timing apparently. If you, for example, are finding it wearing working every day to put food on your family's table - just put it aside for a few years till you feel up to it

I don't particularly want the royals family to continue after the queen dies, but I don't think people are fair in William.

He works full time as a helicopter pilot and does engagements. I think it was over 80 last year, so that's about 7 a month.

What more do people expect him to do?

YANBU.

Far too much royal arse licking occurring today.

Surprisingly prince Harry is turning out to be the hard working one.

so that's about 7 a month

Royal engagements are often very short - open a plaque here, onto a photo opportunity at a community centre a few miles away and so on. Seven engagements could easily be done in a day. 20 hours at work is hardly full-time either.

I love Harry, he's got a personality. But in fairness he's done fuck all Royal engagements this year. He organises the Invinctus Games but that's hardly more than a few hours a week given the huge committee working on it.

He tends to have high profile things like rebuilding a school and everyone goes "good old Harry" - but then he just disappears for a month!

He seems to get a lot more privacy than W & K and I suspect he goes on even more holidays than them. He has a bloody great life!

Personally I would rather see William working and just doing his pilot job than walking around meeting people he has nothing in common with. I think he will be a reluctant King myself. It could bring them down, but they are all rich enough not to really care I am sure! I prefer him to his dad though.
Radio five phone in today is about the Royals, always good to hear what others think.
(off topic, but little George is the image of Kate's dad.. )

There was an interesting article in the Guardian that makes the interesting point that the great failure of the Queen's reign has been to leave her heir temperamentally and practically poorly prepared to succeed her.

I'd go further, she and Prince Philip raised four children who would appear be unsuited to the job: Prince Charles (dim, over opinionated and meddlesome) Anne (hard-working, but rude, arrogant and very much her father's daughter), Andrew (ditto, but without the work ethic and with a heap of dodgy mates) and Edward (weak and ineffectual)

The whole system is arse-licking - why is the Queen's 90th birthday on the news at all, much less being the lead item on the BBC news this morning?

LikeDylan no they dont take a few minutes, that's the bit you see on the news, they usually spend about an hour at the whole thing.

You're also assuming all their engagements are 5 minutes from their house, when obviously they aren't, so that limits how many they can do.

I'm not trying to defend them, I just think he does 20 hours a week piloting which is probably 3 full days. He then probably spends another day doing an engagement somewhere in the UK. Yes, he's very lucky to only work 4 days a week, but it's not as if he's sitting on his arse all day, everyday.

I actually would support Charles over William to be King now. Remember when everyone wanted Charles to abdicate in favour of William? Who wants that now?

Charles may be contrary, but his yearly engagement list is huge and he's constantly going off abroad to other Commonwealth countries. He's not lazy. All he does in his spare time is write letters and paint. He's not trotting off to Mustique all the time.

He's also much less grumpy and frustrated in his older years than he was when he was young. He's positively genial these days!

Whereas William is now mired deep in the resentful bog Charles was in at that age. It's never a good look.

Anyone who fawns over the Royals is an arsehole.

I personally thought his reference to wanting to spend more time with his children now rather than working was insensitive, verging on insulting, to parents who might like to do the same but don't have the option because of the need to earn a living. Disappointing in terms of how 'in touch' he seems.

It's the unfairness of it all. Just because you are BORN, you are entitled to this privileged life forever and ever and ever and ever and so are your children, and so are their children and so are their children.

No fucking bedroom tax on their spare rooms.

Such an antiquated notion. It is ridiculous

He's a bit of a Uriah Heep character

Exactly! And Rhiannon Mills is further down that same ladder. Tbf, if you're going to be a Royal correspondent, you're signing up for a lifetime of soothing platitudes and arse-licking. That's the nature of Royal reporting here. I find it creepy that Witchell seems to devote his life to studying the minutiae of the Royal Family, but apparently enough people are interested to make it worth his while.