The knives are out for the royal family

[justasking111]

It may be deserved in some cases, however it would seem the gloves are off as far as the media are concerned. They have lived high on the hog for centuries so what is new?

Am scratching my head here is it shoot the royal family season or a smoke and mirrors exercise designed to distract us from something more important??

I would hate to be in the PR business with the RF just now.

I was wondering if the mainstream press can afford better lawyers than mumsnet can?

It all feels almost a bit colonel Gadaffian . Shutting us up, “ shaking the box”, censorship. I don’t like it, it goes against what we have fought for. Our freedom of expression and our right to reply.

I don't think the coverage of the RF is any more intense than it has ever been - surely there must be some people on here who can remember the daily reports on Lady Diana before she got married, the shock and horror when a much younger Princess Anne told someone to 'naff off', Princess Margaret partying around London, Princess Michael of Kent being entitled Princess Pushy. That was before Andrew started seeing a Page 3 model and then married Fergie and she sucked someone's toes. And Edward tried to make it in the theatre and there were all sorts of rumours about him!! When Zara got her tongue pierced, when Sophie Wessex used her Royal connections for business, when Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones fell out of a nightclub ... there is always something that they are in the papers for.

I think what annoys me these days is how preachy they are about stuff and then go and ignore their own words! Yes H & M I mean you. But you're no worse than Charles, or Andrew to be fair. I admire Anne, and Edward and Sophie hugely as they do a lot but very low key.

Well - I'm guessing there's no more pregnancies for a while or weddings for a bit so there's nothing much they can do to distract us positively.

It's just summer silly season.

The bulk of media reporting is politics and commerce in one form or another (including film, book and product releases within that definition of commerce - all business and business PR).

Over the summmer politicians are all on holiday. Most of the public are on holiday so there is little incentive for businesses to be pushing PR as their target markets are away.

You get daft media reporting of crap over the summer.

The Epstein death is unusual - being a summer story of weight seriousness and substance - so this will receive more attention than it otherwise would - not necessarily a bad thing though - in fact a good thing.

Is MNHQ on the Royal family PR payroll?

waiting for thread to disappear

There have always been critical stories. The Epstein case is a global story so not even the BBC can ignore it.
As for H&M, they've appointed poor advisors (or good ones that they choose to ignore) but they're also focusing on an American audience rather than an UK one. Americans don't have as big a problem with 'worthy' celebs acting contrary to their espoused causes. They also don't mind ostentatious shows of wealth. It's a pity someone put a stop to H&M becoming some kind of Ambassadors to the US. It would suit them much better.

They have brought it upon themselves. I don't mind a RF as long as they quietly set a good example. Its not too much to ask. Instead they have long behaved like a privileged version of the Kardashians, before the Kardashians were even around. From Princess Margaret through Prince Charles's fairly horrible behaviour to airmiles Andy and the current hypocrites-de-jour. Various cash for access and sponsorship deals in return for favour along the way. Just awful. The whole lot of it.

I do think it would be best to un-royal them, if that were possible, and to become a republic. They have become an embarrassment to Britain, not that there is a lack of embarrassments at present, but I see point in having embarrassment on the public purse.

MableMoo Are the royal family just not accountable to anyone these days?? It feels like it.

They aren't accountable to anyone. Their budgets are not audited either.

@Cedar Is MNHQ on the Royal family PR payroll?

waiting for thread to disappear

Honestly it makes me want to leave this board altogether. Disappointed in the extreme in MNHQ and poor decision making today.

So, let’s compare.
Meghan and Harry - pushy, preachy, quite annoying.
Andrew - at best, associated with known sex offender and continued to do so after his conviction. At worst, we’ll ...
Two not really comparable are they? Yet somehow poor old Meghan alwsys gets the bigger bashing.
If I were her I’d bugger off back to the US with my kid and a nice fat divorce settlement. Good luck to her.

M and H have just brought the country’s disaffection to the fore more than ever before with their ridiculous behaviour. I have never been so displeased with the Royals as I am right now. Watch an episode of “ Broke”. There’s people sleeping on tents on beaches, a boy with a bed so small he can’t fit his body the length of it without scrunching his legs up. Then you’ve got this pair of pillocks. Greedy, thoughtless and entitled. Time to do one.

I dislike them more by the day. A bunch of hypocrites with the morals of an alley cat.

Anyone who has ever met Andrew knows he is thick, entitled and lecherous, always has been. that is fact to my certain knowledge. I've had two encounters at RAF Leeming when he would have been, early 20s? Loved all the sixth formers throwing themselves at him, dignified and respectful, he was not. He would pull girls over to sit on his knee, totally consistent with the behaviour in the photos at Epstein's mansion. Then I had to work with him "leading" a charity project for a children's hospital, he would complain about Beatrice getting a cold when we were discussing parents dealing with their children having terminal diseases (this was before she developed an actual medical issue) and kept us waiting for meeting every time and really was astonishingly dense and ignorant of both business and real people's lives. This has sporadically been covered in the press over the years, both he and Edward, whenever they did another stupid thing.

The unpleasant coverage of Harry and Megan in the right wing press is at a new intensity though, and when Nigel Farage uses a racist dog whistle you know it is racist dog whistling. So what? Some very rich people are doing what very rich people do, the Middletons, their friends the Clooneys, Elton John, this is the hypocritical norm for their lifestyle and nobody raises an eyebrow at it but when one of them is black?

And there is another example of what I’m talking about right after my post.
Andrew is a known associate of a prolific sex offender. But no, what really matters is what Meghan spent on her new curtains.
Of course, we all know what her crime really is, don’t we?
This all reflects very poorly on us as a nation. Very poorly indeed.

was wondering if the mainstream press can afford better lawyers than mumsnet can?

No doubt - for a similar example, see the countless deleted threads on the-missing-child-who-can't-be-mentioned

And why anyone should be surprised at the RF's tin ears is beyond me. Does anyone really believe they give a stuff what the public think, as long as their position remains secure? Certainly H&M's recent hypocrisy is appalling, but maybe they've just given up pretending now and embraced the mulish entitlement

Andrew and Epstein
That is last week's news. I thought you were referring to Charles' Mentor Mountbatten. Saw headlines about it yesterday.

I think a companion piece to this is also the article appearing in yesterday’s Sunday Times about the age old allegations/CIA documents about Mountbattens ....

Sometimes it is the things they do as well as their ill advised associations ...

And the rubbish about Meghan and Harry wanting apartments in Windsor Castle ...

I think they’ve been trying to get stories about about Andrew for ages but after the Charles/ Diana Andrew / fergie years are too cautious to make enemies of the royal family.

I think there has been a bit of a stitch up, historically. Not a legal one. More along the lines of the press keep a lid on the really awful stuff on return for continued access.
This is, in the age of social media, surely going to die quite soon. Good.

But no, what really matters is what Meghan spent on her new curtains

I see you don’t remember “three kitchens Kate” because I sure do

I see Andrew has finally released a statement:

"His Royal Highness deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behaviour is abhorrent."

joyfullittlehipp Claiming it’s some kind of conspiracy involving RF lawyers leaning on Justine just makes you look paranoid.

Given that PH's infamous press statement admitted that they have an entire team scouring the newspapers every night before they are even published so they can silence stories about them that are potentially litigious, I would say that PH's statement actually admits the real position.

Now, remind me who pays for this team who scrutinise the press nightly to which PH refers, and also for all the royal PR teams?

"Some of it has been hidden from the public - the nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of papers;

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/08/prince-harrys-statement-defending-girlfriend-meghan-markle-in-fu/