To find Prince William a bit smug

[strawberriesandpecans]

I'm sure he means well, it's just that he seems to be lecturing everyone on the environment while he travels by helicopter a lot and has a mansion. Also I just find them quite twee and irritating, particularly at the moment when so many people are struggling. AIBU?

Both smug and hypocritical.

I think hypocrisy is unpalatable from anyone.

I also think the RF has no place in modern Britain although there are plenty of other rich folk I'd also like to see the back of - Philip Green, all Russian oligarchs etc.

There are lots of fossilised shark teeth on beaches. Anyone can go and collect them

The same as this one? It's 23 million years old and the tooth once belonged to a megalodon, an extinct species of giant shark that could grow up to 16 meters (52 feet).

If they're that easy to find I'm off to the beach now!

There are lots of fossilised shark teeth on beaches. Anyone can go and collect them.

This one was from an extinct shark species, and significant enough for the Maltese government to feel it belongs in a museum.

Snap Pelleas !

@Pelleas

There are lots of fossilised shark teeth on beaches. Anyone can go and collect them.

This one was from an extinct shark species, and significant enough for the Maltese government to feel it belongs in a museum.

Ah ok, fair enough!

If this refers to the tv programme he did last week (sorry, menopausal fog brain so couldn't tell you the programme title if my life depended on it), I thought he was really good and clearly knowledgeable on the environmental subject. I thought it was lovely that he met with half a dozen primary school kids and took time and a real interest in their bug project. Good communicator, good educator.

Someone that can carry the subject from school kids to estate workers to conservationists through heads of state is pretty impressive.

He seems like a force for good in protecting the planet. I also think he will make a great King.

Fucksake What qualifications does he have to lecture us on the environment? Does he have like a PhD in climatology?

When Charles and Diana split she made a point of ending the stupid clothes and dressing the boys from GAP.

@BathtubGin there was a programme recently where William and Harry reminisced and paid tribute to Diana. They both agreed that they detested the clothes that she put them in, they thought they were bloody awful and particularly hated the fact that she put them in matching clothes. Eventually, they said, they refused point blank to wear them.

Recently a pair of Harry's old shoes made an appearance, on Charlotte!

@Insaneinthemembury

My DH worked with him and said he was great, really hard working and didn't expect to be treated any differently. Good sense of humour and took banter well. They mostly forgot he was a royal day to day.

I feel sorry for him that he had no real choice but to give up a job he appeared to love

The people who I think have it best are those minor royals that we’d be hard pressed to name, but who still enjoy luxury lifestyles living in subsidised million pound apartments whilst having essentially private lives.
The whole RF is an anachronism, together with the current honours system, peers and the landed gentry.
look at land ownership in the UK and the avoidance of inheritance tax via family trusts.
The RF stands at the head of this system, legitimising it.

Fucksake What qualifications does he have to lecture us on the environment? Does he have like a PhD in climatology?

Agreed. What an arrogant tosser. Just stick to what you know Wills..... Erm..... How to do a sort of comb over?

@hexmeginny

Fucksake What qualifications does he have to lecture us on the environment? Does he have like a PhD in climatology?

Agreed. What an arrogant tosser. Just stick to what you know Wills..... Erm..... How to do a sort of comb over?

Well that's an intelligent argument.

The whole monarchy malarkey is an expensive nonsense. Takes some nerve to lecture the rest of the population on conservation when he and is family are hunters, own more mansions than they could ever need (all of which need heating, lighting and staffed by a multitude of servants/housekeepers/security wether they are actually at home or not) and all drive high powered gas guzzling cars, travel by helicopter and unless pressured by the media, private planes. The level of extravagance they indulge themselves in is nauseating.

I'd see the lot of them gone - but in the absence of that let them trim themselves down to one house and only the immediate heirs - the rest can go and whistle a happy tune with their millions and get a nice house for themselves paid for out of that. Unless they do that, they've no moral authority to lecture the rest of us.

I’m glad he married Kate, because although her family became wealthy while she was growing up, she’s basically from an ordinary background so she’s able to bring a more realistic perspective

Cobblers - she benefitted from a privileged upbringing in a privileged area. That not her 'fault' though - just her good fortune.

However - all she's done in her adult life with that massive head start is become a clothes horse, a vacuous representation of a middle class 1950's housewife. She is clearly very work-shy, never held down a full time job in her life - is clueless as a result what is is like to manage on a budget or combine work and child rearing. She's never lived without servants, hairstylists, dieticians, nannies, cooks, dressers, housekeepers or maids. She's never had to queue for anything, never been on an NHS waiting list, never struggled with rush hour traffic, never had to worry what school her kids would go to, how high the gas bill will be or if her car will start. She slipped easily into the role of a woman devoid of opinion, passion or drive - what on earth is that 'model' got to offer a 21 Century population - a virtually mute mannequin in a lovely wig who has no experience of real life and to behaves as if this is normal. It's a cause celebre if she wears the same dress twice or trims her hair, and she's happy to think that is a fit role in life for a university educated woman who wants to 'rule over us, happy and glorious'.

I wonder whether some of it is shyness/social awkwardness on PW's part. He doesn't seem a natural around people like Diana was. But I agree with the pp who said they could see him having a temper. I wish they'd ease off the 'we're just an ordinary family' lark.

I think the institution needs shrinking. I was out walking in a royal park and saw the Duke of Kent going for a stroll and being followed at a short distance by a police car with 2 officers. DH had no idea who he was and from the looks of it neither did the rest of the public. I have a morbid curiosity about the royals but still had to google pics to check who it was when I got home. Such a waste of money to have all the minors living in Kensington Palace and all those beautiful huge houses that could be used more productively. I think Harry had the right idea in getting out when he's just going to keep sliding down the line of succession.

I've lost respect for the queen for going out of her way to show public support for Andrew - the sight of him grinning away next to her in the car going to church at the height of the news breaking was just awful.

Fortunately the idea of monarchy will crash and die soon - ironically but predictably, not because of ‘non royal newcomers’ like Megan M, but because of the royals themselves - the extravagant (with public money) Andrew who chooses a child abuser as a friend, Charles as the longest serving apprentice known to mankind and a bumbling philanderer, William as a delusional ‘conservationist’ who has yet to show he has staying power at anything, Edward as a work shirking layabout who has not earned his own living, Philip, who if he had a proper job, would have been sacked for his ignorant racist outpourings. Ironic really how Meghan M is the only one of them who has earned her own fortune and had a career - yet is the most abused by the media!

'I've lost respect for the queen for going out of her way to show public support for Andrew'- completely agree with this.

How do you think it looked elsewhere (especially to Epstein's victims) to see our Head of State publicly showing her support for Andrew at a time when his conduct was under scrutiny. It was utterly inappropriate..what support she chooses to offer him privately as his mother was up to her.

For anyone who accepts monarchy though it doesn't matter what you think of any of them as whoever is next in line dictates who becomes monarch, regardless of character or suitability. So it doesn't matter whether we like William or not because he will be king regardless.

It is only a matter of time before we get someone like Andrew (and let's not forget that Charles has had paedophile friends of his own as well).

It is only a matter of time before we get someone like Andrew (and let's not forget that Charles has had paedophile friends of his own as well)

So true - yet never is there a word of outrage from any of them. They are keen to champion ‘safe’ causes like ‘environment, elephants, rhino’ etc - but cold silence on issue such as paedophiles, just too close to home for them. Laughable when they still send out the simulcast about ‘family’ every Christmas when they are one of the most dysfunctional families ever paraded on TV!

@StoneofDestiny

Fortunately the idea of monarchy will crash and die soon - ironically but predictably, not because of ‘non royal newcomers’ like Megan M, but because of the royals themselves - the extravagant (with public money) Andrew who chooses a child abuser as a friend, Charles as the longest serving apprentice known to mankind and a bumbling philanderer, William as a delusional ‘conservationist’ who has yet to show he has staying power at anything, Edward as a work shirking layabout who has not earned his own living, Philip, who if he had a proper job, would have been sacked for his ignorant racist outpourings. Ironic really how Meghan M is the only one of them who has earned her own fortune and had a career - yet is the most abused by the media!

I'm wondering about your earth shattering contribution to humanity. Is your character without stain? If the monarchy is abolished then it will all work out fine. We will just be fighting about the excesses and scandals of the president of this country.

Nobody is free of faults but most of us manage to avoid being best friends with convicted paedophiles. I can honestly say that if one of my friends - or close family members even - committed crimes like this I would drop them like a stone.

I must say that the scandal of Andrew's friendship with Epstein has taken the heat off Charles with his close and lengthy friendship with that piece of utter scum, Jimmy Savile.

There might well be scandals involving an elected president; the difference would be that they can be voted in or out, we would not be stuck with someone manifestly unsuited to a public role.

Edward as a work shirking layabout who has not earned his own living

I am no monarchist but I think this is unfair. He and Sophie work massively hard as royals but the media is not interested in them so it tends to go unreported.

work massively hard as royals

You mean they work harder than the other royals? That wouldn’t be difficult. They certainly don’t put in a full day every day with limited luxury to cushion the daily tool. They are never going to be exhausted by a few appearances they are chauffeured to and from and treated ‘like royalty’. Hardly work.

I'm wondering about your earth shattering contribution to humanity

Don’t wonder too hard - I’m not living at the expense of the taxpayer, haven’t got several mansions to choose from when I want ‘a break’ and not running an extravagant household of staff to tend to my every whim. You are not forced to support me.

Although I consider that Edward and Sophie are among the less reprehensible royals, I would dispute that they 'work massively hard'. None of them 'do work' as we understand the term.