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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think William and Kate's Christmascard this year was badly judged?

625 replies

tinkywinkyshandbag · 10/12/2021 19:36

So not only has William been hectoring us about climate change and sustainable travel, but there's been a pandemic which has been a pandemic which for many people has been financially devastating, and for most of us a holiday seems a distant pipe dream. So this year of all years they have chosen a photo of themselves all looking tanned and relaxed on a (presumably free) holiday. Just feels a tad ill judged?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
Puzzledandpissedoff · 12/12/2021 15:06

This is Charles and Camilla's Christmas card

Oh dear

What stands out for me is that, as well as being awfully bloated, his hands are now blotched purple ... bit surprised nobody photo-shopped that Confused

bulletjournalfail · 12/12/2021 16:07

@SammyScrounge
The personal IS political .

The royals sell their image in order to bolster support . We can criticise that all we like .

gofg · 12/12/2021 18:29

Well I think folk who aren't keen on William and Kate should have their say. Even 23 pages on a Christmas card. It wasn't very Christmassy was it.

And yet once again, listen this time - NOT EVERYONE HAS CHRISTMAS IN WINTER. Lots of us don't have snow, robins etc. etc. How arrogant to think that a UK Christmas is the only type of Christmas and that it can't possibly be "Chrismassy" anywhere else!

lightisnotwhite · 12/12/2021 19:12

Maybe they thought the camel link was vaguely Christmasy without making it all British with robins and snow.

luverlybubberly · 12/12/2021 22:04

There were lots of comments earlier about the kids not looking like their parents but I think Charlotte and her dad look alike here

to think William and Kate's Christmascard this year was badly judged?
julieca · 12/12/2021 22:13

@gofg but they are the BRITISH Royal Family. Most people would expect their official Christmas card to reflect that.

StartupRepair · 12/12/2021 22:42

If we don't get our act together and become a republic William will one day be King of Australia.

mathanxiety · 13/12/2021 01:13

All of this happened in Australia but the Royal Family is still our royal family, and it seems to me like you are suggesting we therefore don't belong and don't have the right to represented by our RF. Correct me if I'm wrong @mathanxiety but that is how your posts come across. That you don't believe colonial countries deserve representation and that our own RF (via William and Kate) have the right to be on an RF Christmas card.

What can I say, @ClaudiaJ1? I write in English, and yet you seem to have read something completely different from what I posted.

My message wrt W&K's Christmas card is, 'Don't evoke the colonial past when that past was such a painful place for the many people who were the big losers of that time, and when there are still many whose lives continue to be impacted by the injustices of that time'.

They could have sent a shot of themselves having a jolly time on a beach some time last summer, which would have 'represented' you in a way that wasn't so lacking in sensitivity to others, past and present.

The khaki clothes, the animal skin rug, the camel seats, the exotic location (a country created by western powers by applying a ruler to a map) all reek of the days of The White Man's Burden.

MaHBroon · 13/12/2021 01:50

The props and the setting evoke a colonial past*

The props and setting are items that would be found in modern Jordanian homes as well as in Bedouin tents and encampments.

MaHBroon · 13/12/2021 01:57

If sheepskin rugs are 'colonial'

This colonialism aspect of things is one of the daftest things I’ve ever read here .

Where I live the Bedu make their own rugs from what’s left of an animal they’ve killed for meat. The country has never been colonized.

I suspect the Bedu do the same in Jordan.

gofg · 13/12/2021 02:09

but they are the BRITISH Royal Family. Most people would expect their official Christmas card to reflect that.

@julieca Surely they are the COMMONWEALTH Royal Family and many parts of the Commonwealth do not celebrate Christmas in winter. Anyway, are they sending their Christmas card to you? What does it actually matter? Honestly, all this angst about it is just nuts and only reinforces how strange people in the UK can be over the most ridiculous things.

mathanxiety · 13/12/2021 02:10

The props and the setting don't say 'British Royal Family, 2021'.

They say 'British Royal Family, 1881', when Britons shot tigers and posted animal skin rugs home, when Britons had themselves photographed on elephants, camels, and other animals not native to Britain in places a long way from England, and took photos intended to broadcast that it was the most natural thing in the world for Britons to take tea on a lawn in front of a ruined palace or temple, as if there was little difference between far off lands and the Home Counties, or dress in tweed and shoot grouse and deer on land from which the native inhabitants had been evicted.

mathanxiety · 13/12/2021 02:12

Surely they are the COMMONWEALTH Royal Family and many parts of the Commonwealth do not celebrate Christmas in winter.

But Jordan is not in the Commonwealth.

mathanxiety · 13/12/2021 02:14

@MaHBroon, Yes, lots of people make their own rugs.

But this particular photo evokes images of Britons cheerfully standing over the corpses of wild animals they have shot in distant days, in far flung corners of the Empire.

gofg · 13/12/2021 02:14

@mathanxiety please get over yourself, and stop trying to defend your ridiculous posts. Have you really nothing better to do than continually look for things to offend you?

gofg · 13/12/2021 02:15

But Jordan is not in the Commonwealth.

FFS - I was replying to someone who said the card wasn't "Christmassy" You are really doing my head in!!!!!

MaHBroon · 13/12/2021 02:31

[quote mathanxiety]@MaHBroon, Yes, lots of people make their own rugs.

But this particular photo evokes images of Britons cheerfully standing over the corpses of wild animals they have shot in distant days, in far flung corners of the Empire.[/quote]
No it doesn’t.

It looks like they were taken for a day out and a desert camp was part of it.

mathanxiety · 13/12/2021 02:32

Yes, and I am replying to say that if they wanted to drag the Commonwealth into this, they should have chosen a photo of them in a Commonwealth country. Or if they wanted to broadcast a Commonwealth style Christmas greeting, a photo from a sunny British beach would have done.

mathanxiety · 13/12/2021 02:34

Maybe you haven't seen many photos of Britons living their everyday lives in places formerly part of an EMpire on which the sun never set then, @MaHBroon

It looks like they were taken for a day out and a desert camp was part of it
It looks as if they didn't pause for one second to think about what their photo harkens back to.

MaHBroon · 13/12/2021 02:35

@mathanxiety

The props and the setting don't say 'British Royal Family, 2021'.

They say 'British Royal Family, 1881', when Britons shot tigers and posted animal skin rugs home, when Britons had themselves photographed on elephants, camels, and other animals not native to Britain in places a long way from England, and took photos intended to broadcast that it was the most natural thing in the world for Britons to take tea on a lawn in front of a ruined palace or temple, as if there was little difference between far off lands and the Home Counties, or dress in tweed and shoot grouse and deer on land from which the native inhabitants had been evicted.

You really are making a fool of yourself.

Is it because you’re Irish that you are reading so much into this picture?

Bedouin life goes on and anyone who knows anything about that way of life can look at the picture and see what it actually is.

MaHBroon · 13/12/2021 02:37

@mathanxiety

Maybe you haven't seen many photos of Britons living their everyday lives in places formerly part of an EMpire on which the sun never set then, *@MaHBroon*

It looks like they were taken for a day out and a desert camp was part of it
It looks as if they didn't pause for one second to think about what their photo harkens back to.

Just stop it.

You’re becoming more ridiculous each time you post.

mathanxiety · 13/12/2021 02:41

Is it because you don't agree with me but you can't find any convincing counter argument that you are resorting to personal insults and comments along the lines of 'No it doesn't', @MaHBroon?

1forAll74 · 13/12/2021 03:02

It doesn't have to be all Christmasy, it's just a lovely family photo.
I just sent a home made Christmas card to someone, a plain card, with just a photo of one of my cats three cats on it. He injured a back leg some days ago. and got a photo of him, standing on the three legs, with the injured one sticking out like a ballet dancer in the kitchen. Just a funny picture.. He has been to the vets, and is recovering quite well now.

DropYourSword · 13/12/2021 03:28

I didn’t think it was arrogant for someone to post the picture @MargotMoon. Literally saved me the bother of Googling!

gofg · 13/12/2021 03:35

@mathanxiety - surely there is a society for the perpetually offended which you could run away and join, and leave those on MN who are capable of having sensible discussion amongst themselves to get on with it. Even though the majority of posters say you are spouting rubbish you still insist you are the only "enlightened" one here. Honestly, you are beyond boring.

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