Duke & Duchess Of Cambridge tour … is it just me?

[PodgePie]

I am a huge royalist (obviously not Andrew but definitely William and Kate). However, I am struggling with their current tour, in a time of war, of crippling price rises and also Covid, it seems tasteless to be parading around in the sunshine in a stream of hugely expensive outfits, each one more luxurious than the next. I understand why international tours take place - and agree they have an important role - but shouldn’t this have been postponed given the climate?

ToMockAKillingBird I've no idea how authoritative this is, but is says "expenses" are paid by the host country, although we still cover the transport to get there: www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a10309303/royal-tour-planning-process/

That said, I wonder if the Commonwealth membership of the nations being visited this time means the costs will come from some other "pot" ...

The Royal Family are not allowed to accept freebies!

I don't think it's as simple as that, ajandjjmum, at least not according to this: www.royal.uk/sites/default/files/media-packs/gifts_policy_2003.pdf

There are so many get-outs around "obligations" and "motives" that much could be possible - and that's not accounting for greed and any attitude that the rules only apply to the little people

The Royal Family are not allowed to accept freebies!

Their whole bloody life is spent trough-guzzling in the buffet car on the gravy train!

The Royal Family are not allowed to accept freebies!

I really hope this is a joke but I can't tell anymore.

@myees sorry it was a qn not a statement. Why would I think the RF and the Ukrainians should be banned from Ireland? I was asking in response to your comment about "Charles and Camilla are here... Anyone is allowed here it seems"

@HollowedOut

This thing called Covid put a stop to foreign tours until quite recently.

@Shiningpath

People do appreciate the outfits aren’t just a Duchess playing dress up right, they’re a showcase for British fashion and design around the world. You know, to increase business and support the economy.

So why is she wearing French and Serbian designers on this tour? It would be better that she wore up and coming British and Caribbean designers rather than established ones like McQueen and Jenny Packham.

Some of The Irish refugees from the famine that Queen Victoria didn’t give two shits about ended up in indentured service, which was almost as bad as slavery, most people worked until they were dead from exhaustion without paying off the vastly inflated debt. The British Empire fucked people over all over the world - there’s barely a country that hasn’t been damaged by British colonialism.

I believe it was earlier refugees from Oliver Cromwell and those fleeing during the time of the Penal Laws and the very harsh criminal code who ended up as indentured servants in the American Colonies and the British Caribbean.

By the time of the famine, the Irish fleeing starvation arrived in the United States and found work in appalling conditions digging canals and doing the grunt work for infrastructure projects, laying railways, etc.

Having seen them on tour I’m convinced the Monarchy will end with them if not sooner. They seem like nice people but there is absolutely nothing interesting about either of them. They do not have the strength or charisma to hold this institution together. Which is a shame in a way - I am a bit of a traditionalist - but monarchy seems such an irrelevancy in today’s world. When our Queen is gone I think they should quietly call it a day and get day jobs.

@mathanxiety not fleeing; 50,000 captured, deported and sold into indentured servitude in Barbados by Cromwellian forces in Ireland.

These are their descendants www.historyireland.com/the-redlegs-of-barbados/

A great many English, Welsh and Scots also ended up in indentured servitude, though not for the reason the Irish did. The colonies were a handy destination for hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of unfortunate British people. The deportation of British children to Australia continued well into the last century. For several hundred years the island of Great Britain was not a good place to live if you were a member of the hungry classes.

Ah yes @mathanxiety in the case of Ireland during Cromwellian times, it focused on landowners rather than "the hungry classes' as the period saw the transfer of 75% of Catholic-Irish owned land into the hands of English-Protestant.

Kate recoiling from the touch of one of the ministers the other day at a touchy-feely event says it all.

The whole thing looks stiff and forced to me. Her face screamed contempt. Stunning that's how the commoner behaved.

Simply awful

Sausage roll?? Good grief, I don't want to see our Royals chowing down a sausage roll at a fuel station, whatever next....

I'd pay good money to watch them choke on a sausage roll at a fuel station. In fact, I'd even go as far as to pay for the sausage rolls.

As long as my taxes don't have to pay it. Am fairly confident that my ancestors were poor agricultural labourers. Not likely to benefit from slavery.

This is silly and based on an illogical view of tax. Your taxes have been paying compensation to the slave owners, if there were any further slavery-related payments they would come from taxation of course. That is how national finances work.

@ECN73

Having seen them on tour I’m convinced the Monarchy will end with them if not sooner. They seem like nice people but there is absolutely nothing interesting about either of them. They do not have the strength or charisma to hold this institution together. Which is a shame in a way - I am a bit of a traditionalist - but monarchy seems such an irrelevancy in today’s world. When our Queen is gone I think they should quietly call it a day and get day jobs.

It’s just not possible to quietly call it a day though is it? There’s a whole machine in operation which has been there for centuries.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

The underlying fact - that it is Jamaica who has to initiate the (independence) process - remains They have been talking without action for at least a decade

However inconvenient that's very true - and after all the RF are hardly going to refuse independence and send a gunboat

As said, I'd much rather the RF's roles didn't exist at all and that therefore they wouldn't be there, but interestingly I've still seen nobody explain why Jamaica would invite W&K at all if so many really were against the visit

We have been independent since 1962. The government needs to hold a referendum in order to transition to Republican status. These are expensive and the country is not rich and has had other, more pressing concerns. This tour was billed as a "charm offensive" in the news, to guard against others doing what Barbados did. Because they now see that sentiment in the Caribbean is changing. This has become a pressing concern and polling suggests the vote may get over the line now.

You seem awfully intent on portraying the Jamaicans as unhappy hosts. Did you read the Lisa Hanna piece I posted earlier? She, a government minister, who was also portrayed as "snubbing" Kate, makes it clear they were welcome, but what they represent is not. In case you ask why, when David Cameron visited in 2015, he confidently addressed the Parliament and instructed them to "move on from slavery". Sure, he could. His family's wealth partially came from it, his country's wealth was made in the colonies. Jamaica and the Caribbean got Deforestation, a colonialist legacy, multigenerational poverty, and so on. Yet we are not entitled to be heard on the subject of reparations. We must just forget it all happened and move on. It is hurtful, and as Hanna said, not respectful.

So why are you heaping this unhappiness on Jamaica alone? They were hosted, they were given the royal treatment. They had a good time. Some people protested, others spoke out. All very normal. The RF and what they represent is not innocent, unless you believe in fairy tales.

[quote Boxowine]@Podgepie this isn’t exactly the first time members of the RF have gone on progress to visit member nations of the Commonwealth, or do you not quite consider the Caribbean nations to be on an equal footing with, say, Canada or Australia?

Their visit has a slightly anachronistic feel about it but until any of these countries decide to go they have as much reason to be visited as Liverpool does.

I don’t think that her wardrobe is any more expensive than any thing else she has ever worn, she looked amazing when she visited the US years ago. Why should she dress down for Belize and Jamaica, do they only rate dowdy old gardening clothes? Can you imagine putting together a state visit at a community center and how the kids would feel if she wandered in wearing a ratty old shirt and jogging pants? It would be offensive, like they weren’t worth dressing up for.[/quote]
can you imagine how the kids would feel?

😂😂😂

I think this is one of the most out of touch and hilarious comments on MN

Like some disadvantaged children at a community centre would be in tears because Kate wasn't wearing designer!!!

Pull yourself together @Boxowine! none of these parades of wealth and patronizing handshakes are necessary - be it the Carribean or Liverpool

Can you imagine putting together a state visit at a community center and how the kids would feel if she wandered in wearing a ratty old shirt and jogging pants?

I agree that this is one of the stupidest comments I've ever read on here. There's oceans of space between 'jogging pants' and wardrobes well into 5/6 figures.

She would look perfectly presentable in a £200 dress. She has done so in the past on many occasions.

You seem awfully intent on portraying the Jamaicans as unhappy hosts

Not sure if that was for me or the person I was replying to @kateemo, but far from suggesting most Jamaicans and others are unhappy about the visits, it's me who keeps asking why their governments would have invited W&K if that was the case - something which nobody's yet commented on

It's not for me to speak for others, but it all looks awfully like another of those instances where most are okay with it (or perhaps simply don't care) and a few noisy protesters are making the most of it

I agree. Nothing against the Royals doing 'their bit' but at a time like this?! really??! The press going mad and quoting the costs of Kate's outfits...really inappropriate but she can't do anything about what the press say/do can she? shrugs

Here's the bbc take on it ...

Prince William and Kate: The PR missteps that overshadowed a royal tour www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60870417

I agree it's in very poor taste

I genuinely think that the argument that Kate was showcasing designer clothes to help the economy by advertising their clothes is not an argument.
The average British person would never spend that kind of money on a dress ..not even as a one off !
I think that her outfits should have been smart/ lovely but with a price tag of £500 max .