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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Royal Pantomime

223 replies

StoneofDestiny · 18/04/2022 18:23

Prince Harry founded The Invictus Games. These games have a serious point, a real purpose and offer a real contribution to reminding us of the significant service and personal sacrifice by injured armed forces personnel. The competitors are certainly inspiring, showing examples of how determination and training can overcome disability.
Never was there a greater contrast in the Royal Family, showing these games and an articulate Harry and Meghan promoting them and the total pantomime of Prince William and the female Royals parading in new outfits on the way to Easter Service.
I'm no royalist and want the whole institution abolished - but what a contrast this was! Or am IBU?

OP posts:
StoneofDestiny · 19/04/2022 19:47

Prince Philip was awarded medals in WWII for his service in the navy, he wasn't married to the Queen at the time

So what? Many ordinary citizens got those awards - including my father, also mentioned in dispatches (and later awarded at Buck Palace for something else).

We are talking about awards (not military service awards) for ordinary people who have excelled in their work or craft or being outstanding in their voluntary service to the wider community. The royals are over rewarded with titles and gongs sometimes just for being royal - and that's on top of living a life of unbelievable luxury and often idleness.

OP posts:
ancientgran · 19/04/2022 19:49

@StoneofDestiny

Prince Philip was awarded medals in WWII for his service in the navy, he wasn't married to the Queen at the time

So what? Many ordinary citizens got those awards - including my father, also mentioned in dispatches (and later awarded at Buck Palace for something else).

We are talking about awards (not military service awards) for ordinary people who have excelled in their work or craft or being outstanding in their voluntary service to the wider community. The royals are over rewarded with titles and gongs sometimes just for being royal - and that's on top of living a life of unbelievable luxury and often idleness.

You said they only got awards as gifts. Prince Philip clearly didn't so you were wrong but not big enough to admit it. Really makes everything you say questionable.
EdithWeston · 19/04/2022 20:23

If someone other than the Duke of Edinburgh had founded and developed something with the impact of the Awards scheme, I expect they'd have got a major gong. Ditto his inventions that helped turn carriage driving into a major international sport.

AuxArmesCitoyens · 19/04/2022 20:28

What's the evidence Prince Charles's toothpaste squeezing was a one-off? Plenry of articles out there claiming the opposite.

AuxArmesCitoyens · 19/04/2022 20:29

Someone else did develop the DofE scheme before he put his name to it.

AuxArmesCitoyens · 19/04/2022 20:30

helped turn carriage driving into a major international sport

LOL

PlasticineMeg · 19/04/2022 20:37

God there really is no pleasing some people!
“They don’t work and do no work for charity or have done anything good ever”
Response: “Here’s a list of jobs they’ve done, charities they served or started and what they’ve done in world wars”
“So what big deal loads of people do that”
Hmm

It is ok to admit you got it wrong sometimes

EdithWeston · 19/04/2022 20:37

He was inspired by a scheme in Germany, but he invented the scheme here. Which is considerably more input that Harry appears to have had into Invictus - yes of course there was a team working in it, but he was right there with it.

Carriage driving isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it became an international sport.

Prince Charles founded the Princes Trust and that's done really good things.

But the one whose work is I think most unjustly overlooked and underreported is Sophie Wessex and her work on VAWG, in rape as a tool of war, also FGM

PlasticineMeg · 19/04/2022 20:38

@StoneofDestiny

She got married in July 2020 when there were still restrictions on wedding sizes. The RF may not have kicked PA out but they’re not fucking stupid. They know we want to see the Queen in them. The photos we see are ones released by the RF, no press were there but I imagine her own father was on of the few guests at the wedding

I didn't say he wasn't there. Most certainly Andrew was kept out of the pictures published because of the Epstein case and his involvement. Saying it was because of Covid is ridiculous..

Are you saying there were no restrictions for weddings in July 2020?

Rewriting history is seriously stretching it

PlasticineMeg · 19/04/2022 20:39

@AuxArmesCitoyens

What's the evidence Prince Charles's toothpaste squeezing was a one-off? Plenry of articles out there claiming the opposite.
Ph well if the internet says then it must be true 😂where’s the evidence it’s a daily occurrence?
Puzzledandpissedoff · 19/04/2022 20:48

The one whose work is I think most unjustly overlooked and underreported is Sophie Wessex and her work on VAWG, in rape as a tool of war, also FGM

Admittedly I'm not a huge fan of Spohie's, but I do agree with this - worthwhile initiatives all

I wonder, though, if the RF consider rape, FGM and violence against women as somehow "not nice subjects", and so are content for her work to go under the radar a bit?

AuxArmesCitoyens · 19/04/2022 20:51

Just as much as there is for your claim it was only once. That was my point.

Carriage driving might be international but calling it a major sport is a definite stretch. The DofE was fed the idea for the scheme by Kurt Hahn and the legwork was done by John Hunt.

StoneofDestiny · 19/04/2022 20:55

Are you saying there were no restrictions for weddings in July 2020?

If you cannot read, I really cannot help you. I did not remotely say there were no restrictions for weddings. There was clearly restrictions on Andrew being seen at events like this - he would have been the main press attraction at the event and not in a good way.

OP posts:
AuxArmesCitoyens · 19/04/2022 20:55

Sophie Wessex and her work on VAWG, in rape as a tool of war, also FGM

Of course if we didn't spend hundreds of millions on the royal family, we might be able to fund more proper experts to do this work rather than an ex-PR woman with no discernible specialist knowledge.

Chilledchablis1 · 19/04/2022 21:07

@ Puzzledandpissedoff

“I wonder, though, if the RF consider rape, FGM and violence against women as somehow "not nice subjects", and so are content for her work to go under the radar a bit?”

What about the huge amount of work Camilla does for Women’s Aid ?

PlasticineMeg · 19/04/2022 21:17

@AuxArmesCitoyens

Just as much as there is for your claim it was only once. That was my point.

Carriage driving might be international but calling it a major sport is a definite stretch. The DofE was fed the idea for the scheme by Kurt Hahn and the legwork was done by John Hunt.

Having done a quick Google the source of the ‘it happened more than once’ WRTVtoothoaste is, drum roll please….Paul Burrell! Unreliable, devious, fame hungry Diana-sycophant waste of space of a human. IMO, anyway.
AngelicaElizaAndPeggy · 19/04/2022 21:17

😬 at carriage driving as a major international sport.

Anyway, fwiw, I actually think the concept of constitutional monarchy is a great idea- it lends stability and continuity and it's fun to gawp at the weddings and the pomp.
I think the main flaw is that it's manned by real, fallible people who make mistakes and are sometimes dicks. In the 21st century, not much gets missed either, so we get all the car-crash events plus a lot of made-up bollocks from royal 'experts'.

Ages ago, I saw a suggestion that the head of state be replaced with a wooden plank and I really think this is a great idea. It can't have affairs, be accused of laziness, be overly showbizzy, too expensive to maintain or complain. It would also be capable of the same level of charisma as our current royal family. You could put it in a carriage and nail lots of medals and crown jewels on it. You could pick your OBE award up off it at special ceremonies. There's no end to its potential.

The Royal Plank - you know it makes sense.

LetitiaLeghorn · 19/04/2022 21:24

Maybe some reading comprehension practice needed there, LetitiaLeghorn?

Maybe a little clarity in your writing is needed there, @Puzzledandpissedoff. Saying that at least the garage guy paedophile is not going to be the next king definitely conveys the idea that you think PC is a paedophile rather than the enabler - which is not proved anywhere by the way.

EdithWeston · 19/04/2022 21:25

@Chilledchablis1

@ Puzzledandpissedoff

“I wonder, though, if the RF consider rape, FGM and violence against women as somehow "not nice subjects", and so are content for her work to go under the radar a bit?”

What about the huge amount of work Camilla does for Women’s Aid ?

It's publicised by the Palaces, just like everything else is.

It's the press here which don't give it the coverage.

That work has attracted a lot of praise, and has brought attention overseas, which is all to the good

Blossomtoes · 19/04/2022 21:29

@StoneofDestiny

Are you saying there were no restrictions for weddings in July 2020?

If you cannot read, I really cannot help you. I did not remotely say there were no restrictions for weddings. There was clearly restrictions on Andrew being seen at events like this - he would have been the main press attraction at the event and not in a good way.

They really can’t do right for doing wrong, can they? Andrew appears in public - shameful, how dare they let him be seen in public, what is the Queen thinking of, etc . Andrew doesn’t appear at his daughter’s wedding and that’s criticised too. The vitriol of anti monarchists is breathtaking.
JudgeJ · 19/04/2022 21:30

@PlasticineMeg

And FWIW I FULLY blame Harry for blatantly not briefing his wife about what her life as a Royal would be like. Poor woman hadn’t a clue, and why would she when she hasn’t grown up in the UK? But to do things like tell her 2 seconds before meeting the Queen “oh BTW you need to curtesy” was selfish, sloppy and fucking neglectful seeing as she was about to go into the lion’s den
How do you know that all this happened? It seems that, like his late mother in the Panorama debacle, she is able to decide what's true and everyone falls over themselves to believe it.
Puzzledandpissedoff · 19/04/2022 21:36

What about the huge amount of work Camilla does for Women’s Aid?

Perhaps the RF consider "Aid" to be a less emotive word than FGM, rape, etc., and therefore more suited to the image they wish to portray ?

Considering how anodyne their own comments are about - well, just about anything really - I could easily believe that to be so

AuxArmesCitoyens · 19/04/2022 21:38

Yes I know Paul Burrell is an unreliable source. I'm interested to know if your "it only happened once" source is any more reliable.

PlasticineMeg · 19/04/2022 22:25

How do you know that all this happened? It seems that, like his late mother in the Panorama debacle, she is able to decide what's true and everyone falls over themselves to believe it.

@JudgeJ indeed you may be correct! When I saw the Oprah interview and she said things like she looked for a Union/HR department within ‘the firm’ (actually using that phrase), expressed shock at having to curtesy in private and her children not being prince and princesses (even though they were never gonna be) I thought one of two things has happened:

  1. Harry has not prepared her at all and has not explained how it isn’t actually a ‘job’ in the sense of being employed
  2. She is being disingenuous and obtuse, playing to an American audience knowing that they will have absolutely no clue on how the RF operates so will be easy to get support.

I still blame Harry because if it’s no 1 then he’s been neglectful and if it’s no 2 he’s enabling her painting his family and everything he stands for into an unfair light

ancientgran · 20/04/2022 09:14

I broke my arm once, my right arm, and I found things incredibly difficult for more than one day. Buttering a slice of toast which decided to take off round the kitchen was very frustrating. I can well believe that he needed help with his toothpaste more than once, as time goes on you find ways round things but initially my big complaint was I couldn't even pull my own knickers and tights up when I went to the loo. (tip for anyone else stop wearing tights and buy some nice loose knickers you can pull up one handed.)